National Taiwan Museum - South Gate Branch Introduction
The Japanese colonial government of Taiwan established a monopoly on opium in 1897, and subsequently incorporated camphor (in 1899), salt (in 1899), tobacco (in 1906), and alcohol (in 1922) into the monopoly system. The "Taiwan Governor-General's Office Monopoly Bureau Taipei South Gate Factory" was established in 1899, serving as an important production base for the manufacturing and testing of the two main monopoly products: camphor and opium. In 1901, it was renamed the South Gate Factory, and in 1931, it was further renamed the Taipei South Gate Factory, marking it as Taiwan's only state-owned camphor processing plant during the Japanese era. After the war, the factory was taken over by the government, and following the 228 Incident in 1947, Taiwan's monopoly (government-operated sales) business was reduced to three items: tobacco, alcohol, and camphor. The factory was renamed the Taiwan Province Camphor Refinery in 1952 and later changed to the Taiwan Province Camphor Factory in 1956. In December 1967, camphor was opened to private enterprise, leading to the cessation of operations at the factory. Today, the existing buildings include a storage warehouse (Little White House), a camphor warehouse (Red Building), and a 400-stone water reservoir, with the remaining site area being less than one-eighth of what it was during the Japanese colonial period. In 1998, the South Gate Factory was designated a national historic site by the Ministry of the Interior. Starting in 2004, the National Taiwan Museum, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture (formerly the Council for Cultural Affairs), began implementing the Capital Cultural Park plan, transforming the historical spaces within the city into museum spaces. In 2006, the land and buildings of the factory were transferred from the National Property Administration to the National Taiwan Museum, which repurposed the historic buildings into an exhibition hall and constructed a new collection storage facility, with planning and design for the restoration provided by the architecture firm of Jan Yi-Chung. The restoration process of the factory was akin to an anatomical study of architectural history, involving cooperation among various professional fields such as architectural design, structure, mechanical and electrical equipment, preservation, archaeology, traditional crafts, history, and engineering.
