Jioufen
Encyclopedia
Keelung
Keelung City is a major port city situated in the northeastern part of Taiwan. It borders New Taipei and forms the Taipei–Keelung metropolitan area, along with the Taipei and New Taipei. Nicknamed the Rainy Port for its frequent rain and maritime role, the city is Taiwan's second largest seaport...
, Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
.
History
During the first years of the Qing DynastyQing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
, the village here housed nine families, thus the village would request "nine portions" every time shipments arrived from town. Later Jiufen ("Nine portions" in Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
) would become the name of the village.
Jiufen was only an isolated village until 1893, when gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
was discovered in the area. The resulting gold rush
Gold rush
A gold rush is a period of feverish migration of workers to an area that has had a dramatic discovery of gold. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, Brazil, Canada, South Africa, and the United States, while smaller gold rushes took place elsewhere.In the 19th and early...
hastened the village's development into a town, and reached its peak during the Japanese rule
Taiwan under Japanese rule
Between 1895 and 1945, Taiwan was a dependency of the Empire of Japan. The expansion into Taiwan was a part of Imperial Japan's general policy of southward expansion during the late 19th century....
. Many present features of Jiufen reflect the era under Japanese colonization, with many Japanese inns surviving to this day. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, a POW camp named Kinkaseki
Jinguashi
Jinguashi is a town in Ruifang District, New Taipei City, Taiwan, notable for its historic gold and copper mines. It is also known as Kinkaseki in Japanese. From 1942-1945 it was used by the Japanese as a prisoner-of-war camp....
was set up in the village, holding Allied soldiers captured in Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
(including many British) who worked in the nearby gold mines. Gold mining activities declined after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and the mine was shut off in 1971. Jiufen quickly went into decline, and for a while the town was mostly forgotten.
In 1989, Hou Hsiao-hsien
Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Hou Hsiao-Hsien is an award-winning film director and a leading figure of Taiwan's New Wave cinema movement.-Biography:...
's A City of Sadness
A City of Sadness
A City of Sadness is a 1989 Taiwanese historical drama film directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien. It tells the story of a family embroiled in the tragic "White Terror" that was wrought on the Taiwanese people by the Kuomintang government after their arrival from mainland China in the late 1940s, during...
, the first film to touch on the 228 Incident
228 Incident
The 228 Incident, also known as the 228 Massacre, was an anti-government uprising in Taiwan that began on February 27, 1947, and was violently suppressed by the Kuomintang government. Estimates of the number of deaths vary from 10,000 to 30,000 or more...
, a taboo subject in Taiwan, became a big hit in the theatres. As a result Jiufen, where the film was set, revived due to the film's popularity. The nostalgic scenery of Jiufen as seen in the film, as well as appearances in other media, charmed many people into visiting Jiufen. For the beginning of the 90s, Jiufen experienced a tourist boom that has shaped the town as a tourist attraction. Soon retro
Retro
Retro is a culturally outdated or aged style, trend, mode, or fashion, from the overall postmodern past, that has since that time become functionally or superficially the norm once again. The use of "retro" style iconography and imagery interjected into post-modern art, advertising, mass media, etc...
-Chinese style cafés, tea houses, and souvenir stores bearing the name "City of Sadness" were built.
Jiufen also became popular in 2001, when its downtown was used as a model in the anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
movie Spirited Away
Spirited Away
is a 2001 Japanese animated fantasy-adventure film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli. The film tells the story of Chihiro Ogino, a sullen ten-year-old girl who, while moving to a new neighborhood and after her parents are transformed into pigs by the witch Yubaba,...
.
At present, Jiufen is a renowned tourist attraction representative of Taiwan. It draws many tourists from Taipei
Taipei
Taipei City is the capital of the Republic of China and the central city of the largest metropolitan area of Taiwan. Situated at the northern tip of the island, Taipei is located on the Tamsui River, and is about 25 km southwest of Keelung, its port on the Pacific Ocean...
during the weekends.
Access
- As Jiufen is a mountain town, the roads that lead there are mostly steep, curving, narrow, and possibly dangerous.
- The town is served by buses that run from Keelung, Taipei, etc.
- The nearest train station is Rueifang Station of the TRATaiwan Railway AdministrationThe Taiwan Railway Administration is an agency of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications of the Republic of China responsible for managing, maintaining, and running passenger and freight service on 1097 km of conventional railroad lines in Taiwan...
Yilan Line, which is 15 minutes away by bus.
External links
- Taiwan Culture Portal: Hung's Teahouse is a Sky Castle
- Jiufen attractions, from the Rueifang government website
- Jiufen cluster official website — live webcam images of Su-Chi Rd. and coastline in Jiufen are available
- Jiufen Shopping Area Association
- Article on AmCham Taipei site