It has taken almost half a decade, but the area in Taipei now known as Huashan 1914 Creative Park appears to be well on its way to being the crucible for the performing, creative and experimental arts that so many have long envisioned.
It is not quite there yet, and it may be more commercial and regimented than some artists like, but the park has obviously struck the right tone with Taipei residents and tourists, as a visit on almost any weekend, and even some weeknights, will attest.
The site started life as the Taipei Winery in 1916. Ownership then passed to the Taiwan Tobacco and Wine Monopoly Bureau after the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) took over Taiwan. In 1987, the winery relocated and its buildings sat boarded up and deserted for a decade as developers salivated over the property and the central government debated what to do, having originally earmarked the site for a new Legislative Yuan.
Who knows how long the buildings would have sat derelict — or if they would have survived — if the Golden Bough Theatre had not staged an intervention of sorts by taking over one of the buildings to stage the play Trojans amid demands that the government allow idle buildings and sites to be used for cultural activities. The police broke up the show and the government accused the group of illegally appropriating state property, but the stage was set for change.
Two years of protests, lobbying and petitions, led by artist Tang Huang-chen (湯皇珍) and others who squatted at the site, followed before the government decided to turn the former winery over to the Council for Cultural Affairs to administer.
Management of the area, now renamed the Huashan Arts District, was given to Tang and other artists, who formed the Association of Cultural and Environmental Reform in Taiwan (ACERT), which ran it for the next five years. Changes at the top of the council led to changes in the vision for the park, which officialdom avowed had nothing to do with the politically driven scandal that erupted over an outdoor drumming circle in June 2002 that created media hysteria and headlines that Huashan had become a haven for substance abuse and demands the site be closed down and redeveloped.
Not everyone was convinced by the denials and there definitely was a difference between the artistic visionaries — who preferred to focus on experimental and avant-garde works — and bureaucratic ambitions about the district’s direction. When the management contract was put up for bidding in late 2003, ACERT did not participate and L’Orangerie International Art Consultants won a one-year contract.
In 2005, Huashan was shuttered by the council for a multibillion New Taiwan dollar renovation and did not reopen again until mid-2007, under the name Huashan Culture Park and the management of the Taiwan Cultural-Creative Development Co, which had been given a 15-year deal.
While debate continues about who should be in the park and what types of events should be held there, a happy compromise appears to have been found since then between commercial ventures — an art gallery, yoga clothing store, restaurants and live concert venue — and small trade shows and exhibitions, such the Taiwan Designers Week, as well as the less commercial, with performance and rehearsal spaces given over to small and mid-sized dance and theater troupes and musicians. Weekends also find a thriving flea market for young designers and entrepreneurs.
The mix is fluid, sometimes even chaotic, but that is the charm and attraction of Huashan as visitors can continue to be surprised by what they find there. Taiwan Cultural-Creative Development Co should recognize that fluidity can be a good thing and not tinker too much with the balance between commercial and creative space as it continues to renovate and upgrade the park’s facilities.
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