The Old Tait & Co Merchant House in Tainan is to reopen its doors to the public tomorrow after the first major renovation of its exposition area in more than three decades, combining history and modern technology in the hopes of attracting more people to learn about the city’s heritage.
The building is the former headquarters of the Tait Marketing and Distribution Co (德記洋行), which was established in 1845 as a subsidiary of Britain’s East India Company in the city of Xiamen in China’s Fujian Province and later established a branch office in the town of Anping in 1867.
The administration of the renovated building has invited National Taiwan History Museum associate research fellow Shih Wen-cheng (石文誠) to host a new exhibition focused on trade in the historical area.
Photo: Liu Wan-chun, Taipei Times
The exhibition features a model of Anping Fort’s (安平古堡) trade districts, leading visitors back in time, starting from the present.
Walking through the exhibition takes visitors from the 21st century to the merchant house’s creation in the 19th century, featuring a document by the Qing Dynasty’s then-governor of Taiwan approving the establishment of the business in Anping.
The exhibition also includes stone tablets used to demarcate borders, as well as scales, typewriters, calculators and utensils used in that era, giving visitors a comprehensive look into the lives of foreign merchants living in Taiwan.
Another item on display is half a barrel facing a landscape painting, which allows visitors to take photographs from the perspective of foreign merchants in the 19th century, who would sit in the bamboo barrels and be ferried between ships across canals and rivers.
Aside from the cultural and historical items on display, the renovated exposition area also includes a popular interactive “room escape” game, in which visitors need to correctly answer 12 questions about the exhibition within 180 seconds to exit the room via a door blocked by laser beams that are deactivated when questions are correctly answered.
Some of the exhibits on the first floor were borrowed from Penghu County’s Bureau of Cultural Affairs, including copper bars that were a staple of Japanese exports in the 17th century that were brought to Taiwan by Dutch merchants.
The first floor also introduces routes Dutch merchants took across the seas, the methods of trade and the beginnings of the merchant house.
Wax statues depicting the early lifestyles and living conditions of Taiwanese in that era were retired from the exhibition, Tainan Bureau of Cultural Affairs Deputy Director Chou Ya-chin (周雅菁) said.
The Chi Mei Culture Foundation and the Netherlands Trade and Investment Office both welcomed and supported the renovation of the exhibition, Chou said, adding that Tainan hoped the renovation and new exhibits would help draw visitors, both old and new, to the facility.
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