The consumption of food is intimately associated with Chinese New Year and the market with seasonal foods that attracts crowds like no other is Tihua Street in Taipei's Datung District (大同區). The narrow street is a marketplace with a past that extends to Taipei's founding, and while the street's fortunes have ebbed over the centuries, the neighborhood is now transforming itself anew into the place to go for "New Year goods" (年貨).
For someone like Pai Chi-feng (白啟峰) of the Division of Urban Redevelopment (都市更新開發科) for the Tatung District, Tihua Street's rich past provides the ideal hook to help his agency promote the development of the old and slightly rundown neighborhood.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF DIVISION OF URBAN REDEVELOPMENT, DEPT. OF URB
Tihua Street's place as Taipei's main New Year shopping street goes back to the second half of the last century when heavily loaded sampans carrying goods from China docked at what is now the defunct Tamsui ferry marina. Local stores made a bustling trade in goods from northern and southern China (南北貨), primary among them medicinal herbs, for which Tihua Street is still a major distribution center.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
Business on the block was largely unsupervised until about six years ago, when the city government came up with urban renewal plans for the neighborhood, a major feature of which was a centrally organized and sanitized New Year market. "Vendors used to set up stalls that blocked the pavement, or even the road, and they would play a game of hide and seek with police [who tried to clear them away]," Pai said, speaking of the market in its more chaotic era.
So in 1996, when the Taipei City Government moved to redevelop the area, the Department of Urban Development took a hand in organizing the New Year market and other events. "We found it was the best way of getting locals to cooperate in preserving the street," Pai said. "You must give them some benefits before they can see the point of cultural preservation."
PHOTO: COURTESY YANG LIEN-FU, HE SHANG CHOU WORKSHOP
By making the New Year shopping street an "event," with all the accompanying promotion and mobilization of public infrastructure, Pai said that they were able to bring larger numbers of people to Tihua Street, thereby greatly increasing the profits that merchants could expect to make over the pre-New Year shopping season.
PHOTO: YANG LIEN-FU, HE SHANG CHOU WORKSHOP
"For most people [on Tihua Street], pragmatism is what really matters. Culture comes second," said Yang Lien-fu (楊蓮福) of BoyYoung (博揚文化市業), a publishing company that focuses on Taiwan culture.
Apparently, this has been true from the time the area was first developed. According to the energetic head of the City God Temple (霞海城隍廟) located on Tihua Street, Chen Wen-wen (陳文文), the relationship between religious culture and commercial enterprise was what sparked life in the street in the first place.
PHOTO: COURTESY YANG LIEN-FU, HE SHANG CHOU WORKSHOP
"The bustling trade in this area made this City God Temple important, and religious festivals would in turn draw more people, further promoting business," said Chen, whose family has been associated with the temple since the 1850s. The temple continues to contribute substantially in funds and manpower to events in the area.
Overlooking the bamboo stalls that the local administration has set up to give the street a more traditional atmosphere, Chen said, "it is important to preserve a sense of continuity." But one of the main sources of resistance to this comes from local residents themselves, some of whom have been obstinate in the face of government efforts to create a unified atmosphere.
Pointing to brightly colored modern canopies protruding from above the rustic bamboo eaves of the government constructed stalls, Chen said many shop owners did not feel the need to replace their own faculties. "And [the bamboo eaves] tend to leak," she added with a rueful smile.
The local organizing committee has also placed stalls outside storefronts, with the aim of allowing shop owners to display their goods more prominently to passersby. To a large extent the plans have been successful, but the presence of stalls selling everything from non-stick pans to alcoholic grape juice make for a slight discordance.
"Some vendors see the stalls as a way of turning an immediate profit by leasing them to outside businesses," said Chang Chin-cheng (張金鎮), the director of the local authority. "Naturally we hope that they will realize that it is more beneficial if they run the stalls themselves... we don't want [the event] to degenerate into a flea market."
In promoting such events as the Tihua Street New Year shopping activity, the city government must walk a fine line between stimulating the sagging local economy and trivializing tradition.
"These events are a reminder of an older order of sowing, harvest and so on," said Yang. "Although most people just go there to look around now, it is still an important aspect of our cultural heritage." At the same time, he pointed to the dangers of "building a facade [of tradition]."
In a playful mood, Yang delights in the idea that Tihua Street is a symbol of how little Taiwan has changed over the last 200 years. "Just think about it. Tea was Taiwan's original OEM product," he said. "And the ongoing trade in goods from the north and south [of China] represents the cross strait links that have existed since the time of the Ching dynasty."
Chen, who is currently working on the restoration of a City God temple in Xiamen, China, also maintains that while the outside appearance may change, the fundamental ties of religion and trade -- whether through official or unofficial channels -- remain at the heart of Tihua Street's tradition. "What people have always wanted is prosperity and peace," she said, "and that hasn't changed."
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