The Authenticity of Space Renewal: Whose Culture and Whose City? The Case of Hualien Railway Cultural Park

• Main Authors: Pai-Chia Liu, 劉百佳
• Other Authors: Shu-Yi Chiu
• Format: Others
• Published: 2015
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/s6z4pc

碩士 === 國立東華大學 === 藝術創意產業學系 === 103 === The office buildings of the former Japanese Railways Administration in Eastern Taiwan Railways, also known as its other name “Hualien Harbor Branch (Shutsuchoujo) of Railway Ministry”, was established in 1909, and had been deserted since 1988. In 2002, Shutsuchoujo was successively registered as historic buildings, and caught the wave of abandoned space renewal. After eight years of restoration, it was officially opened in 2011 and renamed Hualien Railway Cultural Park. Based on Zukin’s concept of “whose culture? whose city?”, the study tries to explore 1) who has the power to control the development of the Cultural Park, 2) who has the access to use the space of the Park, 3) whose culture has been shaped and whose space of the Park belongs to? At the beginning of restoration, Hualien County Cultural Affairs Bureau has extensively consulted the experts to set the themes of the Park, but ignored the opinions from the local communities. This public space seemingly was designed to serve for the elites and produced a representation of cultural hegemony. Lots of cultural policies have been implemented in the Park, but finally fine art came out on top. Therefore it appeared that the other cultural activities and performances were gradually stepped aside from the space. After Hualien County Cultural Affairs Bureau outsourced some of the spaces to a private sector operator in 2013, the operators of the Park were shifting their business focus to creative industry and aboriginal culture. Soon after, the buildings were gradually sub-leased by the private executor in order to help finance the company’s maintenance. As Zukin described, handing the Park spaces over to private corporate means giving it carte blanche to remake a free public space into a private consumption space and also to mark the erosion of open access to the public space. The lifestyle preferences of the middle or elite classes were implanted into the Park by the private investors. By offering jazz performances, the themes have been shifted from experiencing the Japanese-style heritage into a kind of consumption of food, beverage, and music. In consequence, the cultural businesses which were based on the purposes of profit pursuing were rooted in this civic Park. Finally, the popular masses, the neighborhood, and the railway fans were all excluded by the culture crash. Key word: Hualien Railway Cultural Park, renewal of space, authenticity, sense of space