About Taoyuan

Taoyuan Stories

Taoyuan culture is composed of diverse groups, including Southern Fujian, Hakka, immigrants from other provinces, indigenous people, and new immigrants. Each group not only sustains and enhances their original humane features, but make up the splendid and abundant cultural landscape in this area. In the interaction and expectation of diverse groups and new communities, Taoyuan insists the spirit of community construction which inspires residents’ autonomy and participation of public affairs, and encourages residents to take the living place as the foundation to explore local knowledge and promote cultural development. With several years’ promotion, the historical memory and cultural context in Taoyuan are getting clear and leading to dialogues regarding cultural heritage preservation, urban regeneration and development, local culture identity and liquidity, and community forming.

I. Diverse cultural festivals

The primary group distribution in Taoyuan is “Southern Fujian in the north and Hakka in the south.” Besides, there are immigrant groups from Kinmen, Matsu, and Yunnan-Burma Area, military dependent’s villages formed after Chinese Civil War, and indigenous people. With the industrial development, people from Taipei City, New Taipei City, Hsinchu, and Miaoli are attracted to work and live here. There are also groups of new residents such as foreign spouses and workers. As the

cross-border fluidity of domestic immigrants, foreign workers, and new residents changes the traditional population structure, they bring diverse and active city style and cultural landscape. They also become a new power for local development. To form the cohesion of local people, the city holds abundant and diverse cultural festivals, such as Southern Fujian Cultural festival, Cultural Festival Held in Military Dependent’s Villages, Hakka Cultural festival, Daxi Culture and Art Festival, Internal Indigenous Music Festival, and Earth God Cultural festival.

II. Cultural building preservation, repair, and reuse

To preserve and activate public historical heritage, sustain historical memory, and connect affections between generations, the city actively preserves and repairs historic monuments and buildings, such as the national historic monument Lee Teng-Fang’s Ancient Residence, Fanjian Ancestral Hall in Xinwu, Zhong Zhao-Zheng Literature Park, and Yangmei Story Park. Public and private cultural buildings with local features are connected and integrated into the “Taoyuan Urban Story House” to sustain living memories and affections of generations, connect community resources, and display local features. For example, through local participation, “Daxi Wooden Craft Eco Museum” makes Daxi a “wall-less museum;” “Zhongping Road Story House” becomes communication platform of civil lives and stories in Zhongli through exhibitions, activities, and lectures; “Guishan Story House of Military Dependent’s Villages” conducts community culture and history preservation and recording to attract the young generation to pay attention to issues regarding military dependent’s villages; “Taoyuan Arts Cinema” holds monthly film education and promotion activities such as theme film festivals, post-film lectures, film tour, and movie/theater experience programs, turning New Matsu Village into a film foundation.

III. Arts and culture exhibition and promotion

The branding activity “Taoyuan Ironrose Festival” is held to promote the development of popular music. The “Taoyuan Rock Festival” activities are held every year, including rock parade, music band competition, music academy, music festival, and music theme exhibition; Department of Cultural Affairs establishes “Taoyuan Chinese Orchestra” for supporting music development with actual actions and improving the standard of arts. Besides large music activities, visual arts exhibitions are also planned, including “Taoyuan Artists Exhibition” and “2016 Taoyuan Illustrators Exhibition.” “Taoyuan Land Art Festival” is held in recent years to show special landscape in Taoyuan and introduce the public to the specific urban environment and landscape in Taoyuan. Various resources and strength will be integrated in the future to keep preserving and sustaining citizens’ group cultural memories, and to repair and reuse cultural properties. We expect to encourage the cross-border cooperation and horizontal alliances between ew cultural and creative industries. New power will be injected to Taoyuan culture for presenting the urban aesthetics in Taoyuan.