台中南夜大舞廳

July 19, 2024

Last updated January 3, 2026

Nanye Dance Hall (南夜大舞廳) is located at the intersection of Shifu Road (市府路) and Zhongshan Road (中山路) in Central District, Taichung. It was constructed around 1962¹, initially under the name Coffee Honolulu (南夜咖啡室)², but in 1965 it was redeveloped into a multi-level entertainment complex featuring a cocktail bar, Western restaurant, and concert hall. During the 1960s and into the 1970s it was regarded as one of the Four Great Dance Halls (四大舞廳) in Taichung.

The old dance hall from across the street in 2016. The design is deliberately asymmetrical.

The distinctive façade is the work of Wang Shui-ho (王水河), a multi-disciplinary artist and commercial designer from Taichung. He was entirely self-taught, having only obtained an elementary school education in the late Japanese colonial era, but quickly found his niche in the advertising business after founding Shui-ho Art Studio (水河畫房) in 1946. Wang initially rose to prominence painting movie billboards, many of which featured elaborate 3D extrusions, for cinemas around Taiwan. In the 1960s he branched out into architecture and interior design, among other pursuits³. He is credited with designing several cinemas, hotels, and commercial storefronts in many parts of Taiwan. Most of these have long vanished from the urban landscape but Taichung is still home to three of his most memorable works: Seng Yuh Theater, Xibei Hotel, and this old dance hall.

Weathered neon signs on the side of the building. The characters read right to left and omit the middle character.

The interior of the old dance hall had already been gutted by 2016.

The empty interior of the ballroom level.

Looking toward the stairwell from the balcony on the top floor.

Some graffiti on the walls of the former dance hall.

The reinforced concrete substructure has held up remarkably well over half a century.

Like much of the old urban core of Taichung, Nanye fell into decline following the 921 Earthquake in 1999 and the SARS epidemic of 2003, part of a broader economic downturn that shifted Taichung’s center of commercial gravity westward toward Xitun. It isn’t precisely known when the dance hall went out of business but by the mid-2000s the ground floor was rented out to a branch of the popular dumpling chain Bafang Yunji (八方雲集). Another part of the building was a restaurant and karaoke lounge by the name of Miyazaki Canteen (宮崎餐廳). Both went out of business around 2010 and the building was completely abandoned by 2011. The façade also features another English name, Touch, but the origins of this later modification seem lost in the mists of time.

A closer look at the sculpture mounted on the rooftop.

An oblique look at the sturdy sign at the top of the façade.

In December 2013 a coalition of Taiwanese and German artists joined forces to organize Face Off⁴, a monthlong exhibition and event series in the derelict space. Their goal was to breath new life into the old space, possibly for the last time. German muralist Jens Besser was invited to paint the façade of the building, and numerous theater and music performances were staged across multiple floors. This culminated on February 22nd, 2014, with In Light: Nanye Dance Hall Revival (In Light南夜大舞廳復興), an electronic music festival and creative market attended by hundreds of people⁵. Following this outpouring of youthful energy the building was abandoned once again.

Leftover artwork by muralist Jens Besser on the façade. Beneath it all the original design still shines through.

I first visited this site in 2016 without knowing anything of the history of the dance hall. The door was ajar when I wandered by one day so I stepped inside to take a look and snap some photos. I found the interior completely gutted, with almost nothing to indicate what this place once was. Hardly anything of Wang Shui-ho’s original design elements remained inside the building apart from the rooftop sculpture and some ironwork on a stairwell I neglected to photograph. Evidently some additional cleanup work had been performed since the music festival two years earlier.

The dance hall circa 2025, partially restored and awaiting a new tenant.

Renovation work was conducted on the building in 2017–2018 and again in 2020, restoring the original façade beneath a fresh coast of white paint while replacing all the windows. Wang Shui-ho’s innovative design is clearly visible again but the building awaits new tenants and reactivation as of early 2026.

There is some ambiguity about whether the business itself dates to the early post-war period. Coffee Honolulu may have been the original name of a building on this site that was completely rebuilt in 1962 and renamed in subsequent years. It also went by the name Honolulu Club as the business became more focused on nightlife. This name was previously featured in neon below the Chinese characters still hanging on the side of the building. ↩
Chen Jingtang (陳敬堂), president of the Taichung City Commerce Association, was one of the investors in the new Coffee Honolulu. He commissioned Wang Shui-ho to design the nearby Jinghua Hotel (敬華飯店) but this was demolished in 2025. Some of Chen’s other holdings included the Serenade Dance Hall (小夜曲舞廳) and the Wanxiang Club (萬象俱樂部) in Shuinan, which originally catered to American servicemen at Ching Chuan Kang Air Base (清泉崗空軍基地). There was a strong US military presence in Taichung in the 1960s and into the early 1970s and servicement certainly would have patronized this dance hall. ↩
Wang Shui-ho was a true renaissance man; apart from his commercial work he was also an award-winning painter and sculptor. ↩
Many photos from the period of reactivation can still be found here on Facebook. ↩
The original event promo can still be found here. A retrospective on YouTube also gives a taste of the event. ↩