At the Entrance
In the Middle
Da’an Forest Park 大安森林公園
We took the title background photo on our field trip in Taipei. It was in the evening in the Da’an Forest Park. The egrets were returning to their nests while the people were returning to their homes. When we first entered the park, we still heard cars roaring pass; but when we walked further, we were startled instead by the “roars” of the cicadas.
To our surprise, the park was populated by military dependent villages (juancun), according to Ms. Tsai, who lived in the Datong District of Taipei. This echoes Chu T’ien-hsin’s novella “The Old Capital,” which reports there had been a massive protest against the demolition and relocation of the villages. Our utopia turned out to be others’ pain. Now we further heard the roars of the painful memories.
A Reading Route of
Banyan Trees 榕樹
The banyan trees seem to walk with their aerial roots. Native to Taiwan, they have spread through the space and time.
This photo was taken at the Da’an Forest Park by Chien-Hui Shih and Lu-Ti Lin. We also found them over the walls and roofs on our field trip in Taipei. They were so dear to Taiwan people that we often heard about them in our interviews. Then we realized, although they are not the main characters of the novella, they appear more often than many other tree species in Chu T’ien-hsin’s novella “The Old Capital.”
A Reading Route of
Mangroves 紅樹林
This photo is provided by Chien-Hui Shih and Lu-Ti Lin, who biked along the Tamsui River and found the mangroves. It is reported in Chu T’ien-hsin’s novella “The Old Capital” that the mangroves were blocked by the MRT concrete walls, but they are still accessible via the bike trail and the nature parks.
When we visited the Guandu Nature Park, we learned that the mangroves were enabled by human interference to grow in Taipei. The explosion of the Guandu Pass of the Tamsui River, to relieve flooding during the rainy season, enabled salt water to flow in from the Pacific Ocean and mix with the Tamsui river —creating an estuary of brackish water—and thus providing ideal conditions for mangroves to grow. What is natural? Today it seems to be a too complicated question to answer.
A Reading Route of
Nightshade Trees 茄冬
This photo was taken on the Dadu Road of Taipei. In Chu T’ien-hsin’s novella “The Old Capital,” the trees are said to be transplanted from downtown Taipei for the reason of widening the street. We did not find the trees when we visited there. It was Chien-Hui Shih and Lu-Ti Lin who revisited the road and took the photo. Then we realized this was also the case in the novella: The old trees were not found until the narrator went on the return trip.
The nightshades were found like injured veterans by the narrator. We are relieved to find them well, now that they are not merely road trees but trees of memories.
