Department of Cultural Affairs

 
Exploring the North Town and South Town, Reading Between the Lines of the City
The 2021 Meet Taipei will present a series of events from November 5 to December 5. This year, the exhibition zones are located in the Chihfeng Street area in Zhongshan District in the north and the Tongan Street area in Zhongzheng District in the south of Taipei City.
 
Seven groups of artists and designers from different fields have been invited to explore the city’s past using literature as a pathway and the theme of “prosperous Taipei”. Design and creativity are used to show the hidden charms of the city in the streets we walk every day. Come follow the path of literature and read the city’s lines as we walk through the richness of our daily life.
 
Transforming a Community News Ticker
 
Working with the public to create acrostic poems and light up Schröder’s Literature Garden with literature
With community collaboration, a vacant plot of land next to Kishu An has been transformed into Schröder’s Literature Garden, where local residents can take a break or go to chat. Artist Nai-Ren Chang, who participated in the 2021 Treasure Hill Light Festival, was deeply impressed by the childlike atmosphere of Tongan Street.  Chang has combined the “news tickers” often seen on community bulletin boards with the acrostic poems popular online to produce a lighting device capable of continuously playing the Tongan theme. The poems are created by the public, adding another highlight to the garden.
 
Writing by Hand
 
Enjoy literary riches and a historic street block by Xindian River
The Tongan Street Block is in the vicinity of Xindian riverside, where the prosperity of the old Kawabata Bridge and endless streams of travelers on ferries could once be seen, as well as the winding Wanhsin Railroad, which have all been praised by local writers. Calligraphy artist iamhandtonight has chosen several interesting street corners and reinterpreted works from authors Chung-Pei Hsu, Kwang-Chung Yu, and Wen-Hsing Wang with her unique calligraphy. The artworks bring surprises to various places, including alleys, homes, and windows, allowing the visiting public to feel the joy of calligraphy while also experiencing the cultural richness of literature.
 
Literati Appearances
 
Books and fashion in Zhongshan Street Block
Cafés, hardware stores, and blacksmith stores compete in Zhongshan District, with independent bookstores and large chain bookstores in the vicinity, along with several typical old-style garment stores, making it an area that fuses trendy shopping with nostalgia. Illustrator Jhonnp, who specializes in drawing characters with smooth strokes, has always been fascinated by this place. Jhonnp has worked together with Hai-Yin Lin, a key promoter in Taiwanese literature, and Kwang-Chung Yu, the heavy-weight poet, to combine a scholarly ambience with fashion. Their fashionable outfits are presented in different venues, allowing the public the opportunity to encounter literati just around the corner.
 
Read between the lines of the city and get a sense of life’s depth
Streets are small units of urban life, but street corners are the most public spots. This year’s exhibition uses the theme of prosperity to explore the profundity of ordinary alleys through design, to enable the public to learn about streets that appear to be basic and ordinary but are in fact “profound”, and also to use minimally adapted artworks and public experience events to create an accessible and true-to-life street exhibition. The 2021 Meet Taipei: Design enables us to plunge into literature, to read the deep lines of the city, and to get a sense of the profoundness of life.