Tainan Xinhua Life Story Museum (Xinhua Old Street)

Xinhua was formerly known as "Tapani," which means "land of mountains and forests" in the Siraya language. With its beautiful mountains and forests and rich human history, Xinhua was an important trade hub connecting mountainous and flat regions in early times. During the Dutch period, historical records of port trade further demonstrated Xinhua's prosperity. Since the Japanese colonial period, Xinhua has been an important political and economic center in the greater Tainan area. In the first year of the Taisho era (1912), Xinhua was organized as Xinhua Street, under the jurisdiction of Tainan Prefecture, with the Xinhua District Office established. It governed nine villages and towns, including Xinhua Street, Shanhua Street, Zuozhen Village, Nanhua Village, Yujing Village, Nanxi Village, Shanshang Village, Xinshi Village, and Anding Village. Xinhua Street, being at the center of these nine villages and towns, thus preserved a wealth of cultural and historical backgrounds. From this, it is evident that the Xinhua Old Street area, from early times to the present, remains a historical district rich in culture and people. Abundant cultural assets such as the Street Office, Butokuden (Martial Arts Hall), Japanese dormitory clusters, and Hōan-den (Hall of Imperial Rescripts) are spread throughout the various communities of the old street area. Xinhua Old Street, often praised by locals, is primarily composed of Art Deco architecture prevalent in the 1920s-1930s. All these buildings have been listed as potential cultural heritage buildings by the Tainan City Cultural Affairs Bureau. Each building carries the legacy of important livelihoods and industrial development over the past century, along with its local living network relationships. For example, Mr. Yang Zhen-zong, the fourth-generation owner of Jinfa Rice and Grain Store, a century-old rice shop, took on the role of stabilizing society during the turbulent post-war era. He offered farmers higher-than-market prices for their produce and was willing to lend money to impoverished farmers to purchase necessary farming materials, to be repaid with rice. This helped many poor farmers overcome difficulties, and his story is still remembered by generations of local farming families. Therefore, each historic old house on Xinhua Old Street embodies the content of traditional industrial changes across different eras, allowing people to envision past living situations and the paths trodden by their ancestors, and also containing rich cultural and educational materials. Furthermore, Xinhua is also the birthplace of Taiwan's sugar industry. In the early 20th century, the Japanese studied the topography, hydrology, climate, and other conditions throughout Taiwan, establishing the "Tapani Sugar Industry Experimental Station" at the site of today's Xinhua Vocational High School. By 1921 (Taisho 10th year), the station was reorganized into the Department of Agriculture, becoming the "Sugar Section, Department of Agriculture, Central Research Institute, Government-General of Taiwan." This was a key center for Japanese development of the sugar industry in Taiwan (all artifacts at the current Taisugar headquarters in Tainan City's South District were relocated from the Tapani Sugar Industry Experimental Station in 1933). One of the main reasons for its establishment was that Xinhua possessed Taiwan's first reservoir at the time, Hutoupi. The development of irrigation canals from Hutoupi to the experimental station enabled Xinhua to achieve this historical status, directly and indirectly contributing to the booming development of Xinhua Old Street. Accordingly, this cultural site is named the Xinhua Life Story Museum, meaning that each historic building and old house is like an exhibition area of a museum. After our team successively renovated, preserved, and revitalized these old houses, their stories will be integrated into the spaces of the old houses, allowing for point, line, and plane connections between them, forming a wall-less street museum. This aims to shape the unique cultural characteristics of Xinhua Old Street, making it an important cultural and educational base in Taiwan. (Please refer to Appendix 1 for related story street house content).