Taipei City Government

At the invitation of City Councilor Wang, Mayor Ko Wen-je attended the screening event for the documentary Wansei Back Home at the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park in the evening of October 12. According to the mayor, the documentary will allow the public to learn more about the group of Japanese born in Taiwan between 1895 and 1946, sharing their experience as they revisit their respective places of birth. Ko remarked that lately he has the opportunity to watch several films on Taiwan history including Attabu and Wansei Back Home. He admitted that it is hard to imagine how people are willing to invest the time and capital to produce these documentaries to record the history of Taiwan. After watching the film, the mayor noted that the record of history is a symbol of a civil society. After becoming the mayor, he noted that there are often conflicts between agencies on issues such as development versus preservation. He noted that the best approach is to find a point of compromise; yet, such compromises are often dependent upon economic power. In other words, more funding allows preservation of larger areas. If there are no funds, the preservation of culture would be more difficult – comparatively speaking. On the issue of diversity, Ko pointed out that Taiwan is basically a society of immigrants. From the perspective of history, the island witnessed transition across powers such as indigenous people, Dutch, Spaniards, Koxinga’s army, Qing Empire, Japanese, and Nationalist Government. The city of Taipei can be considered the immigrant city within the society of immigrants – something that could be seen through the rapid drop of local population during the first two days of Chinese New Year. This is why the city government highlighted the theme of ethnic diversity during the flag-raising ceremony on Double-ten Day this year, encouraging the participants to wear their respective ethnic attire while singing the national anthem together.