A large temple by the coast in the Nanliao (南寮) area of Hsinchu, dedicated to the Five Lords (五府千歲). The forecourt features a prominent statue of a martial deity riding a white horse while a side hall venerates Mr. Lin (林先生), the Taiwanese alias of Lieutenant General Nemoto Hiroshi (根本博), a Japanese officer who slipped into Taiwan in 1949 and helped the ROC repel the People’s Liberation Army at the Battle of Guningtou (古寧頭戰役). The adjoining Shengjun Hall (聖軍堂) enshrines Japanese servicemen killed in air raids when the site was a wartime naval air base, deified as Holy Soldiers (聖軍) after one of the dead reportedly possessed a village child and asked in Japanese to remain as the community’s protector.
Map
Links
- Hsinchu Story House (新竹故事館)
- Yang Ming Lecture Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (國立陽明交通大學陽明人文社會講座)
Themes
- Japanese Colonial Era Taiwan (台灣日治時代)
- Temple Culture in Taiwan (台灣的寺廟文化)
- World War 2 History in Taiwan (台灣第二次世界大戰歷史)
- Contested Heritage in Taiwan (爭議文化遺產)
- Deified Outsiders in Taiwan (台灣成神的外來者)
Nearby Locations
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Author
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I am a web application developer, photojournalist, urban explorer, and history enthusiast passionate about the open web and documenting my experiences on this planet. This project was founded in the early 2010s and has evolved into a sort of personal Wikipedia of places that interest me (and often the photographs I’ve taken there). I’m originally from Toronto, Canada, but spend most of my time residing in Taiwan.