Gushan Village Old House

Date CapturedJuly 15th, 2014 at 10:53 UTCCameraNIKON D3100LensAF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED or AF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED [II]Apertureƒ / 4.5Shutter Speed1/80 secFocal Length18.0 mmISO100Exposure Value10.7 EVOriginal Size3600 × 2400

I was off the main road in Gūshān Village (姑山里) in Dashu, a hilly rural district in Kaohsiung, when I noticed a row of old buildings next to a small temple. Stopping to investigate, I unslung my camera and snapped a few shots, not quite realizing what I was looking at. My mind was elsewhere—a consequence of two hard days of riding in the tropical summer sun. At the time I was heading south to the railway line after making it to Qishan the night before and touring through Meinong. Only later, when I went to develop the photos, did I notice the faint traces of the Japanese rising sun flag in the top right corner of the building pictured above. At one point these stone flags must have been painted bright red, a reflection of Japanese imperial interests in Taiwan.

Date CapturedJuly 15th, 2014 at 10:54 UTCCameraNIKON D3100LensAF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED [II] or AF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-EDApertureƒ / 3.5Shutter Speed1/30 secFocal Length18.0 mmISO200Exposure Value8.5 EVOriginal Size3600 × 2400

Date CapturedDecember 2nd, 2018 at 06:24 UTCCameraNIKON D3100LensAF-S DX Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR IIApertureƒ / 4Shutter Speed1/30 secFocal Length25.0 mmISO220Exposure Value8.9 EVOriginal Size3600 × 2400

The building next door is also interesting. Here you can see traces of the “sun mark flag”, the modern flag of Japan, beneath the flag of the Republic of China (better known as Taiwan—but that’s another story). Evidently someone saw fit to give this building a new paint job at some point after Japanese rule ended, not that it matters anymore. All of these symbols of national ambition have become blurry and indistinct, melding together with the passage of time, fading into history as one.