G9 Creative Park's official name is Chiayi Cultural and Creative Park, whose predecessor was Chiayi Old Distillery. In fact, the famous liquor --- sorghum liquor (Kaoliang Chiew) was from Chiayi; therefore, Chayi is also called " The hometown of liquor."
A Rice Grain’s Fate
by Ageratum
All I ever wished
was but a casual greeting
with chopsticks in the morning.
Instead,
here I am with ice,
hugging each other
for warmth in this lonely night.
Next to the Chiayi train station, there is a complex of warehouses and old factories. Before 1999, its 53-meter smokestack was the landmark of Chiayi City that welcomed every Chiayi local home as the train rode into the city. Nonetheless, the warehouses house a century of memories waiting to be told.
During the Japanese rule, Japanese entrepreneur Akashi Hatsutarō decided to build a branch for his Taishō Wine Co. Ltd. For ease of freight transport, a complex of warehouses and factories was built directly next to the train station as the Chiayi Distillery in 1916. Like most of the other establishments built during the Japanese rule, it was to witness and undergo several changes in the century to come. After it was first passed over to the Office of Governor-General of Taiwan due to new alcohol laws in 1922, the factory changed hands again when the Nationalist government took over in 1945. In between, factory went from producing Japanese Rum and industrial alcohol to the Chinese Kaoliang Chiew (sorghum liquor) until all production came to an end in 1999 when the government moved liquor production to Minxiong.
To commemorate this history, the government listed the seven buildings built during the Japanese rule as official historic sites of the city. Later, the Ministry of Culture named it as one of the five sites of its Cultural and Creative Industries Park Project. Along with the other four old wineries in Taipei, Taichung, Tainan, and Hualien, the site of the old Chiayi distillery is to be preserved and rejuvenated as a space for arts and crafts at the same time. Thus in 2016, the site officially became Chiayi Cultural and Creative Industries Park, offering the public a variety of craft shops, co-working studios, seasonal exhibitions, and a contemporary art gallery. Walking down the Art Boulevard, one can observe how new ideas are being developed into new works, just as how sorghum and wheat were once fermented and distilled here to become liquor.
Content / Photos: Ageratum --- The author of "A Day In Chiayi"
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