Ministry of Culture-Performance Venues & Architectural Heritage

Culture Minister Shih Che, along with Pingtung County Mayor Chou Chun-mi (周春米), paid a visit to Pingtung County on March 12, following his previous visits to Tainan and Taichung City, and inspected a number of historical sites that had undergone restoration under the Reconstruction of Historical Scenes project as well as exchanged ideas with local cultural and creative entrepreneurs.

Minister Shih's first destination was a military base in Dawu (大武), the former site of the 8th Anti-Aircraft Division of the Japanese Army, which mainly served to protect the airfield during the period of Japanese colonial rule. In 2021, the base was recognized as a historical site, and, with the backing of the Ministry of Culture, 13 historical buildings within the base were preserved.

Mayor Chou then led Minister Shih to visit the V.I.P Zone (勝利星村創意生活園區), a creative life park in Shengli Village, and a remains park in Desheng (得勝) Village to learn about the project of reconstructing historical sites which supports the reshaping of the street space in the Japanese dormitory complex, as well as the efforts made by the county government to form the distinctive community, with cultural and creative entrepreneurs setting up shops at the area.

Minister Shih concluded his trip with a visit to the Pingtung 1936 Tobacco Culture Base (PT1936, 屏菸1936文化基地). Previously, MOC invested approximately NT$320 million dollars in preserving the industrial site as well as integrating art, culture, and technology to create cross-domain knowledge.

The Minister commended the efforts made by the Pingtung County government in the restoration and reuse of cultural heritage sites, and he also pledged to support the Pingtung County Museums Project (屏東大博物館計畫) in the future. He hopes that the future county-level art museum and sports exploration museum will evolve into distinctive and unconventional museums in Pingtung County.