What Zhonghua Market Lost Was Not Just Buildings, but the Youth and Warmth We Can Never Return To

My memories are vivid. For four years in college, I took the bus along Zhonghua Road every day to Fu Jen Catholic University. The bus circled around Taipei, from the Armed Forces Museum to the area near Taipei Main Station on Kaifeng Street, then back to Zhonghua Road, into Wanhua, across the bridge, and only then would I reach school after more than 40 minutes each day.

When I was a child, every bus ride had to pass through Zhonghua Road. I often went there to look for parts. The parts I used to assemble audio equipment, and later to assemble computers, were from there. My first Apple II computer was a kit I bought on Zhonghua Road.

In high school, I was the flag-raising and flag-lowering commander, so my high school uniforms were custom-made on Zhonghua Road. I also bought pirated English pop records there, and even phonograph needles from Zhonghua Market. In short, Zhonghua Market had everything.

Some people lived behind those tiny storefronts. Of course, I did not have money to buy food there, so Snack World was a place I stared at longingly as a child but never once stepped inside. I always wondered who the people eating inside were, and why they were so rich. One meal for our whole family there might have used up my father's salary.

Zhonghua Market is the memory of the first half of our lives.

Unfortunately, it has now been demolished. Although the scenery improved, there is no life there anymore. No one now steps onto that clean, orderly street, but the original cultural atmosphere is gone.

If Zhonghua Market could have been preserved, and if some money had been spent to let each shop improve its own environment, that cultural preservation would have been valuable forever. All kinds of street food culture and storefront culture could have been displayed there. What a beautiful scene that would have been.

Now all that remains is hard concrete and cold streets. Culture can be destroyed very quickly, but once it is gone, it is impossible to bring back. It is like Taiwan today, constantly building science parks, one after another, until many fertile fields are destroyed. In the end, Taiwan may be left with nothing but abandoned factories. Taiwan will regret it.