The salt business has been monopolized since the Ching Dynasty and only businessmen with special connections to authorities were granted salt licenses. One of the key players in that industry in Taiwan was the Koo family.
Salt was at the center of the Koo business empire which was built by Koo Shien-rong (辜顯榮), Taiwan's highest indigenous administrator during the period of Japanese occupation. After months of anticipation, the newly restored headquarters of the Koo family salt business was unveiled yesterday.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The `Salt Hall' (鹽館) in the Tataocheng district of Taipei city is now the Junghsing kingdergarten. The building once served not only as the headquarters for the family's salt operation, but also as the family's home.
In addition to a NT$900,000 subsidy from the city government, the Koo family spent more than NT$20 million of their own money to renovate the headquarters to ensure the renovation work would be done in accordance with the structure's original architecture style. The renovation was conducted by Chie-ho Engineering & Development Co (捷和建設), a firm affiliated with the Koo group (和信集團).
While the group's chairman and family heir, Koo Chen-fu (辜振甫), was busy speaking at the Economic Development Advisory Council yesterday, his wife, Koo Yan Chou-yun (辜嚴倬雲), appeared at the kindergarten as a special guest.
During the unveiling ceremony Koo Yan Chou-yun gave the media a tour of the building and shared her memories from her time there. She recalled how the kindergarten classroom on the first floor was once her "wedding room," the first bedroom she shared with her husband more than half a century ago.
Koo Yan Chou-yun only lived in the Salt Hall for four years because she said the neighborhood didn't have enough space for her children to play and because she feared the neighborhood kids could be bad influences on her children.
Lung Ying-tai (龍應台), the director of the cultural bureau of the city government, also attended the reopening as a special guest. Lung called the Koo family saga the epitome of Taiwanese history, saying that the Salt Hall was one of the merging points where recent Taiwanese history met Chinese history.
Koo Yan Chou-yun is a granddaughter of Yan Fu (
The Koo family also owns another historic building in Lukang which is now the Lukang Folk Arts Museum (鹿港民俗文物館).
Koo Yen-hon (辜晏宏), a family member and the deputy director of the museum, said that the maintenance of the buildings was no easy task because the original blueprints to the buildings have been lost.
He told the Taipei Times that the problem is exacerbated by a lack of historic renovation specialists in Taiwan's architectural circles, saying that all too often renovation simply means rebuilding.
"Another problem is that when our ancestors built the buildings, they did not foresee the future functions the buildings would have to serve. This is why they never kept the original design charts, compounding the difficulties for a renovator who wants to restore the real face of the premises,'' said Koo.
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