If not for the wooden sign by the front door which lays out a brief history of the 125-year-old Yi Fang Chu (
The family house of 78-year-old Chen Ping-liang (
PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES
The water in the 10m deep well is no longer clear and sweet.
The gaps between the bricks on the wall were dug by Chen's ancestors to shoot at invaders. They are now sealed with cement.
For Chen, the designation of the house as a historic relic is the best way to prevent it from being torn down by nearby National Taiwan University. The school offered NT$4,000 per ping to buy the 800-ping (2,640m2) house in 1987.
Chen flatly turned down the offer and filed an application with the Taipei City Government requesting the house be designated as a historic relic.
"It's my home and holds the legacy of my ancestors. I'll never give it up to anyone," said Chen, who is still living in the house along with 20 of his relatives.
Although the city approved his request in 1989, the condition of the house seems to have gradually deteriorated.
"Look at the grass over there on the roof and the ugly power lines and electricity boxes on the wall, I have no idea what the cultural and civil affairs bureaus have been doing over the past 12 years," said KMT City Councilwoman Li-Keng Kuei-fang (
"For the past two months, I've been trying to get Director Lung [Ying-tai (
Li-keng said that the city has spent almost NT$10 million renovating the site, but it seems to have done little.
"See how poorly the job was done. It's a shame to see how the city treats a historic relic," she said.
The bureau spent NT$200,000 this year and NT$50,000 last year to dredge the well, fix the pumping motors and remove weeds from the grass.
Before the Bureau of Cultural Affairs was established in November 1999, the house was under the supervision of the city's Bureau of Civil Affairs.
In 1996, the Bureau of Civil Affairs spent NT$2.8 million to renovate the roof of the entrance hall and the right wing. It spent NT$100,000 in 1998 and NT$6 million in 1999 to fix the square, gutters and roof of the left wing.
Pointing to the deserted two-story, rectangular-shaped school dormitory sitting in front of the house, Li-Keng said school authorities should consider either removing or reconstructing the building.
"It's an incredibly ugly structure," she said. "It's hard to imagine that about 200 years ago there was a green prairie stretching to the horizon with a small river running through it."
Alex Yen (
"Although historic relics are public property, the owner of a private historic relic should team up with the government in the maintenance work," Yen said.
Boulin Hu (
"Take for example the roads leading to the house. It's very hard to find them because there are no signs along the way for reference," he said.
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck off the southern coast of Mindanao in the Philippines at 7:38am today, prompting the US Tsunami Warning System to issue an alert for neighboring countries, including Taiwan. The system issued a purple alert indicating a "tsunami threat." The potential threat zone includes Taiwan, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Yap and Palau. Philippine authorities were assessing the damage from the quake, with the office of civil defense seeking to verifying initial reports that 15 people had been killed and 129 injured in the region, mostly from falling debris. Arlene Hollero, disaster chief of Maasim town in the Philippines' Sarangani Province,
‘GRAY ZONE’ PRESSURE: Beijing’s activities are intended to create the deceitful impression that China has jurisdiction over the area around Taiwan, the CGA said Taiwan’s rights over its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone must not be violated by any country, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday, adding that it will not accept any unprovoked actions. The council issued the remarks in response to the China Coast Guard conducting maritime enforcement drills near eastern Taiwan and claiming to fully exercise China’s maritime administrative law enforcement authority. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) has been closely monitoring the situation and is taking concrete steps to defend the nation’s sovereignty and secure its waters, the council said. China has no sovereign rights over the waters off eastern
RESILIENCE: Taiwan plays a key role in semiconductors, energy, information infrastructure and advanced manufacturing, AIT Director Raymond Greene said Taiwan’s continued investment in deterrence and resilience remains vital, especially in uncrewed systems and other emerging technologies, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Raymond Greene said yesterday. Greene made the remarks at the annual National Strategic Summit on Supply Chain Resilience held by the Research Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET), a government-backed think tank. As Taiwan last year became the US’ fourth-largest trading partner and supply chain security is becoming more important, cooperation in emerging technologies continues to deepen between the two countries, he said. The US is committed to accelerating innovation, building key infrastructure, strengthening cooperation
The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
RSS