Theatre

Hsinming Theatre (新明戲院)

I was recently talking with an expat who had just arrived in Taiwan and she asked me whether or not Taoyuan was really the ''armpit" of Taiwan. I haven't heard people use that term for a while (except for Forumosa types) and the only other pejorative term I've heard coming from the Taipei 'elites' is that this area is somehow the "wilds" of Taiwan - whatever that's supposed to mean.

I've lived here for ten years and while there are certainly valid criticisms of this city (as there all with all cities), most of problems that people do have are being rectified due to the local government's development plan that has seen the city progress quite a bit. For me, I've been quite impressed over the past few years with the way the government has taken a dull and dreary looking city and made it into a green one.

 Zhongli (中壢) is and always has been an industrial city - the period that I've lived in the city has seen a lot of the factories and production move overseas which has resulted in an economic downturn but as things have started to improve I think it's important that we also remember the history of the city and its glory days. Zhongli wasn't always a place that could be considered an "armpit" and was once a vibrant city where business flourished and various forms of entertainment could be found throughout the city.

In my recent post about the Japanese-era Police dorms here in Zhongli, I mentioned that thanks to fellow blogger and photographer Alexander Synaptic I've been bitten by the Urban Exploration bug. Compared to Alexander I'm still quite new to all of this but I've been making attempts to explore places that I never would have dared to before and have started noticing things that I would have likely overlooked in the past.

Today's post is from an abandoned theatre here in Zhongli and is truthfully a bit of a sore spot for me - I've lived in this city for over a decade and I can't tell you how many times I've gone to eat beef noodles at either Yong-Chuan (永川牛肉麵) or Hsin-Ming (新明牛肉麵) which are both in the same building as well as its neighbour and of my favourite Hakka places Papa's Secret Lover (阿爸的情人) and failed to notice the words "戲院“ (theatre) on the side of the building.  

I'm suppose I'm sore because after all the years of living here, it took less than a three month stay for Alexander to notice it, get inside and write a blog about it! (check out his blog too). This little piece of local history has been sitting there abandoned for the entire time I've been here and even though I passed by it a thousand times I was completely oblivious. 

The Hsin-Ming Theatre (新明戲院) was one of about a dozen movie theatres in operation in Zhongli during the golden era of Taiwan's economic miracle and before the advent of large multiplex theatres. I've learned that if you travel around any city in Taiwan and are observant enough you are likely to notice an abandoned movie theatre or two. Zhongli is no different and in the downtown core there are several abandoned theatres hiding in plain sight.

Today the city has two large state of the art multiplex cinemas (Venice/SBC) but almost all but one of the single-screen theatres have disappeared. The last remaining single screen theatre in the city shows second-run movies and is most interesting due to the fact that they have continued the tradition of hand-painted movie posters. If you are interested in a retro theatre experience you can check out a couple of movies at the Chung-Yuan Theatre (中源戲院) for a fraction of the price you'd pay at a normal theatre. The theatre is near Chung-Yuan University (中原大學) and also happens to be in the middle of the popular Chung-Yuan University night market (中原夜市).

According to government records, Hsin-Ming Theatre was in operation between 1980 and 1997. The building was once an important place in Zhongli as it not only housed the popular theatre but also the famous Yong-Chuan and Hsin-Ming beef noodle restaurants which are pretty much two of the most well-known and busiest restaurants in Zhongli. There are also market stalls on the first floor which housed several businesses that would supply products to the nearby Hsin-Ming Traditional Market (新明菜市場) which is still a vibrant place of business and one of the cheapest places to get fresh fruit, vegetables and meat in town.

The theatre closed in 1997 but the reason it closed is also quite mysterious - I've done quite a bit of research to figure out what happened but there is almost zero information online to really explain what happened. I have heard from local people that there was a fire and some people had died while inside (which for Taiwanese people automatically means that it is haunted) while others have explained that the theatre was old and smelled like a traditional market, so it went out of business.

From my research I found that a "Hsin-Ming theatre" (新明大戲院) actually did burn down, but that was in Beijing, which is no where near Taoyuan or Taiwan. I won't post any information about a fire or that people died until I have real facts and numbers, so at this point, it will remain a mystery.

The fire theory doesn't seem that far-fetched due to the fact that the inside of the theatre has been pretty much stripped and nothing really remains except for some garbage from the traditional market vendors below. You won't find the screen, nor will you see projectors or the seats. The floors are covered with almost twenty years of dust yet it doesn't actually smell terribly inside the room due to the fact that there are open windows that allow for air circulation.

The third floor of the building is also a mystery to me (if any history buffs around here know what it was used for I'd really like to know!) as it is a very large open space that appears as if it once housed something of significance. It wasn't really a part of the theatre itself so its safe to say that something else was going on there. Today it is completely empty and all that remains is a a tree branch and a wicker chair as well as what looked like garbage from a squatter who has since moved on. I've asked people who have lived in the city all their life and they have no idea, so if I ever do figure it out, I'll be sure to update.

Truthfully, if I compare it to other abandoned theatres, there isn't really much to see in this one but it is just another little piece of local history and I'm glad I explored it and learned more about it. Whenever I visit Yong-Chuan for the best beef noodles in Taiwan, I'll be able to annoy friends with even more facts about the local history of this beautiful and under-appreciated city that certainly isn't as "wild" as it used to be.

I'm not going to announce to the interwebs you how to get into the theatre - the fun part of urban exploration is to figure this kind of stuff out on your own. If you are interested though, gaining access is quite easy and none of the neighbours really seem to mind if people are coming or going. Remember that if you do go in you should be quiet and respectful and not take anything except for photos! 


Hsinhsing Theatre (新興老戲院)

I went on an urban exploration day trip with my friend and fellow photographer/blogger Alexander Synaptic last week. The resulting trip will likely end up producing more than a few blogs and quite a few photos between us as we visited several locations and enjoyed a beautiful day in Hsinchu. 

Near the end of the day we decided to stop in the small village of Hsinpu (新埔), known mostly for Yimin Temple (義民廟) and its Hakka culture and cuisine. I stopped at Yimin Temple to ask some questions for my Pigs of God blog and also showed Alexander around a bit as it was his first visit to the temple which is extremely important to the Hakka people of Taiwan. 

After visiting the temple we decided to drive into the downtown area of the village on our way back to Taoyuan and do a bit of a photo walk to see what cool things could find as well as going for some of the food that Hsinpu is so famous for.

Alexander had wanted to visit Hsinpu for a while because he had heard about an old abandoned theatre called the "Hsinpu Theatre" (新埔戲院) but we were saddened to find out when we arrived that it had been recently demolished and replaced by an ugly high-rise apartment building. 

The street that we were on however was once referred to as "entertainment street" which meant that there was probably some kind of 'entertainment' elsewhere on the street at some point.

Where the screen would have been

A quick walk down the street brought us to a suspicious-looking building that ended up also being an abandoned theatre. Despite not finding our original target we found something that neither of us had known about and ended up being pretty much the kind of thing we were looking for. 

While there isn't much information available online about this abandoned building, we found out that it was named Hsinhsing Theatre (新興戲院). Thanks to the assistance of public records, we also found out that the theatre, which is more or less empty today, was originally registered as a business in 1956 and ultimately went out of business sixty-one years later at the turn of the century. 

When the theatre went out of business, the building was then used as a make-shift karaoke bar for a period of time but that seems to have been a short-lived business venture and today the beautiful old theatre sits abandoned and is used by neighbours as a place to keep their dogs tied up and to store a bunch of garbage. 

If you want to know more about the theatre you're going to have to visit Alexander's well-written and well-researched blog post about it - He's a master of urban exploration and this kind of thing is really his domain. I'm just here to share my photos from the theatre here. Enjoy! 

Xinxing Theater 新興戲院

While the theatre wasn't a secret, it wasn't really on the radar of Urban Explorers before Alexander and I posted blogs and photos about it online. Since then the theatre has been visited quite a few times by other urban explorers which gives me a bit of a reason to update this post with not only newer photos, but some additional information and a bit of a rant. 

When Alexander and I first visited the theatre, the biggest problem was the dogs which were tied up on the first floor - and who didn't really appreciate us invading their space. On my second visit to the theatre however the dogs weren't around, but there was something else that bothered me. 

One of the mottos that Urban Explorers live by is this - "Take nothing by pictures, leave nothing but footprints". This simple phrase describes the goal of urban exploration, which brings explorers to abandoned buildings, factories, hospitals, schools, etc. so that they can "explore, discover and photograph buildings and constructions created by human beings in the forgotten spaces of civilization." (link

Alexander and I knew that there was a projection room on the second floor of this building. We wanted to get inside of it to see what secrets we could find. There was however a deadbolt on the door, so following the rules of urban exploration, we just tried to peek in through one of the windows. 

After we posted the blogs and photos however, some other people, who apparently don't bother with the rules decided to cut the deadbolt and open the door to the projection room. Now that the projection room was open, I decided to go in and see and was quite surprised to find that there was still some stuff left, which included parts of the old projectors, chemicals and old film. 

It was nice to be able to gain access to the room, but it also bothered me that someone would break down the door. The other thing that bothered me was that the so-called "Urban Explorers" who visited after Alexander and I also left a bunch of garbage. I noticed that there were 35mm film-containers and packages on the ground, a broken camera tripod, etc. 

If the point is just to take photos and document the theatre why leave so much garbage? Why ruin this exploration for others? I realize that not everybody follows the same standards, but its the people who do these things that ruin it for others. The theatre may be easily accessible now, but sooner or later the neighbours might just get tired of people showing up and eventually just start calling the police. Thats unfortunate. If you want to visit a place like this and want to try your hand at urban exploration, try to be responsible.  


Gallery /Flickr (High Res Shots)