Artists Protest Renovation of Treasure Hill Settlement
寶藏巖整修，藝術家抗爭
Source: Treasure Hill Renovation Cuts Off Water and Power — Residents Block Roads in Protest
From: Liberty Times
Date: 2006-12-23 · Author: Cheng Hsueh-yung
In 2006, after the long-disputed Treasure Hill cohabitation settlement reached a consensus between civil society and the city government on “arts and original vulnerable residents coexisting,” the city government — deeming some structures aging and a public safety concern — planned to relocate existing residents to allow full renovation of the complex, with the intention of reopening it to vulnerable residents and artists two years later. In response, resident artist Lee Kuo-min along with supporting artists Wu Chung-wei, Wu Peng-feng, and more than ten other residents began a protest after blocking the road, objecting that the city government was using devious means to convert residents’ hand-built structures into municipal assets.
In the standoff with Taipei riot police, Wu Chung-wei publicly declared the land to belong to local people and fabricated a batch of “Flintstones-style” weapons — comically oversized cudgels and maces, and slingshot-style stone throwers resembling grenades — simultaneously exposing the asymmetric power relationship in this struggle and the Taiwanese society that struggles to tell truth from fiction.
Treasure Hill Historic Settlement as it stands today (Source: Wikipedia)
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External Links
- Treasure Hill (Taipei City Government Tourism and Travel Bureau)
- Treasure Hill Relocation Blocked — Hau Lung-bin: Public Authority Will Not Be Challenged (Central News Agency)
- Wandering Treasure Hill (Public TV — Our Island)
- Treasure Hill Cleared — Police and Residents Both Bloodied (Apple Daily)
- Treasure Hill Commune — Not Even an Ideology (Break Weekly)
- Taipei Artist Village — Treasure Hill