自來大戲院

February 10th, 2024

Last updated October 12th, 2024

The small town of Longquan (龍泉) is home to one of the last remaining vintage movie theaters in Pingtung, Taiwan. Precise details about the history of Zilai Theater (自來大戲院), also known simply as Longquan Theater (龍泉大戲院), remain obscure and imprecise, but its establishment almost certainly follows an influx of ROC military veterans in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Several bases and other facilities¹ were built around Longquan in that time, and the population of this formerly sleepy agrarian settlement surged, and there was a newfound demand for entertainment.

Approaching the old theater from the street.

An oblique look at the garbled characters running along the center of the façade. The name of the town, Longquan (龍泉), is on top.

While its operating history is not known with certainty, we can make some educated guesses based on broad trends. This theater was probably established shortly after the completion of the nearby military bases, perhaps as early as 1962, and there’s a good chance it continued to operate into the 1970s. It likely closed in the 1980s after succumbing to the usual factors: the proliferation of home television and video, improved transportation connections to urban centers with more modern theaters, and demographic changes. Whether it was still in business in the late 1980s, when striptease shows became a popular sideline business to boost revenue, is hard to tell, but it seems plausible that it had already shut down by then².

Several of the shops at ground level were repurposed as residences and remain occupied.

An advertisement for Jintaifeng Soda (金台豐汽水) over the name Longfeng Store (龍豐商店).

The original ticket booth can still be discerned along the corridor running through the base of the building.

Why is such an obviously dilapidated structure still standing in the 2010s? Zilai Theater is a large mixed-use building with a row of commercial shops lining the corridor leading to the ticket booth³. While the theater was bustling those shops would have benefited from a steady stream of foot traffic, but after it closed the festering ruin up above would have driven away even loyal customers. Those shops were likely owned rather than rented—complicating the property rights of the building and inhibiting collective action to renovate the building or tear it down. Several of the ground floor shops are still occupied despite the scenes of absolute devastation upstairs.

First glimpse of the interior of the old theater after climbing the stairs. This place is a total wreck. Metal sheeting lines the ground in one area, probably to prevent water leaking into the units below.

The projection booth would have been straight ahead. Perhaps there was a wooden enclosure?

Perhaps a typhoon ripped the roof from this old theater, or maybe it was not particularly sturdy in the first place.

The view from around the projection booth looking toward the stage. If you look closely you might be able to see a fragment of the silver screen.

A closer look at the tattered remnants of the silver screen still dangling over the stage from a metal frame.

Gazing up at the broken rooftop and a solitary fan.

Although impressive in scale, particularly for a small town theater, and almost majestic in its level of deterioration, the ruins of Zilai Theater are also quite hazardous, and should only be explored with great caution, if at all. Reputable reports of stray dogs and other menaces exist, so be sure to take care should you visit, and be sure to respect the privacy of the ground floor residents.

The most significant of these still in operation is the Marine Corps Recruit Training Center (海軍陸戰隊新兵訓練中心) to the northwest and the Pingtung Veterans General Hospital Longquan Branch (屏東榮民總醫院龍泉分院) to the north, but there was also a significant army base to the southeast along Highway 187. ↩
This is speculation on top of speculation, but not without an underlying argument. Vintage theaters still operating into the late 1980s often turned to traveling song-and-dance troupes and striptease shows to draw crowds, as this was a form of entertainment you generally couldn’t get at home. Such performances typically elicit some amused commentary in nostalgic Facebook groups discussing old cinemas, but in this case the comments I surveyed were all quite mundane. ↩
One caveat: the ticket booth is also open to a side entrance on the north side of the building. This also happens to be the side soldiers at the nearby military base would have approached on foot. ↩

Warning: this location is abandoned, hazardous, or otherwise neglected and may be unsafe and even dangerous! Exercise appropriate precautions when visiting.

警告：此處已廢棄或長期無人管理，可能存在潛在危險。造訪時請務必提高警覺，並做好相關安全防護措施。

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Recorded On

December 4th, 2018

Sources

New Taipei Gold Museum Report: In Search of Old Theaters, Hsinchu Municipal Cultural Center, 2019 《新北市立黃金博物館「尋找老戲院身影」》，新竹市立文化中心，2019

Themes

Theaters in Taiwan (台灣老戲院)
Urban Exploration in Taiwan (台灣城市探險)
KMT Authoritarian Era Taiwan (國民政府時期)

Series: Southern Taiwan Ride 2018

Dispatches from a weeklong bicycle trip around southern Taiwan in late 2018. I began the ride in Tainan, crossed into Qishan, headed into the mountainous interior as far as Liugui, did a loop through Pingtung, and finished around Zuoying, visiting the sites of nearly 25 old movie theaters. Many entries remain to be added; this series is far from over.