Mailiao Qiaotou Theater

A now-vanished theater in Mailiao, Yunlin, established in the village of the same name in 1953 by Xu Siyuan (許思源), a naval academy graduate who built the venue at the urging of a friend, opera troupe leader Xu Tianlai (許天來). It staged only traditional opera, glove puppetry, and spoken drama until Xu was accused of being a communist sympathizer, forcing its closure in the late 1950s. Xu Zhu (許助) purchased the theater and reopened it, possibly as Xinle Theater (新樂戲院), in 1958, fitting it with a projector to screen films, mostly old, second-run pictures. By one resident’s account, so few could afford tickets that the crowd outside often outnumbered the audience within, gathering to catch the last ten minutes (戲尾仔), which were customarily free to the public. As transportation connections to central Mailiao improved, business declined, and the theater went out of business in 1971. The structure briefly served as a watermelon warehouse before demolition, its bricks carted off to build pig sheds. The site was later occupied by the Litong Supermarket (力統超市).