Kinmen County on Wednesday began the restoration of a 92-year-old house and county-level cultural heritage site that county officials said would be turned into a hostel to boost the economy of Jinsha Township (金沙).
Kinmen County Commissioner Yang Cheng-wu (楊鎮浯) and the descendants of the family residence’s original owners attended the ceremony to mark the start of the restoration.
The Wang Chin-cheng’s Western House (王金城洋樓) combines Western and Hoklo architectural elements in an elaborate and graceful way, the county government said in a news release.
Photo: Wu Cheng-ting, Taipei Times
The county expects to complete the NT$40.2 million (US$1.44 million) restoration by the end of next year, it said.
Wang Chin-chen (王金城), a wealthy Kinmen native who lived in Indonesia, paid for the construction of the house, which began in 1918 or 1919, it said.
His brother, Wang Chin-so (王金鎖) supervised the construction and took up residence there upon its completion in 1932, it said, adding that Wang Chin-chen never lived in the house.
Later, Wang Chin-chen’s son, Wang Yun-chuan (王永傳), and his Indonesian wife briefly lived in the house, it said.
In 1937, the Imperial Japanese Army seized the house, which was not returned to Wang Chin-so until 1946, it said.
In 1954, the house was taken over by then-Republic of China Army 200th Division commander Han Cho-huan (韓卓環).
The news release cited Wang Chin-so’s granddaughter, Wang Yueh-mei (王月美), as saying that the takeover happened in the year she was born and that the family moved to three nearby houses that had also been built by her great uncle.
Wang Yueh-mei often visited the family’s erstwhile home with her father and still remembers that there was a bell on the house’s tower and that its gatehouse bore bullet marks from its two periods of military occupation, it said.
Han was twice commended for his garrison on Kinmen, and the house on both occasions hosted then-president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣中正) as a guest, she was cited as saying.
From 1956 to 1965, the house was used as a depot for engineering material, it said.
After that, a neighbor of the Indonesia-based members of the Wang family wired NT$30,000 to repair the house’s roof and outside walls, it said.
The house was recognized as a cultural heritage in 2015 for its rich history and the inherent artistic value of its architecture, the county government said.
The exterior features elaborate relief sculptures of soldiers, servants, angels and floral scrollwork, while the front of the house is adorned by earthenware totems in the Guangdong style, it said.
The walls of rooms on the ground floor feature alternating brick patterns that show exquisite artisanship, it said.
As banditry was rife in early 20th century Kinmen, numerous security features were incorporated into the architecture, including anti-burglary windows and fortified outer doors and doors to the staircase, it said.
Military slogans and the national flag were prominently displayed while the house was used by the army, it added.
The house is the only Western-style mansion in Kinmen with a classical Chinese landscape garden that has an artificial mountain and a pond, it said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by