appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Oliver Chou

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.

"My childhood neighbourhood was Happy Valley, and after so many years of being away, I needed the help of old buildings before I could link up my memories. That's why I think historic buildings are very important in preserving a place's collective memory."
Chen said she missed the old Star Ferry Pier, demolished in 2007, from which she commuted every day to Diocesan Girls School in Jordan.
"My babysitter Pan Jie, who took me and my sister to school, ended up being married to Ah Ho, a member of the ferry staff who berthed the boat. I'm sure that romantic story is one of the many that was lost with the pier."
Whether old buildings must be torn down or not, she said, "tests the policy and the wisdom of the government".
She admitted the Taipei Story House's Tudor design was "a warm spot" for her after 13 years of English education in Hong Kong and her subsequent law schooling in London.
The house, in Taipei's Zhongshan district, was built from 1913 to 1914 by merchant Chen Chao-chun. It was originally a guest house for rich merchants.
Chen Kok-choo said she had no concerns about depicting the structure's early history during Japanese rule up to 1945.
"There are many facets in the Japanese era in Taiwan, and they are all part of the history of the place and there's nothing you can do to change that. I absolutely have no reservation in presenting, say, the tea industry of the Japanese era in Taiwan, which was at its peak," she said.
Will the current contaminated-oil scandal become a story in future exhibits?
"I don't preclude that if we do a story of food in the future, that will be part of it," she said, calling herself "a cynical lawyer at heart".


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

Chen Kok-choo says buildings and other historic structures contain a community's collective memories, and can help connect us to our own histories. Photo: Nora Tam

News

Hong Kong

Hong Kong-born preservationist shares a collection of early 20th-century items from Taipei Story House for the first time outside Taiwan


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


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

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Hong Kong-born preservationist shares a collection of early 20th-century items from Taipei Story House for the first time outside Taiwan

Hong Kong-born preservationist shares a collection of early 20th-century items from Taipei Story House for the first time outside Taiwan