Previously, residents in military dependents’ villages relied on rationing as the main source of food. Using the ration cards, they could receive staples such as rice, oil, salt, flour, and coal that were indispensable for their lives at that time.
Residents in military dependents’ villages come from all parts of the country. No other thing than diet can soothe their homesickness. The military dependents’ village cuisine integrates various dishes from all over China through exchange, becoming the wonderful taste of childhood in the residents’ memories.
Mei Shu-Hui (a general’s wife) and several mothers from Jincheng New Village will share their great culinary skills here. We welcome the visitors to pick up their favorite recipes of military dependents’ village cuisine and share their specific hometown dishes.
In order to accommodate the dependents of KDC senior generals, KDC commanding officer General Hu Lien instructed the construction of Jincheng New Village in 1958. This site was used as the Taiwanese employee dormitory of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Sixth Fuel Factory, Hsinchu Branch from 1943 to the end of the Second World War and the repatriation of Japanese soldiers in 1945. In the early postwar years, the ROC’s Ministry of Economic Affairs took over the factory. In 1949, KDC was established to meet the needs of military operations. In 1958, Jincheng New Village was located in the area from Chituqi to Puding in the suburb of Hsinchu City. Since the residents were the leading cadre at least ranked regimental commander and their dependents, Jincheng New Village was known as Generals’ Village. In response to the grave situation of the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis, the dependents of KDC senior officers were relocated in Jincheng New Village. They were from different provinces of China such as Shanxi, Shandong, Sichuan, and mostly from Hunan.
Construction Expenses
In 1954, General Hu Lien, as the commanding officer of KDC, proposed the construction plan of Jincheng New Village to the then President Chiang Kai-Shek, requiring each residence to include a living room, a master bedroom, a secondary bedroom, a dining room, and a bathroom in accordance with the design of the residences for the officers from the U.S. Military Assistance Advisory Group.
Number of Households
A total of 89 houses were built in three batches. Each house has an indoor area of 72.7-79.3 m2 and a spacious courtyard ranging from 231.4-330.6 m2. Some of the houses contained an air-raid shelter and a fire tank, hence larger than the others.
Facilities
The walls of each house were originally made of red bricks. The rooftop was paved with black roof tiles. The house had a ceiling and a cement floor. The doors and windows had wooden frames and glass. Different from other military dependents’ villages, Jincheng New Village had no fences, and the houses were surrounded with lawns. Many military dependents were very impressed with such American-style architecture. The village was also equipped with a walk-in clinic, a preschool, a guard post, and several air-raid shelters for emergency evacuation.
Zhu-Ren Preschool
This preschool was founded by Ms. Zhang Zhu-Qing and Ms. Lin Jin-Ren with the help of locals from Jincheng New Village, so it was named after the two characters “Zhu” and “Ren” in the two ladies’ names. Ms. Niu Qing-Ling, the second head of this preschool, came of age in Jingjun New Village. Continuing the legacy of her mother Ms. Zhang Zhu-Qing, Ms. Niu devoted herself to early childhood education for more than 40 years. The preschool ceased running under order in 2003. The giant banyan, the painted walls, and the big castle slide have become the childhood memories shared among generations who grew up in this village.
The preschool evolved from a wooden building into one with steel girders and black roof tiles, from a lawn and terrazzo slide into artificial grass and light playground equipment. What remains unchanged is the huge banyan at the school gate that evokes the vivid childhood memories of playing there.
Produced by the NYCU Team of the Sixth Fuel Factory Project / Lin Guan-Yin
After the eruption of the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis in 1958, the ROC government chose Chituqi, a vacant piece of land in the south of former Imperial Japanese Navy’s Sixth Fuel Factory in Hsinchu City, as the site of Jincheng New Village in order to accommodate the dependents of senior officers stationed in Kinmen. Since the residents included several generals, this place goes more commonly by the name “Generals’ Village,” also known as the “home to a hundred stars.”
Generals’ Village Open Library and Information Park, 2023
Produced by the NYCU Team of the Sixth Fuel Factory Project / Lin Guan-Yin
This area was registered as historic buildings in 2015 where the remaining 15 structures were preserved. PUMT Architects transformed them into the Generals’ Village Open Library and Information Park, a living experimental site for life and knowledge open to the public. This park seeks to represent the historical memories of the military dependent’s village and reconnect them with the original residents and newcomers in Hsinchu City.
The aerial photographs bear testimony to the landscape change. Witnessing the technological and industrial development in Hsinchu, the aerial photographs taken by US Armed Forces in 1945 illustrated that this area was the Taiwanese employee dormitory of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Sixth Fuel Factory, Hsinchu Branch. The aerial photographs taken in 1976 clearly showed the facilities in Jincheng New Village, including 89 houses, Zhu-Ren Preschool, Jincheng Clinic, and a villagers’ self-governing organization. Over the course of time, the buildings have been left to lie derelict. Under the Act for Rebuilding Old Quarters for Military Dependents passed in 1996, Jincheng New Village and other military dependents villages around it were transformed into “Huaxia Jincheng.” The remaining air-raid shelters and old trees in the original military dependents villages echo the new buildings in the immediate surroundings, standing as testimony to the change of the times.
Artist Lo Hong-Li is a Malaysian Chinese. She reflected on the concept of “home” and acquired a deeper understanding of its meaning when studying in Taiwan. She asked her family in Malaysia to send her the clothes they used to wear, and then she rubbed the clothes into cotton threads and wove them into textile. By disassembling the clothes, rubbing them into tangled threads, and restoring the warps and wefts of fabrics, she seeks to reconstruct the diasporic experience of her family.
This work is participatory by design. It invites the original residents of Generals’ Village as well as the locals and newcomers in Hsinchu City to participate in the textile weaving. Through the approach of collaborative weaving, the participants’ life memories interpenetrate one another, becoming a collective experience that co-constructs the present.
Listen! The Voice of Military Dependents’ Villages
Jincheng New Village is inextricably linked to Kinmen. How did General Hu Lien launch the counterattack in front-line Kinmen? How did the senior officers perform their missions in Kinmen? How did the mothers in the military dependents’ village raise their children? How did the children spend their childhood there? Featuring 15 pieces of oral history concerning Jincheng New Village, other military dependents’ villages in the surroundings, the battlefield in Kinmen, and the reconstruction of military dependents’ villages, this exhibition narrates the life stories of the figures there during that time.
Yan Xue-Sen: The second generation from Jincheng New Village
“My father was a colonel on a monthly salary of NT$3,000. At the beginning of every month, the postman would deliver my father’s salary to my home in a cash envelope with 30 pieces of NT$100 banknotes, and my mother had to check the amount in person. On the day she received the money, she would take us to a movie in downtown Hsinchu by tricycle in the evening.”
Chiu Han-Qi: The second generation from Ri-Xin New Village
“No sooner did I wake up in the morning, than I had to do my chores. We had a duty roster at home, such as sweeping the floor, taking out the garbage, and washing the dishes. All the housework was assigned. Our names were listed on the roster. Those who failed to complete their assignments would be punished! For real, who dared not to follow the roster?”
Li Bo-Jun: The second generation from Nanjingzhong New Village
“The most famous activity on Guangfu Road was harvesting sugarcane. We carried our shoes on the back and played barefoot in the water. Since Jiangong Elementary School was surrounded by sugarcane fields, we walked to school along the footpaths between the fields instead of roads. It was fun whether to catch frogs or to observe tadpoles.”
Hu Min-Yue: Grandson of KDC commanding officer General Hu Lien
“Soldiers tend to give people the impression of being serious. However, General Hu Lien was very kind to his grandchildren. He set great store by politeness and upbringing. He was a very genuine person who dedicated himself to the country, an excellent role model for us.”
Gui Tian: Director of Hu Lien Former Residence Memorial
“The officers fought on the front line under the leadership of General Hu Lien. To dismiss their family worries and settle their day-to-day problems on the home front, many military dependent’s villages were built successively, which is also the origin of Jincheng New Village.”
Hu Hui-Xia: Supervisor of Hu Lien Former Residence Memorial
“Be it General Hu Lien or the martyrs living in Jincheng New Village, we must remember their perseverance and contributions to the country, and keep fighting for the cause of promoting peace.”
Liu Bao-Lin: Administer of the reconstruction of military dependents’ villages in Hsinchu City
“I was just a captain when the government was promoting the reconstruction of military dependents’ villages. At that time, the residents in Jincheng New Village were either active or retired generals who spoke in a dignified, imposing manner. It took me considerable effort to communicate with them. Huaxia Jincheng would not be built without the help of the cadres in the military dependents’ village.”
Liao Zhi-Qiang: The second generation from Jincheng New Village
“My father was the then commanding officer of Psychological Operations Group. Taking and developing photos were part of their important tasks… We erected a grapevine trellis at home from which we harvested bunches of grapes every summer for wine making. I had a pretty wonderful childhood.”
Wang Zhen-Ya: The second generation from Beichituqi New Village
“We cooked military dependents’ village dishes every year, and I made flat bread using an electric cooker. After the dough rose, I drizzled a little oil over the electric cooker and placed the dough into it. The electric cooker would heat the dough to a certain temperature. Some people made wontons and others dumplings. We learned to cook different dishes from one another.”
Cao Qi-Long—The second generation from Jincheng New Village
“When the artillery shells fell, people might be wounded and even killed. Civilian houses might be destroyed as well. The situation got better after we had air-raid shelters… There was a hospital in Kinmen, but it was very small. We could only count on ourselves to avoid being hit by the artillery shells.”
He Jiang-Hai: Moving from Maushang II Village to Jincheng New Village
“In 1977, just three days after I got married, I was deployed to Matsu with the troops and stationed in Matsu and Kinmen for six years respectively. My wife became a subcontract worker for handicraft making at home, and she continued to do babysitting even though I was promoted to the rank of major. It was quite a time of hardship.”
Zhang Lan-Cheng / Mei Shu-Hui: The second generation from Jincheng New Village
“My mother-in-law (Zhang’s mother) is a native of Chongqing, Sichuan Province. My husband loves spicy food as well. The bowl of his dry noodles tends to be covered with spicy oil. Since my father-in-law is a native of Hebei Province, we also eat food made from wheat flour. We make doughs by ourselves for baos, steamed buns, and even noodles.”
Song Shu-Ren: The second generation from Jincheng New Village
“The walk-in clinic was little more than today’s local clinics. It mainly treated minor illnesses such as colds and stomachaches. Clinics were not common in the past. At that time, the walk-in clinic was a place where the charges were relatively low and affordable to ordinary people.”
Liu Yun-Hai: Moving from Zhongzhen New Village to Jincheng New Village
“At that time, teachers mainly taught courses in Taiwanese. Some veterans who taught us Mandarin, but I hardly understood what they taught owing to their heavy accents. It was not until later when young teachers graduating from normal schools started to teach us standard Mandarin that I could understand it better.”
Niu Qing-Ling / Chen Cong-Ming: Heads of Zhu-Ren Preschool
“Our preschool was known for its troupes of drum performance, dragon dance, and lion dance. Being able to carry such big drums, these little kids were really awesome!… I was supposed to be a strict teacher. For me, kids resemble saplings. It will be too late to correct them after they have grown up and their personalities have taken shape.”
People have a stereotypical image of “generals” as “unsmiling, solemn, and unapproachable.” In wartime, they need to be stationed in outlying islands to defend the country and ergo have to temporarily leave their families on the home front. In peacetime, generals are little more than ordinary people who are amiable, cordial, warm, and considerate. “Story-telling by the Elderly in Military Dependents’ Villages” lifts the veils of memory and narrates the desperate yearnings, allowing us to approach familiar local accents and thick nostalgia whilst moving slowly toward the future.
