Department of Cultural Affairs

Kishu An offers a literary comfort zone for Taipei

 

The Department of Cultural Affairs, Taipei City Government has converted the new Kishu An hall on Tongan Street into the first public space devoted exclusively to literature-related activities in Taipei. The Taiwan Literature Development Foundation has been commissioned for operation since June 2011.

 

The new Kishu An hall is officially named the Kishu An Forest of Literature, and together with the Park of Taipei Metro-South, provides a true comfort zone for visitors. They can read, write, sip a cup of tea, have a coffee break indoors or outdoors, and chat with other literature aficionados. Chances are good that visitors will run into their favorite authors, commentators or publishers.

 

Kishu An, a historic site now under repair, was a Japanese-styled restaurant built during the Japanese colonial period. Later it was used as a dormitory for public servants during the 1950s. Located in the southern area of the city, the site is bordered by Tongan Street, Xiamen Street, Jinmen Street, and Guling Street nearby and is close to both the Taiwan Normal University and Taiwan University districts. The area played a pivotal role in the development of Taiwan literature after the end of World War Two.

 

Important magazines such as the Blue Star Society of Poetry, the Literature Review, Modern Literature, Grasslands, and the Intellectual; cultural organizations such as the Chinese Writers' & Artists' Association and Mandarin Daily News; publishers including Belle-Lettres, Hung-Fan, Elite, and YLib; and literati like Lin Hai-yin, Lin-Liang, Yu Kuang-chung, Wang Wen-hsing and Yin Di all pursued their ideals in literature here.

 

In the future, with Kishu An and its new hall serving as the nucleus, the development of Taiwan literature is expected to be reproduced here.

 

More information about the history of Kishu An is available on https://kishuan.org.tw/