Late lyricist Lee Lin-chiu’s (李臨秋) son has bought back his father’s old residence, which was listed as a historical site in 2009, after it was auctioned to a buyer for NT$34.28 million (US$1.18 million at the current exchange rate) in April.
The residence would be renovated and used to promote the culture of Taiwanese folk songs, Lee Hsiu-chien (李修鑑), the 72-year-old son of Lee Lin-chiu, said on Friday.
Lee Lin-chiu wrote the lyrics for several well-known Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) songs, including Longing for the Spring Breeze (望春風), A Red Egg (一個紅蛋), Four Seasons of Red (四季紅), and Mending the Net (補破網).
Photo: Yang Hsin-hui, Taipei Times
Built in 1923 in Taipei’s historic Dadaocheng (大稻埕) area, the two-story residence was bought by the Lee family in 1953, Lee Hsiu-chien said, adding that his father had lived there until he passed away in 1979.
An ownership issue arose over the house, as the ground floor belonged to a family surnamed Kao (高), while Lee’s family owned the second floor. The Kao family filed for a partition of the rights to the building, which forced the April auction.
Although the buyer won the bidding, Lee Hsiu-chien said he had a first right of priority to purchase the house, as he is one of its original owners.
However, he almost gave up due to a lack of funds and considered buying a smaller house nearby instead to exhibit his father’s belongings.
Locals residents’ encouragement and assistance helped him to eventually gain full ownership of the house after four months of intensive fundraising, Lee Hsiu-chien added.
Renovations would begin next year to transform the house into a museum to display the manuscripts and daily items his father owned, he said.
The museum would play songs written by Lee Lin-chiu, sell coffee and tea, as well as special-edition memorabilia featuring his father, Lee Hsiu-chien said, adding that cultural lectures would be held from time to time.
The operation of the museum would not be too commercial, as the main goal of the site would be to promote the culture of traditional Taiwanese folk songs, he said, adding that he would come up with ways to inject new life into the old residence.
Lee Hsiu-chien expressed his special thanks to Chiu Chien-ping (邱建平), a Dadaocheng merchant, and Ninghsia Night Market Tourism Committee director-general Lin Ding-kuo (林定國) for their help in the fundraising process.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
RSS