After scanning a QR code, visitors can enter messaging app Line’s “Set Foot on Color­f­ul Heping Island,” a game that encourages them to visit local places such as the Indigen­ous Cultural Hall, the Agenna Shipyard, and the multicolored houses at Zhengbin Fishing Port as they seek to answer a series of questions. Points earned from solving the puzzles can be redeemed for snacks and drinks at participating shops. 

One of the game’s stops, the ruins of the Convento de Todos los Santos (Convent of All Saints), only opened to the public in 2020. A team of archaeologists, led by Academician Tsang Cheng-hwa of the Academia Sinica’s Institute of History and Philology and Professor Maria Cruz Berrocal, began excavating in 2015 and unearthed 20 skeletons and more than 1000 artifacts dating from Taiwan’s brief period of colonial rule under the Spanish (1626-1642) and the Dutch (1624-1662), making it Keelung’s “historical find of the century.”

Keelung’s major historical discovery

In addition to Todos los Santos, another set of ruins is buried beneath the present-day CSBC Corporation shipyard in Keelung. Archaeologists theorize that this is Fort San Salvador, a stronghold that the Spanish established on Heping Island after they occupied Taiwan’s northern port of Keelung in 1626 in order to further their colonial enterprise in the Far East.

However, Fort San Salvador is not as renowned as Fort Zeelandia, constructed by the Dutch at Tainan’s Anping port in 1624, so the Keelung authorities have included this site in their “Greater Keelung Historical Scenes Restoration Project.”

“The project is tasked with ensuring that ‘Quelung’ in the north gains a public profile comparable with that of ‘Tayouan’ in the south,” explains Chen Jingping, director-­general of the Keelung City Cultural Affairs Bureau, referring to the two places’ ancient monikers (Quelung literally means “chicken coop”). “In the future, we hope to establish a museum here to preserve the site and to familiarize more people with Taiwan’s history.”

Based upon a systematic review of written records and oral narratives, the Cultural Affairs Bureau has compiled historical data on Keelung’s immigrant culture. Compared to other cities and counties planning similar restoration projects, Keelung’s list of historic sites is the only proposal that covers all key periods of Taiwan’s past, including the island’s prehistory, colonization by the Dutch and Spanish, rule by the Ming loyalist Zheng Chenggong (Koxinga) and by the Qing Dynasty, the Japanese colonial period, and develop­ment since World War II.

Prehistoric culture: Embedded in ordinary lives

Among the archaeological finds on Heping Island, there are stone axes and mallets representing the late-Neolithic Yuanshan culture of 3000 years ago; wall remnants of an iron smelting furnace that are evidence of the Iron-Age Shihsanhang culture of Taiwan’s Austronesian Aborigines some 1800-400 years ago; golden glass beads and glass earrings showing that the Iron-Age dwellers had begun to trade with Hualien and other places; and the Caravaca Cross remnants, which bear witness to Dutch and Spanish colonial cultures.

The 20 skeletons discovered at Todos los Santos are believed to be those of missionaries. The convent is not only the sole set of structural remains of Spanish colonial activities in Taiwan, but also important evidence pointing to Taiwan’s role in the Age of Discovery.

“I didn’t understand much of what I saw on my first visit to the Shihsanhang Museum of Archaeology,” admits Lan Xiufeng, owner of the Mama Lan Dumplings Shop, who lives next to the Todos los Santos site. “But once I received guide training, I discovered that when you peel away layer after layer of tiny Heping Island, it turns out that our archaeological history is very rich!”

In 1972, Lan left her native Badouzi on the Keelung mainland for married life on Heping Island. Out food shopping, she encountered all sorts of accents: there were retired veterans from various places in China, including Shandong and the Dachen Islands off the coast of Zhejiang; Hakkas; an Amis woman married to a Japanese man from the Ryuku Islands; and even a native of Fuzhou who, as a tailor, fit the stereotype of “shouldering a trio of blades”—scissors, razors and kitchen knives, symbolizing three professions that Fuzhou natives often practiced back then.

“The archaeological site is so close to people’s daily lives that everyone can serve as a guide and introduce their local culture.” Chen Jingping believes that linking the site with attractions such as Zhengbin Fishing Port and Heping Island Park will help boost eco-cultural tourism here.

The refurbishment of the Japanese-era former Zheng­bin Fishermen’s Association building, which is included in the restoration project, is underway, and it is expected to open in the latter half of 2021. Originally this was a four-sided structure with an inner courtyard and 13-grooved tiles on its façade. In the future visitors will find a spacious hall with 16 cypress-wood sash windows, all handcrafted by carpenters for a grand sense of rustic beauty.
 

Postwar tolerance

When you step off Heping Island, there is also a “corridor” of cultural tourism that links the Keelung French Military Cemetery, Taiping Steamer Memorial Park, the Keelung Fort Commander’s Official Residence and housing for officers’ families, all within 15 minutes’ walking distance. This convergence of more than 100 years of history fills the place with a rich sense of cultural heritage. And that century began with the Sino-French War—also known as the Tonkin War—which broke out in 1884.

Historians recount that in the late 19th century the Qing Dynasty and France were at loggerheads over which empire would exercise suzerainty over northern Vietnam (Tonkin). At the time, Keelung possessed precious coal resources, and this triggered France’s attempt to invade Taiwan.

On April 13, 1884, the French cruiser Volta opened fire on the Qing army’s coastal batteries in northern Taiwan, igniting the Sino-French War, with the first battle fought at Dashawan. The following August, Admiral Amédée Courbet, who had tasted success in earlier conflicts in Asia, initiated a months-long battle with the Qing army. He took Keelung for a time and then ­moved the theater of operations to Penghu (the Pescadores), but ultimately there was no victor. Both sides suffered heavy losses, and the ad­miral died of illness in Penghu’s Magong, myriad leagues away from his French homeland.

Visiting the French graveyard to pay tribute to soldiers now resting in peace, one is reminded of a line from a Tang-Dynasty poem: “Since ancient times, / How many warriors have returned home alive?”

Chan I-chung, a member of the Keelung City Cultural Affairs Committee, expresses his personal view that Keelung residents are big-hearted and welcoming toward outsiders, because most Keelungers are themselves migrants from elsewhere.

Even their worship of gods and spirits shows their generosity and sense of universal brotherhood. For example, at Keelung’s Ci’en Temple, in addition to the Qing army’s General Liu Mingchuan, Admiral Courbet is also venerated.

Ghost Festival ceremonies are not just held for people of mainland origin, such as those who died in the armed struggles between Zhangzhou and Quanzhou migrants, they are also conducted at the French Military Cemetery, where red wine and baguettes are used to pay homage to the French soldiers who were buried in foreign soil more than a century ago, casualties of the Sino-French War.

Through the corridor of history

The Keelung Fort Command headquarters, the ­commander’s official residence, and residential quarters for officers’ families, important historic buildings next to the French cemetery, have also been included in Keelung’s restor­ation project.

The Keelung Fort Commander’s Official Residence, which opened to the public in 2021, was formerly the private manor of Isuke Nagami, a Japanese who first operated a horse-drawn carriage service in Keelung before establishing the Keelung Nagami Bus Company in 1925. It became the commander’s residence after WWII. Chan I-chung, who is an architect specializing in monument restoration, points out that in order to accentuate its luxuriousness, the manor was intentionally elevated by 90 centimeters, and the in­terior glass panes and window decorations were fabricated with the highest-grade building materials of the era.

At the end of 2020, the Cultural Affairs Bureau held an exhibition at the separate residences of the commander and his officers. Having often strolled along the corridors illuminated by natural light, Chan I-chung recommends reading Junichiro Tanizaki’s In Praise of Shadows in order to better savor the interplay of light and shadow in Japan­e­se architecture.

A poem, “Railroad Alley Days,” by Zeng Yuanyao, medical doctor and sailor, which won first prize in the 2019 Keelung Ocean Literature Awards, is inscribed on the glass of a window at the Fort Commander’s Residence: “Waves are their sky, and trawler deck their land. / Not nigh is the sea that fishermen survey, but distant.”

The poem illustrates how, over the course of history, the Spanish, French and Japanese have all left their marks on Keelung, turning this seaside place into a cultural ­palimpsest. 

Keelung embraces the world

During Qing-Dynasty rule, there were a number of foreign wars in which Ershawan Fort played a pivotal role. Later, fearing that the Russian fleet would attack from the Taiwan Strait, the Japanese built Baimiweng Fort, featuring four cannons lined up in a row. Along the ridge of Baimiwong, the smell of gunpowder may no longer be detectable, but the view of the sea and the sky remains largely unchanged from four centuries ago.

Mike Shan, the head of “Keilang Camino,” who researches Keelung’s culture and provides guided tours, points out that Keelung offers more than the Miaokou Night Market. Numerous sites where history has been recreated constitute a corridor of cultural attractions.

He believes that this is a good start, and Keelung is home to more history awaiting discovery and re-­creation. Knowing its history, we can better understand Keelung’s uniqueness; understanding its past, we can move more confidently towards the future.

For more pictures, please click《Re-created Historic Sites Capture Keelung’s Stormy History》