“Living Assets”：外交部《TAIWAN TODAY》報導金魚厝邊與小鎮職人

Local residents are a reservoir of varied creative and business skills that imbue small towns with new life.

This year’s Toucheng Art Festival was different from previous iterations and not just because it spilled out from its customary old street grounds to sprawl across the town. For the first time since the event’s inception, the organizer invited guest curators from outside the urban township in northeastern Taiwan’s Yilan County and tasked them with offering fresh perspectives on the performances and exhibitions of local artists and artisans.

“Look closely at this town and you’ll find that we have more than our fair share of inhabitants who are passionate about some specific skill, art form or cause,” said Peng Ren-hong (彭仁鴻), founder of the social enterprise Goldfish Space located on Toucheng’s old street. Named for the former magistrate whose home it now occupies, Goldfish Space received a government subsidy through a youth empowerment project from the National Development Council.

In addition to organizing the festival, Goldfish Space designs trips for visitors to explore the town, drawing on research that Peng undertook for a book on Toucheng’s hidden gems. The work profiles 38 individuals, from a skilled blacksmith on the old street to the leader of a beiguan troupe reviving the traditional musical genre. This year the two projects combined, with buses carrying festivalgoers to a selection of shops and studios featured in the book.

Hsiao Hsi-hsin (蕭錫鑫), chair of Lan-Yang Urban-Rural Aesthetics Foundation, is another local figure celebrated in the book for his organization’s role in ensuring the town’s environmental sustainability through planting trees, cleaning beaches and guarding wetlands from pollution. “Only when the environment is well protected can Toucheng truly have sustainable tourist development,” Hsiao said. His attitude is reflected in the green practices adopted at Hofi Villa, an upscale hotel he runs in the town that provides environmentally friendly toiletries and offers guests local specialties made with ingredients sourced from the area.

Toucheng also attracts those from further afield: South African Anje Fan runs a wine bar by Taiwan Railways Administration’s Toucheng Station called The Thirsty Owl. The charming establishment opened in June and immediately lit up the township’s nightlife. “If you see a crowd on a Toucheng street in the evening, they’re probably headed to or from my bar,” Fan joked. During the day, she is just as busy: this autumn saw her help mount two exhibitions of art by immigrants like herself.

November 01, 2023 |By Oscar Chung 

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