The Military Village Cultural Festival on Sunday unveiled a collection of vintage objects at the Ciaoai Community (僑愛社區) in Taoyuan’s Dasi District (大溪) to recreate the atmosphere of the veterans’ village in the 1950s and 1960s.
Communities for military veterans and their dependents, known as juan cun (眷村), are residential compounds set up to house soldiers and family members who came to Taiwan with Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) army in 1949.
The Ciaoai Community was built in 1957 after Chiang’s wife Soong Mayling (宋美齡) called on Taiwanese compatriots living in the Philippines to fund its construction.
Photo: Lee Jung-ping, Taipei Times
The community had soldiers’ homes, each smaller than 10 ping (33m2), as well as homes for citizens from the Ta-chen Islands (大陳群島), off the east coast of China, who were evacuated when Nationalist troops retreated in 1955.
The Ciaoai Community underwent renovations in 1998 and was modernized in 2002, including the taller buildings that can be seen today.
Juan cun are a unique part of Taiwan’s history, demonstrating how the nation’s residents persevered under hardships and looked out for each other regardless of their origins, Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) said.
Photo: Lee Jung-ping, Taipei Times
The Taoyuan City Government organized this year’s festival around the theme of “transformation” with the hope of injecting new life into the 62-year-old Ciaoai Community after its long journey from juan cun to modern residential area, Cheng added.
The display features a living room — a “Ciaoai Old Living Room” — containing vintage objects that became a tourist hotspot for taking selfies, the city government said, adding that a mobile truck toured the community’s neighborhoods interviewing residents and recording their stories in an effort to preserve the community’s juan cun legacy.
The city government has long been dedicated to preserving juan cun culture, it said, adding that it has been invited to give presentations on its efforts and experiences at juan cun preservation at workshops held by the Taipei City Government.
Next year marks the 20th anniversary of the festival, so the Taoyuan City Government plans to hold an even larger festival — more artists, activities and participation by juan cun communities — in the hope of making juan cun culture a feature of the city, Taoyuan Department of Cultural Affairs Director-General Chuang Hsiu-mei (莊秀美) said.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai