Conserving Historic Landscape in Expectation of Revival--A Case in Taiwan

Ref.: 205
Key theme: 03 Visual integrity of historic urban landscapes
Date of reception: 10/11/2008

AUTHORS (*Main author)

KAY CHIANG, Min-Chin * (Netherlands) - Leiden University

ABSTRACT

A century ago the landscape and spatial fabric of Ciaotou, a town in south Taiwan, was entirely reconstructed for industrial modernization based on the colonizer's interests. In the past two decades, Ciaotou again faced to the tides of modernization brought by national urban policy and new transportation construction. What distinguished the second modernization from the past was the autonomous awareness for conserving the historic landscape. The conservation actions initiated a series of community building programmes, and hence forged the memory recollection and identity consciousness in the local area. This collective awareness serves as the basis for reflecting on the development schemes and for balancing the historic conservation and urban regeneration.

In late March 2008, Ciaotou was suddenly spotlighted by media for its dramatic change from a quiet, nostalgic site to a hot tourist spot. The town was crowded with more than ten thousand visitors daily from its urban neighborhoods during the opening period of the first metro system in south Taiwan. However, the number of visitors withered instantly within one day on which the free trial period of metro terminated. Experienced with the worries and annoyance with disorder and damage brought by tourists, the local inhabitants have been bitterly expecting to the coming of next prosperity.

While facing to the tides of modernization which changed/were going to change the historic landscape of the town, community participation served as the major strength for resisting the harsh urban development and for conserving the sites of local memories. However, while the third tide of metro construction arrived in Ciaotou, this collective consensus was under crisis--as a local elite asserted, `since we have made so much efforts in community building for ten years, it is time for us to reward from economic revival...The intactness of some historic sites should not be insisted on if a larger public interest can be benefited from changes' (Interview in 2008).

This paper suggests that community engagement plays the most crucial role in maintaining the visual integrity of urban historic landscape. This was demonstrated by the second modernization in Ciaotou--the collective awareness on conserving historic landscape and local memory was the major force to resist the brutal destruction on historic sites; and this generated the communal vision of a local future based on the equilibrium of old and new. Therefore, a sustainable balance between historic landscape and urban modernization can only be reached if the memories and sense of place of these historic sites are inalienable to the local identity and life experiences of the inhabitants. However, it is also noteworthy that if the collective awareness is fueled by tourism expectation, it may cause the ceding of visual integrity to market demands in the long run, as shown by the crisis during the third stage of modernization in Ciaotou. Thus, a refocus on the heritage essence regarding its cultural value and local significance should be endeavored by practitioners with long term public education and interpretation activities, along with the persistent community building.

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