[Yuan Li] Protection of cultural heritage in Taiwan

After the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War in 1894, the Qing court was forced to sign the Treaty of Shimonoseki with Japan, which humiliated the country, and ceded Taiwan to Japan the following year.

In the following 51 years, Taiwan basically used Japanese legal provisions in the protection of cultural heritage, which gave Taiwan's early cultural heritage protection a clear colonial color.

Therefore, from a legal perspective, although laws and regulations related to the protection of architectural cultural heritage such as the "Taiwan Metropolitan Plan Order" and the "Taiwan Metropolitan Plan Order Implementation Rules" with local characteristics in Taiwan were not officially promulgated until 1936, in fact As early as 1900, some major cities in Taiwan had begun to implement urban planning and the protection of architectural cultural heritage in Taiwan in accordance with relevant Japanese laws and regulations.

In the eighth year of Taisho in Japan, that is, in 1919, Japan formulated the "Law on the Preservation of Natural Monuments of Historical Places and Scenic Spots" based on local conditions.

In 1922, the "Taiwan Enforcement Order of Administrative Laws" formulated against Taiwan clearly stipulated that Japan's "Law on the Preservation of Historical Places and Natural Monuments" also applies to Taiwan.

Soon, a series of official surveys on historical sites, scenic spots and natural monuments were also launched.

Immediately afterwards, the Japanese Governor's Office in Taiwan successively launched a protection list based on research results, and important relics such as city sites, fortresses, Confucian temples, and academies were initially protected.

At that time, although some important sites were also protected, the focus of the work was obviously on solving the problems of "demolition" and "retention" in the renovation of the old city.

Regrettably, it was during this period that landmark buildings such as Taipei's old city wall were wantonly demolished by the Japanese colonial rulers, leaving only the city gate building, the relocation of the governor's office, the urgent public Haoyi Square, Huang's Festival and filial piety Square and other individual landmarks.

This is also the first and most serious damage to a historical building in Taiwan.

When Taiwan was restored in 1945, the National Government transplanted the "Urban Planning Law" promulgated in mainland China in 1939 to Taiwan.

However, because the provisions were too crude and could not adapt to the needs of Taiwan's new urban development, the laws and regulations during the Japanese occupation period have been used.

In order to meet the needs of Taiwan's urban development, the Taiwan authorities also significantly revised the original "Urban Planning Law" twice in 1964 and 1973, and increased the number of legal provisions therein from the original 32 to 87, and explicitly stipulated that when formulating major plans,"scenic spots, monuments and buildings of commemorative or artistic value that should be preserved" should be marked.

However, in fact, these historical buildings and monuments are still difficult to effectively protect.

After entering the 1970s, Taiwan's economic take-off had a huge impact on traditional culture, especially traditional buildings and historical neighborhoods.

In August 1978, the Taipei City government prepared to demolish Lin Antai's ancient house in order to implement the urban renovation project, which triggered a big discussion in society about "demolition" and "retention." Academic circles have called for the preservation of ancient houses, and some architects have also proposed compromise plans such as road diversion, road underground and detour slow lanes, but the government has flatly rejected them on the grounds that they are too costly and hinder traffic.

They believe that if Taipei is to be built into a modern city, roads must be arranged in a straight checkerboard shape, and old houses that are unsightly must be demolished.

Although this matter was questioned by parliament and called for by public opinion, what was ultimately achieved was a compromise plan of numbering demolition and relocation for reconstruction.

There is no doubt that in this controversy, the ancient house in the eyes of commentators no longer represents a simple temple, but a symbol of culture.

Through it, we can not only witness the long history of this region, but also witness the tearing cultural love between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.

More importantly, once the ancient house is demolished, this cultural heritage will be doomed.

The demolition of Lin Antai's ancient house reflects how people will view the relationship between their cultural traditions and modernization once a city enters a period of rapid development.

Is it a clean break? Or continue to tell the story of the past through the maintenance of tradition?

The demolition of the ancient house has greatly shaken Taiwanese academic circles and has also become an important turning point in Taiwan's traditional cultural heritage protection movement.

It played an important role in promoting the establishment of the Cultural Construction Committee and the formulation of the Cultural Assets Preservation Law.

In Taiwan, real estate privatization has had many negative impacts on the protection of architectural cultural heritage.

Since the late 1960s, Taiwan's economy has risen rapidly with the support of the United States, and urban land prices have soared.

If all Laocheng District are included in the category of traditional cultural heritage protection at this time, it will inevitably directly affect the vested interests of local residents.

As a result, between scholars and residents, a fierce conflict occurred between short-term interests and long-term interests.

At that time, some well-preserved historical districts that were originally intended to be included in the scope of cultural heritage protection, such as Sanxia Old Street, Lugang Old Street, Daxi Old Street, Dihua Old Street, etc., had to be temporarily shelved for this reason.

It was not until the 1970s, with the rise of tourism, that the protection of the Laocheng District was re-emphasized.

According to relevant statistics from Taiwan, as of 1997, there were 297 architectural cultural heritage sites in Taiwan, including 24 first-class cultural relics, 50 second-class cultural relics, and 223 third-class cultural relics.

These relics mainly include functional buildings such as homesteads, temples, gardens, academies, churches, city walls, government offices, checkpoints, tombs, archways, lighthouses, ruins, bridges, steles, stone wells and other functional buildings.

Most of these monuments were created in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties and have important cultural relics value.

In terms of the protection of cultural heritage such as sites, various land development and large-scale project construction brought about by modernization have brought new threats to the protection of sites.

According to the "Cultural White Paper": In 1980, the widening and diversion of the East Line Railway of the Taiwan Railway Administration and the construction of the new Peinan Station in Taitung caused irreparable damage to the Peinan Human Cemetery site with a history of more than 3000, causing widespread concern in Taiwan society.

Under strong appeal from civil society, the Taiwan authorities held a seminar on "Studying and Discussing Matters Concerning the Evaluation of Monuments and Sites" on November 26, 1991.

The meeting decided to: 1) investigate and evaluate important and urgently needed sites as soon as possible; 2) Conduct further research on major sites; and 3) conduct a comprehensive census of archaeological sites in the Taiwan-Fujian region.

In accordance with this resolution, in the first and second phases of the "Taiwan-Fujian Area Monuments Conservation Plan", two reports,"Preliminary Assessment of Important Archaeological Sites in Taiwan-Fujian Area"(1992) and "Survey and Research Plan of Archaeological Sites in Taiwan-Fujian Area"(1993 - 1997), were completed.

At the same time, the data construction of important archaeological sites in Taiwan-Fujian area and the data construction of Pingtung, Kaohsiung, Tainan, Jiayi, Yunlin, Changhua, Taichung, The construction of data for archaeological sites in counties and cities such as Taitung and Penghu, as well as the construction of underground sites in Taiwan, will also be completed in the early 21st century.

In August 1987, the Taiwan region established the "Environmental Protection Agency of the Executive Yuan", further adding a protective umbrella to the protection of underground cultural heritage in Taiwan in terms of organization and construction.

In order to strengthen the protection of cultural heritage, the Taiwan region established the "Cultural Construction Committee" in November 1981, and the "Cultural Assets Preservation Law" was promulgated on May 26, 1982.

According to Article 5 of the Law, the "Ministry of the Interior" is responsible for the preservation, maintenance, promotion, transfer of rights and supervision of custody agencies of monuments.

The "Executive Yuan" resolution on November 11, 1982:"The" Cultural Assets Preservation Law "was promulgated and implemented on May 26 this year.

However, due to the fact that at the beginning of its implementation, some preparations and cooperation work were not thorough, and many historical sites were damaged and it was difficult to restore the old ones.

It is urgent to take emergency measures to protect them." In accordance with the provisions of Article 7 of the Law,"The planning and handling of common matters concerning the preservation of cultural assets shall be decided by the Cultural Development Committee of the Executive Yuan in conjunction with the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Economy, and other relevant agencies.

Before the detailed measures are promulgated, the Cultural Development Committee of the hospital is requested to consult with the "Ministry of the Interior", the "Ministry of Education" and relevant agencies for the identification of various monuments and antiquities...

After various identification and management measures are decided in the future, these measures will be followed." Based on this, the Cultural Development Committee, together with the "Ministry of the Interior", comprehensively surveyed the Taiwan-Fujian area and tentatively established more than 400 monuments of various types, including 18 first-class monuments, 36 second-class monuments, and 171 third-class monuments, totaling 225.

Approved by the competent authority "Ministry of the Interior", it was officially announced to the public and protected in accordance with the law.

The promulgation of the "Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Cultural Assets Preservation Law" in 1984 provided more operability for people to act in accordance with the law.

In recent years, Taiwan has made certain achievements in restoring monuments.

Among them, major actions include several key projects such as the "Taiwan and Fujian Monuments Conservation Plan Phase I Three-Year Plan)"(1990 - 1992), the "Taiwan and Fujian Monuments Conservation Plan"(1992 - 1996), and the "Taiwan and Fujian Monuments Conservation Plan Phase II Five-Year Plan"(1997 - 2001).