Guling Street Avant-garde Theatre Introduction
During the Qing Dynasty, the road from Taipei City to the ancient Tucheng (Guting) village would pass through Guling Street. During the Japanese colonial period, it was named Sakuma Town in memory of the 5th Governor-General, Sakuma Samata. After Japan's defeat, repatriated Japanese people came here to sell books and paintings in exchange for money to return home, which became the predecessor of the old book stalls on Guling Street. Later, people from mainland China came to Taiwan, emulating the Japanese, and established street stalls selling old books and antique paintings, leading to the rise in popularity of Guling Street's old books, which was renamed to replace Sakuma Town and remove the colonial connotation. The entrance of the Guling Street Small Theater faces northwest; it was built by the Japanese for monitoring purposes, overseeing potential threats that might arise in the plain area, which is why its architecture differs from the adjacent houses. The Nationalist government continued to use this building for monitoring tasks as a police station, symbolizing state power. When the Zhongzheng Second Police Station relocated to Nanhai Road, this building became a performance space for the small theater, developing artistic and cultural activities. The space was planned for offices and service counters, promotional display areas, experimental theaters, detention rooms, meeting rooms, artistic and cultural spaces, audiovisual rooms, and rehearsal rooms. Various performances are held here from time to time, holding an important place in the development history of small theaters in Taiwan.
