Max's enBlog: Bum

Chung Hwa Bazaar

It may be a little strange, at least for first-timers, to see a simple overpass with a sign of “bazaar” but having nothing resembling it. But such is the memorial thing in Taipei downtown.

On Chung Hwa Road Section 1 in Taipei, Taiwan, where the Chung Hwa Bazaar existed from 1961 to 1992, there is a steel-made flyover with a glass wall connected to it. On the transparent wall, four red Chinese characters hang: “中華商場(Chung Hwa Bazaar)”. Towering, the symbols seem to try hard to remind citizens of something in the past.

Back to the 1970s, this was the most bustling marketplace in Taiwan. Composed of 8 concrete buildings with 3 storeys, Chung Hwa Bazaar had a total length of 1171 meters, stretching like a long gray dragon on the middle of the road close to downtown.

The bazaar was actually constructed for political reasons: after Chinese Communist Party took over the mainland China in 1949, many Chinese fled to Taipei and was placed in the bamboo sheds on Chung Hwa Rd by the KMT government. In the next 10 years or so, this community grew in a sort of jumble without proper plans, which prompted complaints from inhabitants.

Finally, the city government decided to renovate this area. It built 8 concrete architectures having 1,644 commercial slots in total, and each slot had an area of 72 square feet. The city let these spots to the Chinese immigrants to appease them. For the train station and downtown Taipei both were close, those buildings quickly emerged as the most popular shopping place in Taiwan.

In Chung Hwa Bazaar’s heyday, about the 1970s to the mid-1980s, almost everything could be had there. Want some food? There were 2 buildings where immigrants from different parts of mainland China offer diverse cuisines. Fashion? The season’s new clothes, shoes, ornaments and cosmetics were just in another building. You could even have hair and suits carefully custom-made if you wanted. Also, don’t think those Taiwanese electronic gadgets suddenly burst out in the 21st century, as the bazaar were already selling Walkmans and portable game consoles more than 20 years ago.

I was born in 1979, and the marketplace was all the rage when I was a little kid. Along with my family, I visited there a lot during the weekends. While I enjoyed the toys, video games and snacks, my senior family members would look for the fancy stuff of their own liking.

However, after the late 1980s, with many fresh department stores and supermarkets constructed in other areas of the city, I found the shopping complex gradually losing its appeal due to lack of sanitary, compared to its competitors. It still attracted many people working nearby, yet Chung Hwa Bazaar was no longer the trendiest place for ordinary citizens. Some even regarded it old and out of style.

In the early 90s, as the traffic situation in downtown was worsened by some new construction projects, such as the subway system, the city government decided to pull down the bazaar in 1992 to make room for cars on the road. The business establishments there oppose it in vain, and had to settle for small amounts of compensation.

The once peerless was demolished in 10 days. Not until several years later did the nearby area regained its commercial vitality.

The government just left a memorial glass wall.

For people not familiar with that area, they just assume this is “necessary remodeling of the city”. But for people who made a living out of the market, this is much more.

“It’s much harder to make money in another place,” says Mrs. Cho, who was an occupant of the market. Cho were allotted to an underground mall as late as 1999 according to administration’s plan, and had to change her profession from a shoes retailer to a cook.

Recently, I looked for the remnant and found many retailers there had similar fate. Some electronic equipment shops moved together to another building and business decreased sharply. The food stalls scattered around Taipei for they didn’t like government’s allotting plan, and only few famous ones survive to this day.

And yeah, the traffic does improve, as the cars now have the space the bazaar originally occupied. The place where that old market was is now a multi-lane road with some shade trees. However, it is just a main line of transportation, nothing special compared to the old glorious days.

What remains is the unusual memorial glass wall, where the 4 red Chinese character “中華商場 (Chung Hwa Bazaar)” hang.

posted by Max.L @ 2:21 PM