Stories passed down through time
The walking tour company Walk in Taiwan, founded in the Dadaocheng area of Taipei City, set up shop in Chiayi in 2022. Since establishing “Chiayi in House” as its brand and base of operations, the company is introducing Chiayi through walking tours. The first tour they devised is built around the story of Second Avenue.
Betty Chen, Walk in Taiwan’s regional director for Yunlin, Chiayi and Tainan, explains that in the era of Japanese rule, “Main Street” (today’s Zhongshan Road) mainly catered to Japanese residents, whereas Second Avenue, also known as “Locals’ Street,” was a place where Taiwanese conducted business. “People said that on Second Avenue you could buy anything from cradles to coffins.” Even today, many traditional businesses remain there, such as “mountain product” shops with a real grass-roots ambience.
Xie Wenxiang, owner of Yichang Mountain Products on Zhongzheng Road, says: “‘Mountain products’ means food products from the mountains, such as jelly ear fungus, honey, dried bamboo shoots, shiitake mushrooms, jelly fig seeds, and dried daylily.” Thanks to the forest railway, in the Japanese era Chiayi City was an important hub of overland transportation routes, and a trading center for goods being shipped north or south. Xie points to a general store across the street from his shop and says that back in the day it was so busy in the run-up to the Lunar New Year that they didn’t close their doors day or night.
Other businesses on Zhongzheng Road are no less impressive. Chia Yi Sewing Machine is a venerable store that is now in the hands of the fifth generation of its owning family. How do you know it is old? Just look at the four-digit phone number that is still written above the doorway! But it is only when you walk inside this building, which on the outside has an elegant washed terrazzo finish, that you discover that the old house is built of cypress wood. There is a story behind every detail of the place, from the cypress staircase to the trademark emblem carved on a wooden panel.
Betty Chen leads us next door to Lai Shin Chun Incense, where fourth-generation boss Lai Longyi stands at the door and asks the customers that enter what kind of worship they are preparing for. He explains that the spirit money that should be burnt differs depending upon whether one is honoring deities, ancestors, wandering spirits, or the souls of the former owners or occupiers of a building. Spreading out some spirit money intended for wandering ghosts, he explains that the objects such as combs printed on the paper are everyday items needed by these spirits. Moreover, there is a whole body of knowledge related to the distinctions between different kinds of spirit money.
These stories of businesses passed down from generation to generation remind me of a conversation I had with a taxi driver that day. The driver told us she had had a fare who was revisiting Chiayi three decades after doing his military service there, and complained that the shops on the city’s streets were all exactly the same as they had been 30 years previously. The taxi driver boldly replied: “Yes, but if you look at it from another angle, this means that we Chiayi people raise our children right, because they all take good care of the family business and pass it on to the next generation!”
The four-digit telephone number still visible over the doorway of Chia Yi Sewing Machine shows that this is an old-established business. The veteran sewing machines on display inside the shop are reminders of the clothes making and mending done in many homes in the past.
Betty Chen says that Chiayi is a city that embraces anyone with dreams.
The firm Walk in Taiwan set up shop in Chiayi in 2022 to help people get to know the city through walking tours. They started out with tours of “Second Avenue.” (courtesy of Chiayi in House)