The structure has brick load-bearing walls on the first floor. Its second floor, painted butter yellow, has mock-Tudor curving half-timbering. Its exterior looks like some forest cottage in a children's book. Known as the "cake house" or the "house next to the Fine Arts Museum" before it acquired its name, The Taipei Story House, is the only example of Tudor revival architecture in Taiwan. Even when it stood empty, it attracted people's notice and piqued their curiosity.

In 1914 Chen Chao-chun, the founding director of the Tataocheng Tea Commerce Association, turned what had been a private villa into a social club for Taiwanese gentry, Japanese officials and foreign guests. Such illustrious individuals as the father of the Republic of China Sun Yat-sen and the Chinese revolutionary Hu Han-min would make visits to this European-style building when they visited Taiwan.

Nanguan masters from the Nanguan Ensemble play in the garden of the Taipei Story House. It's a style of performance that's very appropriate to the site and gives people a sense of what the good life must have been like in 1914.

In the year 1914

Back in those days, Chen's wealthy merchant friends would walk along the Tanshui River and then up its bank to Chen's Yuanshan Villa. It covered a vast area, and included, in addition to its main house, a private stable and riding ring in what is now the backyard of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. Its small balcony afforded a beautiful vista of the Keelung River and a Japanese-era Shinto shrine where the Grand Hotel now sits. It is no wonder that it earned the reputation as the greatest of "Taiwan's best 100 views."

The passage of time brought changes to the villa. After Chen Chao-chun died, the Chen family started to lose its wealth, and the beautiful building changed hands many times. First, the Japanese government seized it. After Taiwan reverted to Chinese rule, it served for a time as the residence of Huang Kuo-shu, speaker of the Legislative Yuan. Several other residents came and left, and then it stood idle for a long period. In 1990, however, the Taipei Fine Arts Museum purchased it and turned it into a "center for artistic exchange."

In 2003, under the personal stewardship and careful planning of the lawyer Chen Kok-choo, the old house, which had been designated as a Taipei City historic monument, came to life again and was transformed into the Taipei Story House. As such, it serves to recount not only the stories of the building's own history, but also the dashing personalities and historical eras of the last century in Taipei. "We hope that when the public approaches an historic building, a lovingly preserved historic building, that they will come to understand some of the stories that make up the history of Taipei," says Susan Lin, director of the Taipei Story House.

Opening the memory box

Upon entering the Story House, one can see how new designs and concepts are used to serve the old rather than obscure its character.

No more than 30 visitors are allowed into the building at the same time. In the period-style Western parlor, the art nouveau flowers and grasses in relief on the ceiling and the molded decorative tile of the fireplace give the old house an air of luxury. The walls are entirely covered with glass, which on the one hand protects the old walls and makes it easy to display things, and on the other hand doesn't prevent visitors from viewing the original appearance of the architecture. It's clear that a lot of thought has gone into it. On top of the glass is displayed an old map of Taipei from the early Republican era. It is embellished with images of many of Taipei's famous buildings from the era. With strains of elegant nanguan background music, it almost feels as if one has returned to 1914.

A small, bright pearl

In 1914 Taiwan had already been a Japanese colony for nearly 20 years. The economy was making steady strides, and the colonial government was gaining stability. Meanwhile, city governments around Taiwan were embarking on transportation infrastructure projects. The Japanese had introduced a mixture of European architectural styles, so that the streets of Taipei had acquired a Western appearance. Architecture from the period that survives today includes such government buildings as the Taipei Guest House, the Provincial Museum, the Control Yuan, and the Presidential Palace, as well as the once privately owned Yuanshan Villa.

In the small stairwell hall on the first floor, there are a series of small picture frames arranged on the wall like a collection of family photos. These tell the story of Taipei in the second decade of the 20th century, including the stuff of ordinary people's lives: men cutting off their braided queues after the Japanese colonized Taiwan, fashionable women wearing Western dresses and qipaos, and geisha girls performing.

Up on the second floor, the walls are covered with large and small acrylic boxes. As you pull open one after another of these Taipei memory boxes, their contents tell the stories of incidents large and small that took place in the period. For instance, on January 2, 1913, Taipei's first public bus began plying its route from downtown Taipei to Yuanshan. On April 5, 1914, the Yuanshan Zoo opened. The second floor hallway is decorated with colorful glass bottles, four-color bowls and a ceramic fire pot. These and other items provide a glimpse into how the affluent lived during the Japanese era in Taiwan.

Only some 260 square meters all told, the Taipei Story House focuses on the early 20th century-or, in other words, on the period during which it was built. Its treatment is a model for respecting the original spirit of an historic building. And, in the words of Lung Ying-tai, the former director of the Cultural Bureau of the Taipei City Government, it's an example of a "small pearl shining brightly."

Nanguan music and English-style tea

After a leisurely visit to the Taipei Story House, take a seat (if you can find one) at the Story Tea House next to it, which has an atmosphere no less impressive than the Taipei Story House itself. There, in the shadow of the beautiful historic building, one can savor French-style pig's knuckles from the kitchen of the Ritz Landis Hotel and charcoal-grilled steaks. In the afternoon you can also take traditional English tea or order classic roasted flour porridge and short cake-both are equally redolent of good times.

An historic building matched with the aroma of coffee and tea is a good thing. It's a place where high culture merges with daily life. Yet at a time when coffee shops are ubiquitous in Taipei, this coffee shop's reputation and its number of visitors exceeds even those of the historic building itself. This means that some people come here only to dine. One can't help but wonder if serving food and drink at this historic site might not put the emphasis on the wrong note, placing the commercial over the cultural and defeating the original goal of preserving historical memories?

Fortunately, Taipei Story House statistics show that in the four short months since the House was opened it has received more than 45,000 visits. Fewer than 5% of these visitors have visited the restaurant without going to the house itself. Director Susan Lin explains that this 5% probably includes some people who have already visited the house. With new exhibits and activities planned for the future, she is confident that the "Taipei Stories" will still be the main reason that people come to the Taipei Story House. Recently, there was an exhibit in the Taipei Story House titled "The Story of Tea," and in coordination with this exhibit the Story Tea House offered dishes with tea leaves in them, thus allowing both culture and cuisine to take on the same flavor.

The fragrance of tea

In the sweltering heat of summer, several musicians from the Nanguan Ensemble (the ROC's largest traditional folk artist group) spontaneously broke into song in the Taipei Story House's backyard. It almost seemed that we were back in the days when Chen Chao-chun was putting on a show for some important foreign guest. "To enjoy music, the environment is very important," says Ko Chi-liang, director of the National Center of Traditional Arts. There could scarcely be a more suitable place to perform nankuan music than at the Taipei Story House.

With both music and the culture of tea, the Taipei Story House also holds a delicate tea parties, where famous tea experts and members of the public sit on the floor and experience the dao of tea. With the constant conversation between space and culture, the scenes taking place at the revived Taipei Story House are not to be missed.