Jingmei White Terror Memorial Park

Situated in Xindian, this park is on my must-visit list. It is free, it is accessible, it introduces history in a quiet, thoughtful way, and it is big and inviting for families to visit without feeling they are encroaching on anyone's "museum" experience. Their English website is informative and easy to follow, so I will put the link here. There are many videos in English introducing different prisoner experiences on the website.

Let's start with the seven thousand name blocks just inside the memorial park. My daughter and I were taking photos of these name blocks when a middle-aged woman and two elderly people, a man and a woman, arrived, and began studying the blocks. After some minutes, I heard the middle-aged woman call, "Mom, mom! Here he is! Here is dad!" The woman and the man rushed in their slow, elderly way to stand beside the woman and stare at the block with what I assume is their husband and father's name on it. This was my and my daughter's introduction to the Jingmei White Terror Memorial Park and the loss Taiwan's White Terror period - the longest in history - brought for so many Taiwanese.

The park itself is a peaceful space. For some, it will be a place for contemplation, but young children can also be free to run around and enjoy the large outdoor area. This is the original site where political prisoners were held, tried, and imprisoned. Walk through the interrogation rooms, see the furniture guards sat in when they interviewed suspects and touch the walls I imagine prisoners leaned against when they were almost out of energy to withstand their sorrows. 

There are audio tour sets available in several languages, and there is also a children's version. I was surprised that my daughter got so engaged with the narration. I could sense that it moved her to hear the stories and interviews through the earset.

The memorial park could have been a depressing space, but there is a balance between sadness and hope, as well as hands-on, lighthearted activity. Here, my daughter is riding a bike that was in a Taiwanese movie from the White Terror period. When she pumped the pedals, the hat lit up.

There are stamps placed around the buildings, so children can enjoy collecting them. Be sure to prepare a piece of card or a notebook to collect them in. These stamps are a part of Taiwan museum culture, so you can collect them from all around the island!

Taiwan has come such a long way with bilingual information since I started this blog! It's great to see, but maybe my notes are redundant... 

This is the canteen where the prisoners ate. Prisoners had jobs such as doing laundry 

There are intriguing photo opportunities, where you can line up the images of prisoners and transpose them onto the large concrete tubs or wooden tables where they would have worked, washing and ironing clothes to earn their food. There is also a VR experience but that is currently closed due to concerns of sharing equipment during CoVid-19.

Take some snacks and enjoy them in the pagoda. There were several birds flying around while we were there, too. Again, even if your children are too young or sensitive to want to learn about the history, they can still enjoy the space and take in whatever is within their scope to manage. 

One building is dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the Convention of Rights of the Child. In this exhibit, you can learn more about the rights of the child in Taiwan. There are stories illustrating the ways children were denied their human rights during the period of White Terror and they were not exempt from punishment under the regime. There are hands-on activities for children and the exhibit is a hopeful one.

Tip: Purchase the chidren's book: Ode to Azalea Mountain. On the back cover is a QR code you can scan to hear the audio including the song.

Visitor information:

Jing-Mei White Terror Memorial Park

• Address : No.131, Fusing Rd. Xindian Dist., New Taipei City 23150, Taiwan (R.O.C)
• TEL:+886-2-22182438
• Park Hours: Tue thru Sun, 9:00am to 17:00pm
• Admission : Free
• Link to map, buses, Chinese address here.

Wenshan Public Assembly Hall - Old Meets New

Well, it's been a long while! After five years away from Taiwan, we are back for longer periods of time, as we care for Ama. My children are both teenagers now, so how they see Taipei has changed quite a lot since my long-ago posts. We had a family trip back in December, before the craziness of the pandemic, and I would like to share some of our discoveries.

I'd been admiring the restoration of this building for many years but never been in. We had some time after doing admin at the Wenshan District Office across the road, so we decided to go in and take a look around. This building is an impressive example of the restoration of heritage buildings in order to serve modern purposes and to keep architectural history alive. Undiscovered Taipei has a thorough description of the process of restoration and how important it is for districts to keep their heritage buildings: https://www.travel.taipei/en/attraction/details/690

Of particular interest to my children were the art exhibitions and regular community classes held in the building. They hold weekly art classes, for example. If you are a Muzha resident, I recommend you stop by to check out the beautiful Japanese garden and tatami rooms and to see whether any of the community classes suit your interests. During this period of coronavirus, you can stop outside and admire the architecture and plants. It is a very good photography subject.

Address: No. 189, Section 3, Muzha Road, Wenshan District, Taipei (opposite Wenshan District Office)

Open Monday to Saturday, 9am to 5pm