Dong’an Theater

Recently I added yet another theater to my growing catalogue of old school cinemas in Taiwan: the derelict Dōng’ān Theater (東安大戲院) in East District, Tainan. This theater opened in 1969 and closed its doors not long after the turn of the millennium, another victim of changing consumer habits. I wasn’t able to find a way inside this theater so this post only features a handful of exterior shots and some links I chanced upon after conducting preliminary research.

Date CapturedFebruary 27th, 2017 at 10:52 UTCCameraNIKON D3100LensAF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED IIApertureƒ / 7.1Shutter Speed1/200 secFocal Length19.0 mmISO400Exposure Value13.3 EVOriginal Size1800 × 1200

Date CapturedFebruary 27th, 2017 at 10:56 UTCCameraNIKON D3100LensAF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED IIApertureƒ / 3.5Shutter Speed1/30 secFocal Length18.0 mmISO1250Exposure Value8.5 EVOriginal Size1800 × 1200

Dong’an Theater shares the building with the eponymous Dong’an Market (東安市場), still in operation on the ground floor. Multi-use commercial buildings like this one were fairly common in Taiwan in the latter decades of the 20th century, particularly in the hyper-dense urban sprawl of the Taipei Basin. Yonghe alone is home to three similar theater-market complexes.

Date CapturedFebruary 27th, 2017 at 10:57 UTCCameraNIKON D3100LensAF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED IIApertureƒ / 3.5Shutter Speed1/30 secFocal Length18.0 mmISO1600Exposure Value8.5 EVOriginal Size1800 × 1200

Date CapturedFebruary 27th, 2017 at 10:53 UTCCameraNIKON D3100LensAF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED IIApertureƒ / 3.5Shutter Speed1/30 secFocal Length18.0 mmISO500Exposure Value8.5 EVOriginal Size1800 × 1200

While researching the history of the old theater I stumbled upon some intriguing trivia. According to this article (corroborated here) the market and cinema were originally founded by the mother of Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁), current vice-president of Taiwan. No doubt he’ll have some early childhood memories of the market and theater! It isn’t clear to me when the business was sold but at some point the family moved back to Kaohsiung.

Date CapturedFebruary 27th, 2017 at 10:58 UTCCameraNIKON D3100LensAF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED IIApertureƒ / 8Shutter Speed1/200 secFocal Length18.0 mmISO400Exposure Value13.6 EVOriginal Size1800 × 1200

Many derelict theaters in Taiwan are seldom mentioned online but Dong’an Theater regularly arouses outpourings of nostalgia. For more photos and text (in Chinese) browse over here, here, here, here, and here. Finally, from the looks of this gallery it seems possible to access the old theater somehow, so I’ll be sure to return sometime and try again.