Historic artefacts on display in Kowloon tell of Taiwan's commercial past

Historic buildings are a bastion of a community's values and collective memory and, as such, deserve to remain intact and kept up.

That's the advice of a Hong Kong-born barrister who has become one of Taiwan's most noted preservationists.

"It is the only way for a legacy to continue," the preservationist, Chen Kok-choo, said.

"It's important for the young generation to recognise that, because a lot of problems in modern-day society come with a disregard or a loss of memory for what has passed."

Chen, who founded the Taipei Story House museum in 2003, was speaking on the eve of an exhibition called "The Story of Old Businesses in Taiwan", opening today in Kowloon Park.

It is the first time the exhibits, which include old photographs, ceramics and other effects dating from the early 1900s to the '50s, have left Taiwan since the museum opened in a century-old mock-Tudor property built by a rich tea merchant.

"I was invited by the Taipei city government to adopt the heritage site in 2002, and I renamed [it] Taipei Story House to tell stories of the city's ordinary people and their way of life," said Chen, 65, who has lived in Taiwan since 1975.