On what I walk to see...

"Objects do not have any intrinsic meaning- that meaning is conferred on them by us- and that different people, and the same person at different times, may confer different meanings on the same object." (Hammersley, 1989, p. 135)

Saturday, November 3, 2012

總統府 Presidential Office

In my high school years, I walked by the Presidential Palace and secretly admired them, on guard, macho macho military police (憲兵哥哥) everyday... Yet, never had I had the chance to get inside of the Presidential Palace... or... never would I have dreamed that one day I would be able to get in there.  Then, I realized that, while the ground floor of the Presidential Palace is open for visits in the morning during the weekday, a larger portion of the building is open for visits on the third week of the month every month.

So I took my mom for a trip inside of the Presidential Palace (總統府)!
Since we joined the guided tour, in addition to simply visiting the architecture itself, the informing guides also gave us a detailed review of the history behind Taiwan as well as the formerly-known as Governor-general's office during the era of Japanese occupancy and the now-known-as Presidential Palace (總統府).

The current 總統府 Presidential palace was completed in 1919 during the era of Japanese occupancy and it was the tallest building in Taiwan at that time.  It was built because the old Governor-General's office got caught on fire.  Afterwards, the building did have its share of... how to you put it... phases of deconstruction and reconstruction...  For instance, during the second world war, in May, 1945, the then Governor-general's office was bombed by the US airforce and was severely damaged....

Since limited my words can retell not the history and beauty of it all, I can only share with you some of the images I saw with, sometimes, some simple notes... In addition, the rite of passage would be yours to walk as well through the visit to the building itself!

From 總統府 Presidential palace



After the tour, we sat down in the South courtyard for a rest where there were students from 嘉義 coming to perform. Growing up thinking it is a very serious place... and I saw the singing and dancing in the courtyard.... youthful and energetic! Got my mental model of the 總統府 Presidential Palace totally dis-constructed... 8-O lol


 11/3/2012

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