Guling Street Avant-garde Theatre

After Japan's defeat, Japanese residents being repatriated sold books, calligraphy and paintings here for money to take home, the beginnings of Guling Street's second-hand bookstalls. Later, people from mainland China who came to Taiwan followed their example and set up stalls selling second-hand books, antiques, calligraphy and paintings, and Guling Street became known for old books. The name Guling replaced Sakuma-cho to remove its colonial associations. The theatre's main door faces north-west because the Japanese used the building for surveillance, watching the plain for possible threats, so it differs in layout from neighbouring buildings. The Nationalist government kept it in that role as a police station, a symbol of state power. After the Zhongzheng Second Police Precinct moved to Nanhai Road, the building became a small theatre venue for the arts. It contains an office and service desk, a publicity materials area, an experimental theatre, a detention room, a meeting room, an arts space, an audiovisual room and a rehearsal room. Various performances and events are held here, and it holds an important place in the history of small theatre in Taiwan.

Translated by DealTaipei from Taiwan's national tourism database. Sources are on the terms page.