Rende Chongde Theater

Rende Theater (仁德戲院) was originally established in 1969 by local Rende resident Lu Jinchi (盧金池). He convinced investors of a need for a traditional market and theater here in the suburban outskirts of Tainan, an area undergoing rapid growth in the 1960s due to the proliferation of industry into the agrarian hinterland. With funding and property rights secured a mixed-use structure soon took shape, offering a shaded respite for market vendors on the ground floor and a variety of entertainment options for townsfolk in the large hall above.

Date CapturedApril 5th, 2021 at 05:53 UTCCameraNIKON D3400LensAF-P DX Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G or AF-P DX Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VRApertureƒ / 8Shutter Speed1/400 secFocal Length18.0 mmISO100Exposure Value14.6 EVOriginal Size3600 × 2400

Date CapturedApril 5th, 2021 at 05:53 UTCCameraNIKON D3400LensAF-P DX Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR or AF-P DX Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6GApertureƒ / 7.1Shutter Speed1/320 secFocal Length18.0 mmISO100Exposure Value14.0 EVOriginal Size3600 × 2400

Initially this theater mostly hosted traditional opera and other live performances, with only occasional film screenings. By the mid-1970s audience preferences had shifted, and films were all the rage. Mr. Lu, who was more interested in operating the traditional market, sold the theater business to someone from nearby Xinhua. This new owner, whose name is elusive, reorganized the business model to focus exclusively on screening films, and changed the name to Chongde Theater (崇德戲院).

Date CapturedApril 5th, 2021 at 06:03 UTCCameraNIKON D3400LensAF-P DX Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G or AF-P DX Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VRApertureƒ / 7.1Shutter Speed1/200 secFocal Length18.0 mmISO100Exposure Value13.3 EVOriginal Size3600 × 2400

Date CapturedApril 5th, 2021 at 06:03 UTCCameraNIKON D3400LensAF-P DX Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G or AF-P DX Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VRApertureƒ / 7.1Shutter Speed1/200 secFocal Length18.0 mmISO100Exposure Value13.3 EVOriginal Size3600 × 2400

Business was decent into the late 1970s, and there were always crowds to draw upon thanks to the bustling traditional market downstairs. Heading into the 1980s business declined, partly as a result of home video, but also because improved transportation connections allowed local townspeople to head into the big city for entertainment.

In the mid-1980s this theater caught another wave: song and dance troupes, often accompanied by striptease shows, a social phenomenon colloquially known as “beef market” (牛肉場) for the flesh bared. This was a risky business, as the authorities would conduct inspections and issue fines or even order establishments to close down entirely.

Date CapturedApril 5th, 2021 at 06:01 UTCCameraNIKON D3400LensAF-P DX Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR or AF-P DX Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6GApertureƒ / 3.5Shutter Speed1/30 secFocal Length18.0 mmISO140Exposure Value8.5 EVOriginal Size3600 × 2400

Date CapturedApril 5th, 2021 at 05:59 UTCCameraNIKON D3400LensAF-P DX Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR or AF-P DX Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6GApertureƒ / 3.5Shutter Speed1/5 secFocal Length18.0 mmISO3200Exposure Value5.9 EVOriginal Size3600 × 2400

For one reason or another, this theater closed in 1989, but one of the original investors, Guo Jinmu (郭金木), stepped in to convert the theater into a karaoke venue (KTV). The interior was renovated, setting up partitions and installing a false ceiling, but the business floundered¹. Apparently this was because of a lack of parking—and indeed, there is hardly anywhere to park along the cramped laneway this theater is located on.

Date CapturedApril 5th, 2021 at 05:55 UTCCameraNIKON D3400LensAF-P DX Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G or AF-P DX Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VRApertureƒ / 4Shutter Speed1/100 secFocal Length18.0 mmISO100Exposure Value10.6 EVOriginal Size3600 × 2400

Date CapturedApril 5th, 2021 at 05:56 UTCCameraNIKON D3400LensAF-P DX Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR or AF-P DX Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6GApertureƒ / 3.5Shutter Speed1/30 secFocal Length18.0 mmISO125Exposure Value8.5 EVOriginal Size3600 × 2400

One final mystery remains: the signboard out front reads Guo Yuanfei Scholarship Association (郭鳶飛獎學金會). Although it is only a guess, perhaps this business rented out the former KTV as an office for a period of time, offering the investors an opportunity to recoup part of what they had thrown into converting the old theater. From an inspection of the premises in April 2021 it wasn’t clear to me what sort of business had operated out of the space after it was converted, but it seems not so implausible that the KTV partitions had been used as small classrooms, or maybe just offices. Whatever the case, the building was already abandoned by 2009, and little seems to have changed since then.

Footnotes

1. Business records indicate Rongda Enterprises Co. Ltd. (容大企業有限公司) operated out of the same address starting in 1989. This may have been the company overseeing the KTV business. ↩