Appreciating nostalgia in Juanguo Village, Taiwan

Vicky Huang
author
Published on Sept. 2, 2016
The Ubyssey's annual travel supplement: postcards from around the globe

Nostalgia permeates the air. This place is lonely, sentimental and beautiful.

Jianguo Military Dependents' Village in Huwei, Yunlin County is not a tourist attraction. Most Taiwanese locals are not even aware of its existence — after all, the rustic charm of Jianguo Village is not as loud as the splendour of the numerous urban cities in Taiwan.

This hidden jewel was built in 1943 under Japanese colonization. The village complex consisted of four communities serving as accommodation for Japanese naval air group soldiers and as training ground to kamikaze pilots.

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[''] Photo courtesy Jianguo Village Revitalization Association

After the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) receded to Taiwan in 1949, the village became home to veterans and their families, thereby crystallizing the collective memories of more than 5,000 lives in the coming decades. In this village, women usually got pregnant around the same time their husbands returned from long missions together. Their babies grew up attending the same school, often ending up being classmates. The same went for the babies' siblings.

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[''] Photo courtesy Khu ú-hông
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[''] Photo courtesy Khu ú-hông

The life circles of these people revolved around the village, and their fates were deeply intertwined. The thin walls offered much sense of intimacy (i.e., gossip material). There were no secrets. 

Once lively, Jianguo Village has been deserted for a decade and suffers from frequent arson attacks. To revive its glory, a government-funded youth group, Jianguo Village Revitalization Association, seeks to restore the underground bunkers, bomb shelters and historical constructions, as well as organizing events to carry on the village's legacy. Time travel.

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[''] Photo courtesy Khu ú-hông

That is what it is. The relics are magical. They trigger imaginations of WWII Japanese soldiers marching in uniform and KMT veterans pining for a visit back home in a time when cross-Strait transportation and communications were forbidden. In Jianguo Village, there were no secrets — only stories waiting to be discovered.