Department of Cultural Affairs

The West-Taipei Wanhua Market Festival
A Tour in the West to Encounter Taipei City
 
The West-Taipei Life Festival is a significant annual event in the Bopiliao Historic Block. The 2021 festival, the third to date, is based on the theme of the market town, exploring market culture in Wanhua by following the life trajectory of Bopiliao Historic Block.
 
Wanhua Market has a long history that stretches back to the Japanese Colonial Era, through the large-scale wholesale market of the republican era, to a time when neighborhood traditional markets covered the whole of Wanhua, and finally becoming a microcosm of Taipei. Here we find a gathering of industrial heritage, town lifestyles and the touching stories of the people.
 
The special exhibition at the 2021 West-Taipei Life Festival will be unveiled at a grand ceremony on November 18, which will see gathered together an open exhibition of regional culture in Bopiliao that will be like an outdoors museum in the West District. Visitors can walk into the life of Wanhua and stroll freely about this historical market.
 
The West-Taipei Wanhua Market Special Exhibition
Walk into the Life of the Wanhua Market Town
Originating from Bangka in the West District, Taipei City has all the features of a prosperous trading port as well as a most advantageous geographical location which stimulated the formation of a market town.
 
Located in Bangka, the Bopiliao Historic Block has experienced three historical periods: the Qing Dynasty, Japanese Rule, and the Republican Era. Almost three hundred years of history have made it witness to the centennial glory of Bangka. The streets and alleys, market businesses, and living environments, along with Bangka’s growing prosperity and the founding of the wholesale market, structured town life here for a century, and led to the northern, central, and southern Wanhua of today, while also refining its distinctive and substantial cultural heritage.
 
The 3rd West-Taipei Life Festival will include a special exhibition entitled “Exploring the Wanhua Market” from November 18 to December 5. Visitors will be greeted with warm West-Taipei hospitality and a “Hello! Li ho!” before setting out on a cultural journey to learn about the market hub of the food network of the Greater Taipei region.
 
This includes the First Fruits and Vegetables Wholesale Market, the Central Fish Market, and the biggest Huannan Market in Southeast Asia, as well as peripheral neighborhood markets that offer daily necessities such as the Farmers Market and Flea Market (Dong San Shuei Jie Market), Xinfu Market, and Zhixing Market.
 
Not merely trading venues, the markets are also place that mediate emotional communication between people. Explore the lifestyles of the Greater Taipei Region and Wanhua and browse the huge selection of goods in the Bopiliao markets to encounter the essentially human nature of the market town.
 
Early life in the town grew and developed into the enormous cultural landscape of Wanhua. The Volcano art team has been commissioned to present the richness of West-Taipei life at the festival using its humorous and dazzling creative perspectives to paint pictures of the market: the “night-owl army” of market shift workers and the “daily hordes” of shoppers—Wanhua market town life transformed in the eyes of the artists and evoking the bustling sounds of buying and selling. Composer Yung Chiao Chang has taken Wanhua’s prime location, livelihood, and emotional pulse and used them to create a soundtrack that is truly Wanhua Market.
 
This special exhibition turns the space into a market labyrinth assembling all kinds of market objects work note. A large selection of photographs also helps to show the wide selection of the market’s quality goods. You can experience Wanhua life by day and night as you wander around and Explore the Wanhua Markets special exhibition.
 
Art in West-Taipei
Fun in the Market
Street Block Performance Art｜Workshop｜Guided Tour Forum
The 2021 West-Taipei Life Festival will be held from November 18 to December 5, with themed events, street performance art, market workshops, and a series of guided tours and forums. Visit the Bopiliao Historic Block and get to know the markets. Everyone is welcome to take part and roam through the streets among the 20 splendid events. Learn about many different facets of market culture. Enjoy “A Taste of Children’s Toys in the Market”, an interactive street performance, the “Experts having Fun in the Market” workshop and parent-child reading, and the guided tour forum on “All about West-Taipei”. Visit the West-Taipei Life Festival Facebook page for details.
 
▍2021 West-Taipei Life Festival—Exploring the Wanhua Markets
Exhibition Period｜10:00–18:00, November 18–December 5, closed Mondays
Venue｜Exhibition Rooms 35, 37, and 39, Bopiliao Historic Block
(35–39, Ln 173, Kangding Rd, Wanhua Dist, Taipei City)