Taiwan veteran learns the art of saving settlement village history
Print Edition
FORMER soldier Huang Yung-fu greets visitors to his village in central Taiwan with paint-stained hands and shoes spattered with flecks of color, a sign of the daily labor that has seen him single-handedly stave off developers’ bulldozers.
At 93 years old, he still gets up at 3am every day to spend four hours daubing the walls of the small settlement with colorful figures, from birds and animals to celebrity singers and sportsmen.
Known as “Rainbow Grandpa,” Huang’s artwork has kept the village safe as the surrounding area has been flattened.
He walks with a slight limp and rolls up his trouser leg to reveal a bandaged knee — bruised from spending too much time kneeling on the ground to paint, he says.
But Huang is determined to continue adding to the vibrant murals that decorate the walls and pathways of the military dependents’ village as a way to ensure its survival.
“We had a letter five years ago saying the government wanted to knock it down to build something new. They said we could take some money or move to a different house,” said Huang. “But I didn’t want to move. This is the only real home I’ve ever known in Taiwan.”
The settlement in the city of Taichung once comprised 1,200 homes for veterans and their families.
But as the decades-old accommodation became run-down, developers snapped up the land and residents were offered NT$2 million (US$61,000) compensation or new housing.
Huang has lived there for 37 years, staying even after his neighbors abandoned their homes and only 11 houses remained.
That’s when he decided to paint.
“I was the only person left in the village and I was bored,” he said. “My father taught me how to paint when I was 5 years old, but I hadn’t done it since I was a child.
“The first thing I painted was a bird inside my house.”
Huang decorated the interior of his two-bedroom bungalow, then the outer walls and neighboring homes which were standing empty.
The ever-expanding artwork became a parade of dogs, cats, planes and his favorite celebrities, including kung fu legend Bruce Lee.
When local university students discovered Huang’s work they launched a campaign to save the village and four years ago the authorities agreed it should be preserved.
Now it is one of the area’s leading tourist attractions, pulling in more than a million visitors a year.
“The government has promised me they will keep this house and this village,” said Huang. “I was so happy and thankful.”
Officials say they are seeking to make “Rainbow Village” a designated cultural area.
“Tourism is one of the reasons to keep it, but the main reason is that veterans’ villages are very special to Taiwan,” says Huang Ming-heng, chief secretary of Taichung’s cultural affairs bureau.
Originally from Hong Kong, Huang joined the Kuomintang army in 1946 during China’s civil war.
When the KMT was defeated in 1949, many troops followed its leader Chiang Kai-shek as he fled from the mainland to Taiwan.
They were given temporary housing in hundreds of dedicated military villages across the island. The government says many were knocked down because residents wanted better living conditions.
But some bemoan the loss of the old communities.
“When they move out, people feel isolated,” said Kang Han-ming, a former marine who manages the thriving Rainbow Village business and campaigns to protect remaining settlements.
“They feel they have no roots. That’s why a lot of older veterans who move to new buildings get sick.”
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