Once a police station, the Taiwan New Cultural Movement Memorial Hall now attracts day trippers, who go there mainly to see a detention center and torture chamber that were housed in the building’s dingy interior.
Built in 1933 during the Japanese colonial era, the baroque-style building on Ningxia Road in Taipei’s Datong District (大同) was nothing special, said a police officer who worked there for 12 years before moving to a new precinct nearby.
During the Japanese colonial era it was the Taipei North Police Station and after World War II it became Datong Police Station, which was staffed by about 200 officers crowded into the drab interior, the officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Photo: CNA
Files were stacked haphazardly everywhere and noises from the street penetrated the walls day and night, he said.
However, the police station was infamous for its torture chamber, which was a water dungeon about half the height of an average person, the police officer said.
He said that during time he spent at the police station, from about 2000 to 2012, no one was ever put in the chamber, but it always mysteriously contained water.
Another grim feature of the station was its detention room, a half-moon shaped enclosure that allowed police to keep an eye on a prisoner from almost any angle, he said.
That was the space in which Chiang Wei-shui (蔣渭水), a key figure in Taiwan’s cultural and intellectual movement in the 1920s, was held four times on charges of posing a threat to public security during the Japanese colonial era, the Taipei City Government said.
The police station was designated a municipal historical site in 1998 and from 2006 was used as the preparatory office for the establishment of the Taiwan New Cultural Movement Memorial Hall.
In 2015, work began to convert the structure into a historical attraction and the museum opened in October last year, the city government said.
Now visitors can truly appreciate the enigmatic character of the structure, the police officer said.
A seasonal exhibition featuring Taiwanese cultural movements in the 1920s is to be held until June 23, the museum’s Web site said.
The first global hotel Keys Selection by the Michelin Guide includes four hotels in Taiwan, Michelin announced yesterday. All four received the “Michelin One Key,” indicating guests are to experience a “very special stay” at any of the locations as the establishments are “a true gem with personality. Service always goes the extra mile, and the hotel provides much more than others in its price range.” Of the four hotels, three are located in Taipei and one in Taichung. In Taipei, the One Key accolades were awarded to the Capella Taipei, Kimpton Da An Taipei and Mandarin Oriental Taipei. Capella Taipei was described by
The Taichung District Court yesterday confirmed its final ruling that the marriage between teenage heir Lai (賴) and a man surnamed Hsia (夏) was legally invalid, preventing Hsia from inheriting Lai’s NT$500 million (US$16.37 million) estate. The court confirmed that Hsia chose not to appeal the civil judgement after the court handed down its ruling in June, making the decision final. In the June ruling, the court said that Lai, 18, and Hsia, 26, showed “no mutual admiration before the marriage” and that their interactions were “distant and unfamiliar.” The judge concluded that the couple lacked the “true intention of
EVA Airways today confirmed the death of a flight attendant on Saturday upon their return to Taiwan and said an internal investigation has been launched, as criticism mounted over a social media post accusing the airline of failing to offer sufficient employee protections. According to the post, the flight attendant complained of feeling sick on board a flight, but was unable to take sick leave or access medical care. The crew member allegedly did not receive assistance from the chief purser, who failed to heed their requests for medical attention or call an ambulance once the flight landed, the post said. As sick
INDUSTRY: Beijing’s latest export measures go beyond targeting the US and would likely affect any country that uses Chinese rare earths or related tech, an academic said Taiwanese industries could face significant disruption from China’s newly tightened export controls on rare earth elements, as much of Taiwan’s supply indirectly depends on Chinese materials processed in Japan, a local expert said yesterday. Kristy Hsu (徐遵慈), director of the Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research, said that China’s latest export measures go far beyond targeting the US and would likely affect any country that uses Chinese rare earths or related technologies. With Japan and Southeast Asian countries among those expected to be hit, Taiwan could feel the impact through its reliance on Japanese-made semi-finished products and
RSS