Yunlin culture group helps revive interest in local history

2019/07/01

Yunlin boasts a rich and complex past. The western Taiwan county’s fertile soil has attracted settlers for millennia, with the earliest known residents being the Hoanya people. Nearly four centuries ago, some of the first Han immigrants to Taiwan settled in the area, and the Dutch East India Company based an outpost on Yunlin’s coast during its colonial rule (1624-1662) over parts of the island.

 This varied history remains underappreciated both inside and outside Taiwan, but local group the Luoyoung Cultural and Educational Foundation is looking to change that.

In the late 1990s, a group of cultural preservation enthusiasts in Yunlin’s Xiluo Township launched a campaign to save a bridge over the Zhuoshui River. The 1,939-meter structure, connecting Xiluo with Xizhou Township to the north in central Taiwan’s Changhua County, was among the longest in the world at the time of its completion in 1952. Activists and residents were united in their opposition to government plans to demolish the landmark, and ultimately proved successful in protecting this prominent piece of local history.

 The LCEF is the group primarily responsible for saving the structure. Founded by township native Louise Ho, it organized the Xiluo Bridge Cultural Tourism Festival in 2001 to celebrate the triumphant conservation campaign. The event featured sculptures by some of Taiwan’s most celebrated artists, such as Ju Ming and Yang Yu-yu, and attracted more than 200,000 visitors.

 Follow-up editions, held periodically until 2014, were smaller in scale but more localized in focus, spotlighting talents like teachers and students from National Yunlin University of Science and Technology. Some of the sculptures from these events have since been erected at a park near LCEF headquarters in downtown Xiluo. Ho said the pieces serve as a permanent reminder of residents’ commitment to protecting and sharing local culture and history.

The LCEF participates in a variety of central and local government programs to deepen awareness of Yunlin’s abundant heritage. It is based at a former tea shop in Xiluo built during Japanese colonial rule (1895-1945). In 2013, the foundation helped renovate the property, which was recognized as a historic building some six years previously by Yunlin County Government. This work was funded under the Local Cultural House Project, a nationwide restoration initiative launched in 2002 by the Ministry of Culture.

 From its office in Xiluo, the LCEF conducts historical surveys in cooperation with organizations like NYUST and Taipei City-headquartered Academia Sinica, Taiwan’s foremost research institution. According to Ho, the foundation uses the information gathered through these collaborative projects in community education and outreach activities, including field trips and workshops.

“Many people have no idea what life was like here during Japanese colonial rule,” Ho said, “so we work to share our findings with residents and deepen understanding of local history.”

Source: Taiwan Today (https://taiwantoday.tw/index.php)