On Asian Streets and Public Space

REMOULDING TAIWANESE HISTORICAL MARKET STREETS

REMOULDING TAIWANESE HISTORICAL MARKET STREETS APRIL HUEIMIN LU THE CASE OF FENGTIAN Those who visit Fengtian’s Market Street are immediately struck by a strong sense of “place”. The noisy and busy market space along the street lined by colonial town houses expands broadly towards the landmark, the Guowang (king) Temple . At Fengtian, the situation of a marketplace is particular: here the two kinds of space emerge and blend together, the temple square in front of a beautiful Taiwanese traditional temple and the street with colonial pseudo baroque architecture in various scales. We feel that we are no longer just somewhere in the village created by a characteristic environment, but at a meeting place, which invites men to come together, dwell, and exchange. The bustling, colourful life of the village continues our spontaneous interpretation of the sacred and the profane. The market town of Fengtian was developed from the 18th century onwards, without structural changes and without getting larger as compared to a century ago. This paper will first constitute a theoretical foundation with a methodology for “settlement planning” and planning for such a relatively unknown little town full of “genuine loci”. Secondly, it will investigate the local characteristics of the market town through history. Moreover, it will discuss the various types of market streets developed in Taiwan from the Qing period (1662) up to the end of the Japanese occupation (1945). Finally, it will provide an operational process of remoulding this market town from its local characteristics of today’s necessity. Through an anthropological approach by long-term observation, it will constitute a process of determining the social/physical spatial history from local documents and oral transmission. Since this is a relatively unknown town, its oral history is generally the only history. Several aspects are intertwined in investigating the power, economic, religious and family structures. Keywords: market town, local characteristics, Fengtian, temple-square, historical Market Street, rural reformation FIG 02 THREE MOUNTAIN KING TEMPLE FIG 03 THE TOWN GATE FIG 04 THE SOUTH-EASTERN EARTH FIG 05 THE CENTRAL EARTH TEMPLE REMOULDING TAIWANESE HISTORICAL MARKET STREETS 01. CONTEXT: TOWN AND MARKET STREET Fengtian was developed as a Hakkien settlement by the end of eighteenth century. At the time of its first occupation by the Hakkien people,it was under the domain of either the Akauw or Tapouliangh tribes. (Li, 1994:110) By 1686, this area was under the domain of the aboriginal Pingpu tribe. The Hakka people progressively controlled most of the lands near Neipu (the nearby village of Fengtian) between 1686–1800 (Kanori:142). Evidence on the date of founding this settlement is from local family history.According to the inscribed text on the tablet of the Zhong family shrine, the Zhong family settled and built the first house in 1806 (Lu, 2000:15). Fengtian developed at the confluence of two branches of the river I, which formed the southern boundary of this town. A temple and three gates were built and three major families from Mainland China occupied the lands surrounding the temple; the typical form of Taiwanese town has been formed at least from the early nineteenth century. From the map of 1921, the settlement must have been transformed as a market town with a central street surrounded by a cemetery and agricultural fields (Fig 1). When analysing the forces forming the townscape of Fengtian, it can be concluded that they were religion, history, economics, and elements such as the street, temple square, town houses, courtyard houses, and town gates (Figs 02–05). Like other old towns in the world, Fengtian also presents itself as a typical town with its centre andboundary.Fromananthropologicalapproach,thetempleofThree Mountain-King is the centre; the gated wall is the obvious man made boundary, and the temples of Earth God guard the outer realm, while the two streams are the outermost boundary (Figs 03–06). Fengtian was developed as a Jaotou (domain) settlement, whose scope was defined by the religious worshipers. The domain of the ritual space 04 - Design and Quality of Streets THE CASE OF FENGTIAN FIG 01 SHOWS THE LOCATION OF FENGTIAN VILLAGE, MEASURED IN 1921 ON ASIAN STREETS AND PUBLIC SPACE 122 within the town was confirmed by the annual ritual ceremony such as the “zaojig” (procession around the territory) (Fig 06). It always started from the temple, fetched spring water by the riverside and returned to the temple by way of the town boundary.At the...