Even the most jaded Taipei resident might discover new things in the city’s nooks and crannies — or xiangs (巷) and nongs (弄) — with a copy of the reinvigorated Culture Passport.
Since 2004 the Taipei Department of Cultural Affairs (台北文化護照) has distributed the Culture Passport every summer in the form of a brochure listing notable stores, galleries and exhibits. This year marks the first time that the city government has worked with South Village, an arts and culture center, which is co-producing the event.
Lulu Han (韓良露), the head of South Village, jumped at the opportunity. “We saw it as a way to promote Taipei culture, as well as ourselves. The city government didn’t give us a lot of dictates, so we had a chance to put our own mark on Culture Passport,” she says.
South Village’s first step was to revamp the event’s format. Previously, the Culture Passport had listed sites of interest that participants could direct themselves to.
South Village organized a series of nearly four-dozen activities that started on July 19 and runs through Sept. 21. The Culture Passport itself also evolved from a modest brochure into a multi-page, newsletter-size calendar of events. South Village invited several artists to contribute whimsical graphics, as well as hand-drawn maps tracing the routes for walking tours.
Many of the activities, including the walking tours, food tastings, Aboriginal music performances and a flea market where famous artists donated the wares sold, are designed to be interactive.
“Culture isn’t static, it is alive and needs to be actively enjoyed. If you are engaged in something like a tea ceremony, you will have a deeper experience of the meaning and history behind it,” says Han.
Culture Passport’s walking tours, which center on a neighborhood, have proved popular, especially among residents who want to have a deeper appreciation for their home. Forty-four people participated in a tour of Muzha Old Street (木柵老街) last Saturday, during which they shopped for locally grown vegetables and herbs at a farmer’s market, sampled handmade mian xian (棉線) and fresh roasted chicken, and learned about the area’s flora from nature expert and author Liu Ke-xiang (劉克襄).
Han hopes South Village will produce next year’s Culture Passport and already has plenty of ideas percolating in her head (though she wants to keep them a surprise for now). South Village and the Department of Culture also plan to combine photos and notes from this year’s activities into a book that will be available in Chinese in October and in Japanese and English by the end of the year.
The book is meant to be a guidebook that will allow Culture Passport to continue highlighting new or overlooked facets of Taipei culture throughout the year, and prove the city is as dynamic as other major metropolises across the globe.
“People say, ‘think globally, act locally.’ I believe that you can also think locally, and act within your neighborhood,” says Han.
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