National Taiwan Museum - South Gate Branch Introduction
During the Japanese colonial period, the Taiwan Government-General established a monopoly on opium in 1897 and gradually included camphor (1899), salt (1899), tobacco (1906), and alcohol (1922) into the monopoly business. The "Taiwan Government-General Monopoly Bureau Taipei South Gate Factory" was established in 1899 and became an important production base for the manufacturing and testing of camphor and opium. It was renamed the South Gate Factory in 1901 and then the Taipei South Gate Factory in 1931, making it the only public camphor processing plant in Taiwan during the Japanese era. After the war, the factory was taken over by the government. Following the 228 Incident in 1947, the monopoly business in Taiwan was reduced to three items: tobacco, alcohol, and camphor. In 1952, the factory was renamed the Taiwan Provincial Camphor Refinery, and in 1956 it was again renamed the Taiwan Provincial Camphor Factory. Camphor was opened to private enterprise in December 1967, and the factory ceased operations. Today, the remaining structures include the object warehouse (Little White House), camphor warehouse (Red Building), and a water tank with a capacity of 400 stones, occupying less than one-eighth of the area during the Japanese rule. In 1998, the South Gate Factory was designated a national monument by the Ministry of the Interior. From 2004, the National Taiwan Museum, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture (formerly the Cultural Construction Commission of the Executive Yuan), began the Capital Cultural Park project, repurposing historical spaces in the city into museum spaces. In 2006, the land and buildings of the factory were transferred to the National Taiwan Museum by the National Property Administration, repurposing the historic buildings into exhibition halls and constructing a new storage facility, with restoration and reuse planning designed by the architectural firm of Jan Yi-Chung. The restoration process of the factory resembles an anatomy of architectural history, involving collaboration among various professional fields, including architectural design, structure, mechanical and electrical equipment, preservation, archaeology, traditional crafts, history, and engineering.
