A happy ending to a sad century
Reflecting on Beitou people’s apathy toward the station at the time, Lin has but one word for it: “heartless.”
But as the idea of community building began to grow in Taiwan in the 1990s, people started focusing more on local cultural assets. Since 2003, repeated calls have come not only from ordinary residents, but also from people in politics, social campaigners and the cultural community for the Xinbeitou station building to be returned. Local musicians including Chen Ming-chang, composer for Hou Hsiao-hsien’s 1986 film Dust in the Wind, even put together an album entitled Our Beloved Station, giving voice to the feelings of the sons and daughters of Beitou toward the station and their wishes that it return home.
Sebastian Liao, then director of the Taipei City Department of Cultural Affairs, is amongst those sons of Beitou, and he and his successors have continued to be strong supporters of the efforts to bring the station back, including raising funds and facilitating negotiations between community representatives and the station’s titleholder.
Fate wasn’t finished with the beloved old building yet, though. In 2011, the Changhua County Government extended its provisional historic site designation on the Xinbeitou station building and six others originally under the care of Taiwan Folk Village, with effect until May 7, 2013. This meant that should the Changhua Cultural Affairs Bureau decide by that date that the station building was to be permanently listed, it would have to remain in Changhua, never again able to return to its home in Xinbeitou.
And with the station building having been auctioned off in 2012 and thus in private hands, even if it wasn’t made a permanent historic site, if the people of Beitou wanted it back they’d have to pay, and probably over NT$100 million.
Given the situation, Beitou residents had already laid out a plan for the worst-case scenario, deciding to build a replica of the station in the event that they couldn’t get it back.
In late April, with the deadline drawing near, things took a dramatic turn. First Sunrong Company, which had previously been unwilling to sell the building, wrote to the Taipei City Department of Cultural Affairs formally announcing their willingness to donate the building “without compensation.” This reignited hope in the hearts of the people of Beitou that the station would return.
Then, on April 29, the Changhua County Cultural Affairs Bureau convened a “tangible heritage evaluation committee,” ultimately announcing that while three of Taiwan Folk Village’s former buildings would be permanently listed as historic buildings, in the interests of cultural heritage preservation, they would request that the Taipei City Government take back Xinbeitou Station now that its temporary protection was to expire.
Changhua County chief executive Cho Po-yuan was pleased with the decision, stating that he believed such preservation of history, from the station’s escaping destruction in Taipei through its preservation in Changhua to its return home, was in line with the original intentions of Taiwan Folk Village founder Shi Jinshan.
The people of Beitou were overjoyed by the decision as well. Taipei’s Department of Cultural Affairs had long since arranged for a plot next to the park by Xinbeitou MRT Station to be kept vacant for the eventual return of the old station building, and the community was fully behind the station’s being returned to its old location and restored to its original condition.
Lin Guanhong of the Beitou Association has remarked that while getting the station back is absolutely a happy ending to the story, the process of actually moving the building should best be completed before Taiwan enters typhoon season, as the old wooden structure may not be able to withstand the ensuing storms.
The more than NT$600,000 collected through fundraising efforts aimed at buying the station back, says Lin, will be used to pay for the transportation and restoration of the station building. Meanwhile, the Taipei City Government has begun work on listing the building as a historic site, along with setting aside money in the 2014 budget for renovations, to join with the people of Beitou in celebrating the return of this relic.
After 24 years away, Xinbeitou Station is finally to be welcomed home again. And with the station set to celebrate its centennial on April 1, 2016, this nonagenarian son is sure to have quite the spectacular party.