Public Controversy Now in Kaohsiung!!!

    As a city, what is the most important thing standing for it? Thinking of Taipei city, you will find some imagery flashing into your mind. Perhaps it may be Taipei 101, CKS Memorial Hall or Longshan Temple. But, you'll never skip the Taipei Maim Station, which represents the hustle and bustle of Taipei. By the same token, Kaohsiung Main Station is also important to Kaohsiung city. Now, there are some controversies about the Kaohsiung Main Station among the public in Kaohsiung. You'll find more details in the following.

Background Knowledge

    Kaohsiung Main Station was first built in 1941 in the Japanese-Occupied Period(JOP). If you take a view of the building particularly, you will find it just like "高". Compared with most stations in Taiwan built in the JOP, Kaohsiung Main Station has a significantly different appearance because it is the last station finished in the JOP. It has a imperial(帝冠式) appearance; meanwhile, it was built in the Chinese-Western fusion style. It went through WARII, 228 Incident and Kaohsiung Incident(美麗島事件), witnessing the 60-year history of Kaohsiung.

    In 1991, to cooperate to the urban regeneration, the Station is carefully moved about 85m from its original site temporarily. It spent 16 days and approximately one hundred million dollars to completed the preservation and moving of the imperial Station. It moved 1cm per minute.
    Even CNN and NHK come to Kaohsiung to report the news.

    At the same time, the temporary Kaohsiung Main Station was constructed with the conception of the airport terminal.

The site of each building.

What's the controversy?

    As the Railway Underground Project goes on, it gives rise to much discussion that whether to use the original Station for the new gate. The place will be a business zone in the future, and therefore the Kaohsiung Main Station will be "squeezed" between two commercial tower if it is moved back to its original site. (Moving the Station back is the plan of the government.)

Discussion

    The public in Kaohsiung ask the government to revise its plan and hold the public hearing simultaneously. People think we should pay respect to an historical site. The Kaohsiung Main Station carries too much common memories of Kaohsiung people. Moving the station back without a comprehensive reflection shows no respect and goes against the expectation of the public. The future of a city should not be decided by few designers,but all the citizens. They also want to show the city&local culture, refusing to just become much more commercialize.

By the way, after the public make their requests, Kaohsiung City Government decided to hold several public hearings.(And it was held in KSHS.[雄中]~)

    Here are some simulation videos of the Kaohsiung Main Station.

    Talk about how you think of it~. You can get more information on Google and Youtube(the public hearing) by the keywords "高雄火車站論壇".

More...( The definition of a city by a poet)

The Great City
by Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

The place where a great city stands is not the place of stretch'd wharves, docks, manufactures, deposits of produce merely,
Nor the place of ceaseless salutes of new-comers or the anchor-lifters of the departing,
Nor the place of the tallest and costliest buildings or shops selling goods from the rest of the earth,
Nor the place of the best libraries and schools, nor the place where money is plentiest,
Nor the place of the most numerous population.

Where the city stands with the brawniest breed of orators and bards,
Where the city stands that is belov'd by these, and loves them in return and understands them,
Where no monuments exist to heroes but in the common words and deeds,
Where thrift is in its place, and prudence is in its place,
Where the men and women think lightly of the laws,
Where the slave ceases, and the master of slaves ceases,
Where the populace rise at once against the never-ending audacity of elected persons,
Where fierce men and women pour forth as the sea to the whistle of death pours its sweeping and unript waves,

Where outside authority enters always after the precedence of inside authority,
Where the citizen is always the head and ideal, and President, Mayor, Governor and what not, are agents for pay,
Where children are taught to be laws to themselves, and to depend on themselves,
Where equanimity is illustrated in affairs,
Where speculations on the soul are encouraged,
Where women walk in public processions in the streets the same as the men,
Where they enter the public assembly and take places the same as the men;
Where the city of the faithfulest friends stands,
Where the city of the cleanliness of the sexes stands,
Where the city of the healthiest fathers stands,
Where the city of the best-bodied mothers stands,
There the great city stands.

My Thought

    Every time when I search the information of my blog work, I am not only just finished my homework but also help myself re-recognize my hometown again. Sometimes, I would learn what I never knew. But what the work gives me most is the sickness...that is "homesick." Haha~