The director of Taipei's Bureau of Cultural Affairs, Lung Ying-tai (
In addition to calling for the public and corporate sectors to either donate money or adopt this historic site as well as some 100 others in the city, Lung also appealed to Lien Chan (
"It's not the sole responsibility of the bureau to restore the place because the house is so rich in history, spanning from the Japanese colonial era to modern Taiwan, and including the KMT, and the Sun family," Lung said, referring to the family of the Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙), founding father of the ROC.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Lung said that although the upkeep of the 2,400-ping (7,900m2) lot is the responsibility of the Taipei City Government, the building belongs to the National Property Bureau (國有財產局) operating under the Ministry of Finance (財政部).
Built in 1922, the wooden Japanese house was constructed to be the home of the son of Japanese Emperor Hirohito during his stay in 1923.
Following the end of Japanese colonial rule in 1945, the house has been the official residence of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek (
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The house also accommodated the late Sun Ko (
While the house, which has been plagued by termites and suffered typhoon damage, was designated as a municipal heritage site in 1998, it has not received any proper official maintenance since 1997 when the home's last occupants, the families of Sun Yat-sen's two grandsons, Sun Chih-chiang (
Inspecting the site yesterday, Lung requested bureau officials make a list of the historical items scattered around the damaged house, which include dusty framed family pictures, books and framed Chinese paintings and calligraphy.
"It'll take a whole lot of time and money to fix this place," Lung said.
Wang Peng-hsiang (
"Although Mrs Sun [Chih-chiang] appears to be in good health, Mr Sun has been confined to hospital after he broke his left leg over a month ago," he said.
"There is no one available to take care of them except myself because both of his two sons are attending colleges in the US," he added.
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