The Study of Repurposing of Temple Reception Halls - Using Xiamen Rushi Hotel Group as a Case Study

• Main Authors: Tien-Feng Hsu, 許天豐
• Other Authors: Huann-Ming Chou
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2017
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/272sd4

碩士 === 崑山科技大學 === 機械工程研究所 === 106 === Since 2002, the government started to vigorously promote the Cultural and Creative Industries. Local governments have introduced a wide range of private funds and talents, in the hope of giving existing idle cultural assets renewed purpose so as to promote the development of the local economy. Yet the current research about the Cultural and Creative Industries in the reusing of cultural assets is mainly focused on the preservation and maintenance of them, and very few discussions on giving new purpose to cultural heritage in a business model. As a matter of fact, if the development of the Cultural and Creative Industries lacks a feasible business model, it will not be able to form a perfect industrial chain to achieve the effect of promoting local economy. For example, the reception halls of temples go by such names as “shangke tang,” “ke tang”; or “pilgrim lodges” are used in Taoist temples in Taiwan. As these names imply, these buildings serve as temporary accommodations for devotees who come to pay homage to Buddha or take part in some religious assemblies, and there is no charge for lodging traditionally. Instead, devotees generally make some donations to serve as lodge fees, whose amount is subject to their decision and is therefore a variable sum. In terms of management, the reception halls of temples are used mostly when temples hold some events, so they remain unoccupied most of the time and lack regular maintenance, except the pre-event period that temples usually recruit some volunteers to do the cleaning. As a result, the common lodging quality of the reception halls is poor. Nevertheless, thanks to the prevalence of Buddhism and Taoism, the number of temples in Taiwan with buildings for pilgrims is substantial, if we are able to make a feasible business model to repurpose and reuse these idle assets and collaborate with short-term training camps, including yoga, the art of incense (kodo), flower arranging (ikebana), the art of tea (chado) and other activities, it will effectively promote the local economy. Therefore, we recommend these pilgrim lodges be repurposed and reused by consulting the management of the Rushi Hotel Group in Xiamen. For the temples themselves, this kind of management can improve their management of pilgrim lodges and increase their revenues at the same time. For the local regions, it can boost the development of the tourism industry.