Deer Grass Folk Culture Academy Introduction
Located next to the highest administrative authority in Lugu Township, the Lugu Grass Folk Culture Classroom was established recently, having officially completed in March 2008. The exterior of the cultural classroom was designed by artist Lu Ming-shih, featuring a base color of yellow and coffee with spots resembling the Formosan sika deer, creating a lively appearance that stands in contrast to the nearby township office, yet connects and attracts curiosity from visitors. After all, this is an era of "appearance associations." Inside the classroom, the first floor focuses on various displays that introduce the cultural characteristics and industrial outlook of Lugu. The second floor is planned for activities and workshops, which have been made available until now, offering a series of courses in weaving, pottery, and flower arrangement led by local teachers from Lugu, quickly filling up and even attracting inquiries from nearby Budai and Yizhu residents. Although the classroom is relatively young, the building itself has quite an age, originally established as the old site of the Lugu Township Health Station in 1978. It was once a place where local residents came for vaccinations, and many Lugu locals still recall their childhood tears shed here; there are also memories of people "ah"-ing with their mouths wide open to allow the dentist to examine and fix their teeth, marking it as a place of mixed emotions, especially cherished by the older generation. Between the 1950s and 1970s, health stations were established in various townships in Taiwan, where doctors, nurses, and health workers conducted systematic public health work, eradicating many infectious diseases in Taiwan. These health stations, with a semi-public service nature, were once the most important and trusted medical institutions in many remote areas. The health station built in 1978 later exchanged land with the township office, moving to a new building behind the township office in 2003, which then left the old site vacant. Nowadays, the place once remembered by many elderly residents as the Lugu Township Health Station is actually the current "Folk Culture Classroom." Zheng Hong-yi, the first head of the Lugu Grass Folk Culture Classroom, mentioned that when reopening for special exhibitions, they even encountered elderly individuals wanting to come in to register... One can only say that the emotions accumulated over the decades are incredibly profound.
