Overview

Category: 1. Local Leaders

Description of Our Community:

Tunghai Garden is the historical site where a world-class Taiwanese writer, Mr. Yang Kui spent two decades of life. Tunghai Garden is located in Taichung Xitun District, on Tatu Mountains slope, which overlooks beautiful Taichung City and hazy central range. In 1962, after 12 years of imprisonment by the KMT government, Mr. Yang Kui borrowed $ 50,000 and operated “Tunghai Garden” in Taichung suburb Tatu Mountains hills. He lived until 1985, when he died of heart attack.

Tunghai Garden represents a treasured space of history and culture because most important writers and artists of that era were attracted by Yang Kui and gathered in Tunghai Garden. However, in 2009, after being planned as a funeral site, Tunghai Garden became a deserted and barren site. Weeds, as high as people, had drowned the garden, and the house Mr. Yang Kui built by his own had been destroyed. The only things which survive are Yang Kui couple's tomb, and Mr. Yang Kui's peace declaration carved on the wall of the tomb.

Summary of Our Project:

As the pioneer of Taiwan New Literature, Yang Kui (1905-1985), won the Second Prize (no first prize that year) of Tokyo“ literature review” with “The Newsboy” in 1934. The crown gave him the status of a world-class writer. Yang Kui's life span covers two generations, including the Japanese colonial era and the KMT government. Also, he got triple identities: the anti-Japanese movement campaigner, the New Culture Movement campaigner and a writer with an international status. In literary terms, he was the first Taiwan writer to enter the Japanese central. In the 1970s, his works was selected into the high school textbooks, and is still an important “textbook writer” now. His literary achievements are highly valued. The national academic institutions published “The Collections of Yang Kui”,totally fourteen books. National Museum of Taiwanese Literature planned Yang Kui-themed exhibitions.

However, Yang Kui's Tunghai Garden will soon disappear! Therefore, we will follow the footsteps of Yang Kui in Taichung, build web pages and cooperate with cultural community, offspring of Yang Kui, schools, media and Taichung City government to revive Tunghai Garden. We hope that Tunghai Garden can be established and turn into “Yang Kui Literary Memorial Garden” in 2015, the 30th anniversary of the death of Mr. Yang Kui. In addition, we will also introduce the surrounding tourist attractions and delicious food on our web page, so that everyone can have more fun while visiting Tunghai Garden.

Local Features

Taichung, the cultural center during the Japanese occupation, is the place where Yang Kui lived for half a century. His footprints deeply embedded in this piece of land and all over Taichung, such as Taichung Park, Taichung Railway Station , Tatu and Qingshui area. Yang Kui, in the Japanese colonial era, joined in the peasant movements. He was concerned about people of low status. Because of his participation in the social movements, he was oppressed by the Japanese authorities and imprisoned ten times. After the KMT government took over Taiwan, Yang Kui was put in prison because of 228 incident. Then he was again arrested because of drafting the Peace Declaration and spent twelve years in prison in Green island.

Summary of Our Plan:

Yang Kui was an international literary master who lived in Taichung for over fifty years. However, he is now gradually being forgotten. Our plan is to push forward the establishment of Yang Kui Literary Memorial Gargen through ways such as founding a website, starting up petition, shooting videos, interviewing Yang Kui's offsprings, communicating with city hall, and holding press conferences, hopping to make people know Yang Kui again.

Our Computer and Internet Access:

Mostly, we finished our work by using the resources provided by the computer lab during the computer classes; each of our labs is equipped with computers and wi-fi which are very convenient for us to look up the information we need and finish the work we've arranged.

Problems We Had To Overcome:

Currently, we are high school students who have to face the burden of our schoolwork. We have to overcome the limitation of time, so the whole schedule is very tight. The hardest part is that the person we've been studying on--- Yang Kui, has passed away for long. Not being able to get the first hand information, we had to research the documents that have been recorded. But in order to understand things related to him more deeply, we could only interview the descendants of him or people who know him well. Besides, in order to fight for the establishment of Yang Kui Literary Memorial Gargen, works such as founding a website, starting up petition, shooting videos, interviewing Yang Kui’s offsprings, communicating with city hall, and holding press conference, are all time-consuming and challenging.

Our Project Sound Bite:

The purpose we study Yang Kui is not only to make people know him better, but also help them understand the history of Taiwan for the past one hundred years. As to the establishment of Yang Kui literary Memorial Gargen, we will overcome all the difficulties step by step until reaching our goal.