The Matriarch – Taiwanese Architectural History
In my continuation of colonization and migrations impacts on architecture, Leila and I made a visit to what is now Fort Anping Tainan, Taiwan. The Dutch and the Spanish overlapped in their occupation of Taiwan but eventually the Dutch needed Spanish Formosa (see last weeks blog), and they fought for it. The Dutch let the Spanish know that there was no possibility of co-existence. Tainan is approximately 310 KM south of Tamsui and located on the South West coast. The Dutch & Spanish occupied different regions of Taiwan at the same time. In 1642 when the Dutch realized the Spanish location at the northernmost point of Taiwan had prime real estate with access to modern day Northern China, Korea, and Japan, they made it their mission to take Fort Formosa by force. And with the growing Dutch East India Company, the Dutch were willing to fight to grow their business. Taiwan was a targeted location because the Dutch were unsuccessful in establishing trade posts in Mainland China. In 1624, they actually tried, and the Ming Dynasty was too powerful. And, to give you context, both Tamsui and Tainan both had thriving independent cultures that were self sufficient. The narrative that indigenous cultures need to be saved by colonizers is a myth. If anything, when the Dutch arrived to Tainan in 1624, they immediately upset the ecological balance with excessive hunting and fishing. Taiwanese people are fairly congenial, I imagine that when the Dutch arrived, they didn’t pull out the swords immediately. The Dutch were ousted by the Qing Dynasty, Koxinga, in 1662. (The Qing Dynasty took over from the Ming Dynasty in 1636) The treaty basically said you can take your personal belongings and your slaves. We will keep the goods you’ve accumulated from trade and the fort, and we aren’t paying you for anything in it. In return, you get to live.
So, the site is a bit misleading. What you see upon arrival is a Fort that has been re-built with Japanese, Chinese, and Western influence. The site is the original site of the Dutch Fort Zeelandia, but the only original area of the fort is semi-circle of bricks located on the East side. During Japanese rule, Fort Zeelandia was in complete ruins and fully deserted and the Japanese decided to invest in its preservation and beautification. The brick walls surrounding the fort were built by the Japanese, using a Japanese architectural style, in 1896. In 1930, the Japanese built a Western Style exhibit space for cultural remembrance. The scouting deck was built in 1945 to monitor surroundings post-Japanese occupation, and in 1975, the tower rebuilt during the time we will consider Modern Taiwan. This site represents much of what led me to this particular investigation of colonization and migration. On one site, in a city in Tainan,Taiwan, there are five different architectural cultural influences — Japanese, Western, Ming (China), Qing (China), Modern Taiwan, and The Dutch. How can you have harmony in architecture when the cultural mix of styles is so different? For additional images see link.
The Matriarch – Making Friends
My daughter is an incredibly social person. She is energized from being around people, and is always looking for ways to connect. At her school, she’s acclimated quickly and has started to make friends. She even finds ways to meet people in our neighborhood on the playground. It’s an admirable quality but so far from a personal priority for me. Even if I had time, there is a real sense (from my perspective) that there is a “family-first”. I’ve spoken with two different moms that had a regularly scheduled weekly dinner with their parents every weekend. The “play date” seems low on the priority list. During holidays, it seems that Taiwanese residents make seeing family a priority. To make up for this shift in social time, I decided to enroll her in some weekend classes where she can meet up with friends. As for me, I grew up in a relatively social isolating place, so the idea of placing my social needs on the back burner has been a part of my modus operandi for quite a while.
Taiwan Life – High Speed Rail
Leila and I took the Taiwan High Speed Rail to Tainan over the weekend and it was glorious. After her Saturday morning soccer class, we went to the train station and headed South to Tainan. We were home before bedtime. This trip by car would have taken us 8 hours round trip, but on the Saturday train, we were in Tainan just under two hours. This saved us from an overnight stay, and I was able to make the trip easily on the weekend. A round trip ticket to Tainan is approximately $60.
