Department of Cultural Affairs

Opens Today at 2026 Wei-Shui Station 

Straw Hats Ignite a Century-Old Flame! Department of Cultural Affairs Presents Two Exhibitions Reflecting on 100 Years of the Taiwan Peasants’ Union

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Taiwan Peasants’ Union, the Taipei City Government Department of Cultural Affairs has joined the forces with the CGCH Foundation for Education and on June 25 will be proudly launching two centennial exhibitions: A Flame Beneath the Straw Hat (戴草笠仔ê一把火): Taiwan Peasants’ Union Centennial Exhibition (臺灣農民組合100周年紀念特展) at Wei-Shui Station and  The Warriors of the Fields (作田的戰士) at the Taiwan New Cultural Movement Memorial Museum. Through these exhibitions, the public is invited to rediscover the peasant movement that profoundly shaped Taiwan’s social development.

In 1926, the Taiwan Peasants’ Union was officially set up under the leadership of figures including Gi Chien and Shih-shun Huang. It brought together farmers across Taiwan to fight for land rights, labor rights, and the right to make a living, becoming one of the largest and most influential mass movements in Taiwanese history. The Taiwan Peasants’ Union not only demonstrated the power of ordinary people in their pursuit of fairness and justice but also laid an important foundation for the later development of social democratic consciousness, civic participation, and grassroots organization in Taiwan.

Organized by the Department of Cultural Affairs and curated and executed by the Chiang Wei-shui Cultural Foundation, A Flame Beneath the Straw Hat (戴草笠仔ê一把火): Taiwan Peasants Union Centennial Exhibition (臺灣農民組合100周年紀念特展) is now open at Wei-Shui Station. Centered on themes of land, labor, and collective action, the exhibition uses historical documents, photographs, video displays, and immersive spatial design to show how, faced with oppression and hardship a century ago, Taiwanese farmers pooled their strength and gradually developed into a nationwide peasant movement.

Wei-Shui Station serves as an important platform for promoting the ideas of Wei-shui Chiang and the history of Taiwan’s social movements, said Ping-chen Li, Chief Secretary of the Department of Cultural Affairs. This exhibition not only presents the origins and development of the Taiwan Peasants’ Union but also focuses on how farmers moved from individual struggle toward collective action, demonstrating the determination of ordinary people in pursuit of social reform. 

The exhibition offers a comprehensive view of the peasant movement a century ago and is indebted to the CGCH Foundation for Education for providing valuable historical materials, photographs, and reproduction archival documents, allowing these forgotten memories to return to public consciousness.

Before the Taiwan Peasants’ Union, social movements were primarily led by intellectuals or social elites. However, after the union was founded, farmers began to take ownership of their own struggle and stand up for their rights, which marked a significant transformation in Taiwan’s social movements, from cultural enlightenment and political advocacy toward a peasant movement centered on economic liberation and the right to a livelihood, thus bringing social activism into a new era of broader public participation.

The key visual of the exhibition is an image of farmers wearing straw hats. Raised hands and gathering crowds symbolize the farmers moving from silence to solidarity, from isolation to collective action. The sugarcane and sickle depicted in the image are important symbols from the Taiwan Peasants’ Union’s flag. Sugarcane represents memories of the land and economic hardships endured by farmers under the colonial sugar industry system, while the sickle is transformed from an everyday agricultural tool into a symbol of the fight for rights and justice.

In five major parts, the exhibition traces the century-long journey of the Taiwan Peasants’ Union. Beginning with land systems and the economic structure of the sugar industry, it shows how farmers across Taiwan formed sugarcane farming organizations, launched self-help initiatives, and built local networks that gradually developed into a nationwide movement. The exhibition also presents street speeches, mass gatherings, and local resistance, while highlighting the contributions of female organizers such as E Chien and Yu-lan Chang to demonstrate the importance and active participation of women in social movements. In addition to historical documents and archival displays, the exhibition features an audiovisual area with looped readings from Three-Character Collection (三字集), which recreates the atmosphere of collective voices from a century ago. 

The first-floor courtyard of Wei-Shui Station has also been transformed into an outdoor installation space featuring a cart loaded with sugarcane and a silhouette of Gi Chien, known as the “warrior on the back of a cow,” inviting visitors to experience the deep historical connection between Taiwan’s sugarcane farmers and the land they worked.

Meanwhile, the Taiwan New Cultural Movement Memorial Museum, operated by the Department of Cultural Affairs, is presenting The Warriors of the Fields (作田的戰士). Drawing from the memories of peasant movement participants and their families, the exhibition portrays the life stories of activists amid the currents of history. Both exhibitions respond to the CGCH Foundation for Education’s initiative commemorating the centennial of the Taiwan Peasants’ Union. Through the foundation’s valuable historical materials, the two exhibitions complement and echo one another, jointly presenting a complete historical portrait of the Taiwan Peasants’ Union, from its emergence and development to its lasting influence on future generations.

A Flame Beneath the Straw Hat (戴草笠仔ê一把火): Taiwan Peasants Union Centennial Exhibition (臺灣農民組合100周年紀念特展) is now open at Wei-Shui Station, while The Warriors of the Fields (作田的戰士) is at the Taiwan New Cultural Movement Memorial Museum. 

The Department of Cultural Affairs warmly invites the public to visit both venues, look back on a century of history and experience how the Taiwanese spirit and drive for fairness, solidarity, and reform continue to shine to this day. Further information is available on the Wei-Shui Station Facebook page.