Treasure Hill

120 Travel | Taipei Travel | Taipei 121 TREASURE HILL Taipei has embraced its creative side – and nowhere is this more evident than in Treasure Hill, a once-threatened squatter settlement transformed into an artists’ village. Words by Christopher DeWolf Courtesy of City Yeast of City Courtesy 122 Travel | TaipeiLake Sentani Travel | Taipei 123 Treasure Hill, a squatters’ village in Taipei that now plays host to a community of artists and a regular 5 Senses – Sound © Rich J Matheson © Rich array of exhibitions. MUSIC Thousands of lanterns on display as part of an exhibition of light Mandapop might dominate Taiwan’s installations earlier this year. charts, but the island is also home to a thriving independent music scene and Treasure Hill’s haphazard Taipei is its epicentre. The Riverside concrete and brick houses, built by Livehouse in Ximending is a good former soldiers and their families, introduction to the scene, with a roster have been preserved. of more mainstream rock bands along with jazz and acoustic performances (177 Xining South Road, Wanhua District, Taipei, T. 886 2 2370 8805, riverside.com.tw). Further east, near Taiwan National University, The Wall is the grandfather of live music in Taipei, with a mix of local acts and overseas indie groups (200 Roosevelt Road Section 4, Wenshan District, Taipei, T. 886 2 2930 0162, thewall.tw). Mandapop bisa jadi mendominasi Rice Fields tangga lagu Taiwan, tetapi ada banyak Ubud, Indonesia musik independen di sini dan Taipei merupakan pusatnya. Riverside Livehouse di Ximending merupakan awal yang bagus untuk mengenal musik ini, tempat yang memiliki daftar genre seperti rock mainstream, jazz serta musik akustik. (177 Xining South Road, Wanhua District, Taipei, Tel 886 2 2370 8805, riverside.com.tw). Lebih ke timur, dekat Taiwan National University, The Wall adalah awal Courtesy of Treasure Hill Artists Village, © Rich J Matheson, Courtesy of Taipei Cinema Park Cinema of Taipei J Matheson, Courtesy Hill Artists Village, © Rich of Treasure Courtesy mula live music di Taipei, diramaikan Today, Treasure Hill is an altogether different people in Taipei, it has also meant a shift Handmade Paper. In the front of her small It’s a scorchingly hot afternoon grup-grup indie lokal dan luar negeri kind of settlement, home to 14 artists’ studios, in mindset, sacrificing some traditional split-level house is a shop where she sells (200, Roosevelt Road Section 4, in Taipei, and cicadas are buzzing exhibition and performance spaces, a café ambitions – a prestigious career, lots her creations; upstairs is a studio dominated Wenshan District, Taipei, T. 886 2 loudly outside the Treasure Hill and a youth hostel, along with a handful of of money, expensive stuff – in favour by a large metal basin, where she picks Temple. A man in cycling gear longtime residents who maintain the same of a slow but more spiritually up a wood-framed screen to explain 2930 0162, thewall.tw). tile-roofed houses and small patches of farmland rewarding way of life. her working process. stops to take a swig of water they built after 1949. “This is a special place,” says before turning towards the Hung, who works for the non-profit foundation “People are willing to do something “Most paper is made by putting pulp temple’s statue of Guanyin, that manages the village. creative even if it means they only have in here and running water through it,” the Chinese goddess of mercy. a modest income,” says Hung. “I moved she says, waving the screen up and Treasure Hill is just one part of a cultural to Taipei ten years ago. Since then, the down. “I drop things into the pulp to He clasps his hands and bows renaissance that has swept through Taipei, turning change is huge, and what’s changed create patterns and colour – kozo fibre, three times, paying his respects. neglected urban spaces into design studios, music most is the human feel.” old coffee trays, twine. I also use old halls, craft workshops and independent shops. convenience store receipts.” It’s a process A few metres away, Travis Hung stands watching. The Songshan Creative and Cultural Park brings Human feel. It’s an apt description of that sounds easier than it actually is: “This temple was built a few hundred years ago art and design into a former tobacco factory; Treasure Hill, which rises in a haphazard “I visualise exactly what I want to do in the Qing Dynasty,” he explains. “It used to be Huashan 1914 Creative Park is a former distillery assembly of hand-built houses, stone walls but sometimes it takes ten tries one of the most important temples around Taipei.” that is now a popular destination for music fans, and narrow laneways. Greenery threads before I actually get it.” When the Japanese took over Taiwan in 1895, and arts and craft lovers; and the Taipei Cinema through the village from the thick forest they deemed the hilly area around the temple Park screens films outdoors. behind to the riverbank below, where the Lee has worked in Treasure Hill for just to have exceptionally good water and banned waters of the Xindian River flow languidly under two years. When she first visited development. For years, only six families “We are facing competition from China, beneath the Fuhe Bridge. ten years ago, there were only a few lived nearby. globalisation, climate change, a low birth rate,” artists. “Most people in Taipei didn’t know says Lin Yu-hsiu, a section chief at the Urban Leaving the temple, Hung walks into the anything about this area,” she says. Like Then came the Kuomintang, the Chinese Regeneration Office, which transforms vacant village, wandering up a staircase, past a many communities in Taipei, Treasure Hill Nationalists who, after fleeing from mainland buildings into creative spaces. “We have to think huge banyan tree and then down another was built by squatters, without government China in 1949, placed Taiwan under martial law. about how to move forward, but in a wiser way staircase – it’s easy to get lost in the village’s permission, and after 50 years of legal limbo, More than 200 ex-soldiers and their families than before. We want a better life.” That better many small laneways – before finding the Taipei government was keen to tear it flocked to Treasure Hill, where they built life has come about through efforts to reduce himself outside a small grey house. A young down. But a group of artists and architects houses and small farms, creating a unique pollution, build parks and improve public woman dressed in jeans and slippers opens objected, proposing instead something rural community just a stone’s throw transport in what used to be a rough-and-ready the door and introduces herself as Mia Lee. novel: turn the village into a model of away from central Taipei. Asian Tiger boomtown. But for many young Lee runs a paper workshop called Meng’s environmental and social sustainability. 124 Travel | Taipei Travel | Taipei 125 © Andy Beirne © Andy Park Cinema of Taipei Courtesy Finnish architect Marco Casagrande, who was hired to develop a master plan for the area, espoused a concept of ‘urban acupuncture’ in which large-scale development is replaced by local, community-based and organic change – pointed interventions into the pressure points of the modern city. From 2007 to 2010, Treasure Hill’s housing stock was restored; by that point, many of the original residents had left, but 20 families remained, and they were joined by the artists that call Treasure Hill home today. Urban acupuncture has proved popular enough to be adopted as an official strategy by the Taipei government, which has launched a series of Urban Regeneration Stations (URS) that link arts and culture with residents in Taipei’s oldest neighbourhoods. Since 2010, seven URSs have been opened around the city, mostly in Dadaocheng, a historic trading district near the Danshui River. “It was very busy 40 years ago, but business shifted to the east part of Taipei and it decayed,” says Lin Yu-hsiu, who oversees URS projects. Housed in historic buildings donated by their owners, each URS has a distinct character: Cooking Together focuses on food culture, Story House presents exhibitions on local history and Film Range specialises in independent film projects. One project, Creative Incubator, consists of design studios and a café housed in a former liquor warehouse, with public Young Taiwanese are now more Siang itu di Taipei, panas matahari events every week. “It was abandoned for over ten years, inclined to pursue a creative life than terasa menyengat dan suara dengung the generations before them. and young people went inside to do drugs, and there were tonggeret terdengar keras di luar Kuil so many street dogs and cats,” says Lin. “URS is about a renewal of thought. The neighbours originally hoped Craft and design markets are Treasure Hill. Seorang pria berbaju [the warehouse] would be replaced by an office building, regular fixtures at places like the khusus pesepeda berhenti untuk Huashan Creative Park. but we want people to think about other possibilities for mengambil air sebelum kemudian space. Now we’re seeing more and more interaction with the neighbours.” Taipei’s transformation has menuju patung Guanyin, dewa included new public gathering spaces pengampun yang dipercayai masyarakat That’s one of the goals of City Yeast, a Treasure Hill-based to nurture the city’s creative spirit. China. Laki-laki itu pun mengatupkan organisation that runs community-based art and design activities. In one case, it asked designers to create public kedua tangannya seraya membungkuk Treasure Hill hanyalah sebagian kecil dari furniture for various sites around Treasure Hill; some of the tiga kali, memberikan penghormatan.

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