2022/11/12

Xingfu Village Monument

描述: 興福庄「建塚記念碑」

Xingfu Village Monument is located on a hill in the south of Wenshan Forest Park. Go eastward on Xingshun Street and move along toward the ridge of a mountain road across No. 197 of the street for 50 m, and you will find the monument.

This monument, registered as a city-designated historic site of Taipei City in 2008, commemorates a charitable event in 1929 (the 4th year of the Showa era) when public donations were made to build graves for deceased individuals from poor families. At the time, many poor people could not afford a grave to bury themselves after they died. To ease their financial burden, the Japanese colonial government launched a campaign to solicit donations from public in general, used the donations to purchase about 50 kas of land in Dazhi Village in the north of Taipei City and 30 kas of land in Xingfu Village in the south of the city (one ka equals 0.0097 m2), and repurpose the land into public graveyards. The monument was erected in remembrance of this act of philanthropy in 1930 (the 5th year of the Showa era)

   On its official website, the Department of Cultural Affairs of Taipei City Government presents an introduction of Xingfu Village Monument:

“‘Xingfu Village Monument is a Japanese-style monument that stands on a mountain ridge, and it sticks out when viewed from afar. The square monument still retains its structural integrity, with a natural stone sitting on the top and a curved surface at the bottom projecting outward. All sides of the foundation of the monument consists of Kuan-Yin stone tablets with a deeply incised inscription that captures the zeitgeist of the time and is imbued with artistic value. The clearly legible inscription chronicles, in painstaking detail, how donations were collected from all quarters of society, how the land in Xingfu and Dazhi was bought for graveyard construction, and who the donors and businesses were. Many of the donors were members of the elite class, such as Gu Xianrong, Chen Tianlai, Lin Boshou, and Xu Bing. An examination of the inscription and the donors’ names reveals the monument’s historical meaning, offering a glimpse into how the graveyards were built using public donations and how kind-hearted those donors were. The monument, preserved in its original location, has witnessed the evolution of Taipei City and the funded construction of graveyards during the Japanese colonial period.”

※ 感謝鄭之瑜(Kat Chamberlain)老師協助本文翻譯校閱。
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何文賢 / He Wen-hsien

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