Pingtung residents and Chaochou Senior High School students on Saturday protested at an old railway bridge under renovation by the county government, saying the recent red paint job “clashes with the landscape and is very ugly.”
The Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) Chaochou Rail Bridge was built in 1920.
The Pingtung County Government is renovating it to be a bicycle overpass that they hope would become a tourist attraction.
The effort was poorly executed, protesters said.
A local resident surnamed Hung (洪) said the “China red” paint on the bridge girders “severely clashes with the landscape and the sloppy and cheap construction work caused damage to the historic brick tiles.”
Many of the tiles were shattered by equipment or splattered with paint, Hung said.
“The county government had no understanding of the historical context of the bridge or any sense of aesthetics,” Hung added.
Chaochou Senior High School student Chiang Yung-chih (蔣允祈) said the bridge renovation was the topic of classroom discussions last semester and that his classmates were in favor of historical conservation, but they did not agree with the “crude execution of the conservation effort, or the very ugly color.”
However, some locals disagreed with protesters, saying the color is “auspicious” or “new.”
“From an aesthetic perspective, the colors of a structure should blend in with its environment. The rail bridge is set by greenery and the river, and using a bright color, such as ‘China Red,’ has exactly the opposite effect. It forms a strong contrast with the landscape, cuts up the visuals and causes a sense of division and intrusion,” National Pingtung University cultural and creative industries assistant professor Chang Chung-chin (張重金) said.
The Pingtung County Government and Pingtung City Government bought the obsolete bridge from the TRA with a central government subsidy of NT$25 million (US$742,942), plus NT$1million from the local budget. Rail lines stripped from the bridge were returned to the TRA in October last year.
Pingtung County Department of Public Works and Department of Cultural Affairs said the clashing colors are probably caused by the paint having a different actual color than it appeared on the color card, and said it would re-evaluate the case.
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