Shoufeng Dr. Du Residence

Date Captured

June 21st, 2024 at 06:25 UTC

Camera

DC-S5M2

Lens

LUMIX S 20-60mm F3.5-5.6

Aperture

ƒ / 7.1

Shutter Speed

1/250 sec

Focal Length

28.0 mm

ISO

100

Exposure Value

13.6 EV

Download

3600 × 2400

A dilapidated Japanese style wooden house standing behind the Shoufeng Village Office (壽豐村辦公室). It certainly dates back to the Japanese colonial era and has the appearance of the sort of dormitory assigned to civil servants, schoolteachers, and so on, but its precise identity remains elusive. Online accounts suggest that in the post-war period it was passed to a physician surnamed Du (杜) who emigrated to Japan in the 1970s and left it untended thereafter; it has stood abandoned since at least the 2000s. The land is public, but ownership of the building itself reportedly passed to Du’s descendants, leaving the authorities unable to demolish it outright. Little else about its history is documented with any certainty.