The Story of Mitsui Warehouse
This short comic is based on the topic of ‘The West District Gateway Project: Preservation of the Mitsui Warehouse and Road Planning Around Beimen.’
The Taipei City Government team led by Ko Wen-je emphasises efficiency and adheres strictly to standard operating procedures (SOPs), building a reputation for high-efficiency ‘demolition’ achievements. They have consecutively demolished the Zhongxiao West Road bus lane, the old city council building, the Beimen elevated bridge, and the anti-corruption square sign. The city government then cited the 2017 World University Games and the 2017 Taipei Lantern Festival as reasons to rush the redevelopment of the West District of Taipei within a short timeframe, shortening the originally planned 18-month road layout planning project for the area around Beimen to just 11 months.
In the absence of long-term planning, the turmoil in Taipei’s urban planning is just a single case. Issues such as the development of Sanzhi Island and the relocation of the New Beitou Station have also sparked heated debate. What is the significance of the urgent issue of preserving the Mitsui Warehouse? What urban planning values are at play, leading to the current deadlock between the city government and the public?
Sun Zhenyi, a professor of land administration at National Chengchi University, pointed out that when discussing the relationship between the city and individuals, ‘public affairs should be discussed in terms of how they affect all groups.’ For him, the rationale for deciding to ‘destroy’ a building and a segment of a city’s history has not yet emerged. There must be a solution that can appropriately balance traffic needs with cultural and historical preservation. If this cannot be achieved, it is either because the city government is too stubborn or because the planning is insufficiently thoughtful, as Ko Wen-je once remarked: ‘Replacing a few transportation bureau chiefs would lead to better solutions.’
Ling Zongkui, a researcher in cultural heritage and history, stated that the importance of each building in the North Gate area—including the Taipei Post Office, the soon-to-be-completed Railway Museum (formerly the Railway Bureau), the Mitsui Warehouse, and surrounding structures—should not be ranked based on their construction dates. Attempting to promote Han culture (through the North Gate restoration and Wengcheng reconstruction plans) The notion of devaluing buildings from the Japanese colonial period (Mitsui Warehouse) is unfair. The overall spatial tension around Beimen today surpasses the individual building itself. Once removed from its original site, a historical building becomes an object, unable to tell its own story. I hope readers can slowly read and deeply reflect on the true history narrated through the following fictional story, allowing thoughts to anchor through the murmurs of time.
This work was originally published in 2016 on the Taiwanese online media The News Lens. In 2022, it was translated into Polish and printed for exhibition [Exercises in Loss of Controlin](https://arsenal.art.pl/en/exhibition/exercises-in-losing-control/“Ćwiczenia z utraty kontroli”) Poland, curated by Karolina Breguła.