Pack it in?
In the 1980s, as Taiwan transformed into an industrial society, land prices soared and construction firms greedily eyed potential bonanzas to be had by tearing down old neighborhoods and putting up modern buildings. Builders swooped in and razed large swaths of old, low buildings, replacing them with new-style apartment buildings and commercial towers. Bopiliao alone was somehow passed over. It remained behind, frozen in time.
Professor Mii Fu-kuo of the Tamkang University Department of Architecture, who conducted a historical survey of Bopiliao in 1998 on behalf of the Taipei City Department of Civil Affairs, explains that the neighborhood managed to hang on to its original appearance because it had been zoned as part of the grounds of Laosong Elementary School and was therefore reserved for educational use.
Intending to reclaim the land to expand Laosong Elementary School, the Taipei City Department of Education in 1988 filed for eminent domain, but a failure to communicate with local residents resulted in an impasse, and progress on the plan slowed to a snail's pace. The law requires that once an eminent domain procedure has been instituted, it must be carried to completion within 10 years, otherwise it will have to be canceled and restarted, which is why the battle over Bopiliao was so pitched. In the meantime, uncertainty over the future meant that neighborhood residents were unwilling to spend money on property upkeep. Everywhere one looked, stucco facing was crumbling away to reveal the old mud brick walls behind. Roofs were falling in, and weeds proliferated.
With the eminent domain deadline looming in 1998, residents formed a committee for designation of Bopiliao as a historical preservation district. The committee pressured the government to preserve the neighborhood and save it from the wrecking ball.
The following year, Laosong Elementary School launched a "Save the Schoolyard" petition drive calling on the city government to raze all buildings located on land originally designated as school property, including Bopiliao.
At the same time, Bopiliao residents were protesting outside City Hall to demand that newly inaugurated Mayor Ma Ying-jeou make good on his campaign promise to find good living quarters and pay special attention to the needs of any forced to relocate.
The uproar eventually died down when all three parties came to a grudging consensus on what to do. In the end, 64 households agreed to move out of the neighborhood and are scheduled to receive a total of NT$461 million in compensation for their property, in amounts proportionate to the floor space of the property being vacated.
Of the 4,699 square meters of land claimed under eminent domain, a small portion was to have its structures razed and used for expansion of the school, while over 90 percent of the neighborhood buildings were to be emptied out, restored to original condition, and designated for re-use under a historic neighborhood revitalization project.
In June 1999, just before demolition work was set to begin, Bopiliao residents held a candlelight vigil to bid farewells and express their sense of loss.
Zheng Yaling has lived in Bopiliao for 20 years and runs Long Life Old Folks Tea Shop, which recently moved to nearby Nanning Street. She recalls with a sigh the booming business she used to do in Bopiliao: "Residents want to stay where they are, of course. To say nothing of how my business has dropped off since moving, I can no longer go back to what was once my home."
Ms. Zheng married at age 23 into the Chen family, which had been living in Bopiliao since the time of the Daoguang Emperor (1821-1850), and she eventually took over the tea shop from her mother-in-law. The shop has now been in business for 50 years, but still ranks as something of an upstart in comparison with Sun Book Making, a century-old establishment that produces books using traditional printing and binding methods, or Weilingtan, a Daoist shrine now under fifth-generation leadership.
Weeds and dilapidation were everywhere in evidence before the demolition and remodeling of Bopiliao.