Yunlin Story House - The House of Stories

Yunlin Story House was originally the official residence of the Huwei County Magistrate, a Japanese-style wooden building constructed in 1920. In 2001, it was simultaneously registered as a historic building along with the Yunlin Puppet Theater Museum and the United Office Building (Eslite Bookstore / Starbucks). It once faced demolition but was saved through a joint petition initiated by Huwei township residents, local cultural and historical workers, scholars, elected representatives, and media personalities. After renovations were completed in 2006, it began trial operations on March 8, 2007. On December 19 of the same year, its operation was entrusted to the Yunlin Storytellers Association, which continues to manage it today. It became the first successfully revitalized historic building in Yunlin County and promoted cultural policies within Yunlin County. Since taking over the operation of Erlun Story House in 2014, Touku Story House, Yongguang Story House, and Taixi Haikou Story House have successively been established in other Yunlin townships, opening a new chapter for the Yunlin Story Movement. The 12th anniversary of the Yunlin Story House coincided with the 100th anniversary of Huwei's establishment as a county. A special 'Hundred-Person Street Parade' was planned, connecting four surrounding cultural venues and Huwei Salon (an independent bookstore). It invited community samba dance performance groups from Douliu, Yunlin, and across northern, central, and southern Taiwan to participate. Our association, guided by the philosophy of 'if you want a culture, you must create it yourself,' uses the theme [Sugar Capital Opera Culture Tour] – Sugar Capital (Huwei), Opera (Glove Puppetry), Culture (Stories), Tour (Taiwan Tourist Shuttle) – as the core for fostering Huwei's cultural living circle. In Huwei Township, which boasts the highest density of cultural assets, it has revitalized and continued to reuse the Yunlin Story House to this day. The Yunlin Story House integrates local life, culture, art, and education, serving as a cultural platform for sharing, creating, performing, and archiving stories. Its operational goals are [Learn Local, Learn from Local], [Learn Future, Learn for Future], and [Learn Happiness, Learn Happiness]. It cultivates cultural talents in listening, speaking, reading, writing, and performing stories, encourages people to create picture books, publishes them, and verifies local knowledge (Learn Local) by 'Traveling with Stories' through onsite story explorations. It shares warm, true stories (Learn Happiness) through guided tours, storytelling, fixed-point and touring exhibitions, story travel kits, and visits to Yunlin, Taiwan, and even around the world. Through talent cultivation and public participation, it collectively builds the foundation of Taiwan's story culture (Learn Future). For the past eighteen years, with a spirit of community building, Yunlin community stories have grown out of the Yunlin Story House (Yunlin's Cultural Living Room). These stories, imbued with the fragrance of the soil, are like puzzle pieces that outline people's local perspectives. To date, over 140 original works by amateur creators have been published in multiple languages (Taiwanese, Japanese, English, Chinese, Indonesian, etc.). In the future, resource inventory will be used for classification and curriculum design, developing signature stories and story theaters, digitizing the collection (animation, podcasts, e-books, etc.), planning visits to community hubs to share archived stories, guiding communities to organize local knowledge, and encouraging participation in Yunlin community picture book creation workshops. The Story House's influence has now spread to 203 locations across all 22 counties and cities in Taiwan. In the future, through Kamishibai (paper theater) storytelling (Goodbye Kamishibai) and diverse interpretations, the calls of stories from 'Those Years, These Matters' and 'Flavors of Home' will emerge from the heart, resonating with and inviting everyone to jointly create and share Taiwan's cultural heritage.