It's hard to write a blog post the day after the Taipei Metro knife attack. So I decided to just upload a few pictures I took one or two days before I left Taiwan in February.
These are the pictures of a building I've always been curious about. It has an old-style tile rooftop and it looks quite old. Since it's located inside a courtyard separated from the street by a wall I couldn't see much except for the roof.
The house is in Roosevelt Road in Taipei, and I've always wondered if it's really an old one or not. My dream is that it's a Japanese or Qing-dynasty house, and that we can save it from its decay. But I'm pretty sure it's just a dream, because the whole area is modern, with nearly no exception (but there are a few, which I hope to show in the future).
I would like to meet some local Taiwanese who know something about this building. But so far, that, too, has been a dream.
I am no history expert, but as a native let me try the best I can to explain these houses. Our grandparents or great-grand parents used to live in houses call 三合院。They come in ㄇ shap with one story buildings surrounding a center courtyard. The roof is slanted and built with curved tiles, much the old building style in China. They represent an agricultural society.
ReplyThe one in your photo seems to be a remaining part of an old 三合院 or at least a building similar to that style. It is most likely not from the Qing dynasty. From Japan colonial era? Maybe. Probably. But I'd say it's most likely from before Taiwan industrialized in the 1960's. It could be later or earlier, because even when Taipei starts to modernize, there can still be some rice fields dotting here and there in the developing city, and these houses usually appears with rice fields.Apparently the fields of this house is already gone, and the house remains here in debris. There are quite a few of these in Taiwan, old and decaying, unprotected, unnoticed. Some of them are still dwelled with residence, others are just left there in wretch.
But you probably already know that, since your knowledge of our history is better than I am. If you're asking about that one particulary house in your photo, than I cannot help you.
Thanks a lot for your comment! You keep my dream alive and maybe this house is really from the Qing period! In this case we must save it : ) Perhaps someone who loves Taiwanese tradition should buy the house before the owners ruin it for good.