Zhongping Road Story House Introduction
The Zhongping Road Story House is hidden within the bustling Zhongping business district. Originally a Japanese-style dormitory for civil servants, the building features traditional materials from the Japanese colonial period, including roof tiles, window grilles, sliding doors, and beams, allowing visitors to glimpse the daily lives of local residents during that era. Registered as a historic building in 2010, it was restored and reorganized by the Cultural Affairs Bureau of Taoyuan City, combining art exhibitions, cultural experiences, and creative products while providing guided tours for groups, leading visitors to explore life in Zhongli from the Japanese colonial period to the agricultural era. The Zhongping Road Story House is a historic and charming Japanese-style double building, constructed in 1930. It served as a double civil servant dormitory, covering an area of about 30 pings. Notable residents included Mr. Wang Guozhi, who was the head of the Mountain Affairs Section, and Mr. Liao Yunquan from the Education Bureau, with both families living there for nearly half a century, imbuing the house with rich familial sentiments and historical memories. The most precious value of the old house lies in its cultural preservation. After the original residents moved out in 2007, it was designated as a historic building in 2010. To revitalize the old house, the Cultural Affairs Bureau of Taoyuan City began renovations in 2013, which took nearly two years, reopening in May 2015 as the "Zhongping Road Story House." With the theme "One Corner, One Story," it authentically preserves the elegant charm of the past, including a hidden cooking area with a stove, coal balls in the cellar, memories of common life with pigsties, and a backyard well for chilling watermelons, alongside traditional tatami arrangements, all evoking warm memories of bygone times, making the Zhongping Road Story House a living piece of history. The Zhongping Road Story House not only guides visitors to understand the cultural landscape of the old house through its story corners but also engages them with regular exhibitions of old photographs, artifacts from yesteryears, creative cultural zones, art exhibitions, urban lectures, and Hakka cultural experiences, enabling guests to listen to the memories of the old house. Visiting the Zhongping Road Story House, surrounded by the ambiance of a historic site, inspires visitors to value the history of the past while savoring the stories of the old house, and it welcomes guests to share their stories to enrich the tapestry of memories from that time.
