National Taiwan University (NTU) has suspended plans to demolish one of the school’s homes that famed calligrapher Tai Ching-nung (臺靜農) lived in after the Taipei City Government found new evidence proving its cultural value, the school said on Wednesday.
Campaigners who have been calling for the preservation of the residence, a Japanese-era house at 25 Wenzhou St (溫州街) near the school’s main campus, are credited with finding the evidence.
Tai, a professor of Chinese literature, is most famous in Taiwan for his calligraphy of the university’s name, which was used as the model for the school’s name plaque on its front gate.
A student of Chinese writer Lu Xun (魯迅), Tai arrived in Taiwan in 1946 and later taught in the school’s Chinese literature department.
He lived in another of the school’s faculty dorm homes on Wenzhou Street for many years, but when it was scheduled for demolition in 1990, he moved to the house at No. 25 in 1990 and lived there until his death at the age of 89 in November that year.
The Taipei Department of Cultural Affairs in 2018 said that the house did not meet the cultural heritage preservation criteria.
However, after new materials were submitted to prove its cultural value, the department inspected the house on Wednesday.
Historic architecture expert Lee Chien-lang (李乾朗), a member of the city’s committee on evaluating cultural heritage, said that an initial inspection of the evidence shows the house could meet the criteria for protection.
The department will form a panel to review the case, as stipulated by the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act (文化資產保存法), he said.
NTU said it had decided not to preserve some of its Japanese-era buildings, including Tai’s residence, after a series of meetings with the city government and a review project, a decision in line with the Department of Cultural Affairs’ assessment of No. 25 in 2006 and 2018.
However, it has suspended the plan, the university said.
Additional reporting by Ann Maxon
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