Up to here this street has been a story about money: tea, herbs and cloth. But Dadaocheng holds one more layer — this is also where modern Taiwan’s ideas and songs came from.
A clinic a doctor opened
Chiang Wei-shui (1888–1931), a doctor from Yilan, came to Dadaocheng in 1916 and opened the Daan Hospital Fact. He then became a central figure in the Taiwan Cultural Association founded in 1921 Fact. The association led the cultural enlightenment movement of colonial-era Taiwan through lectures and publishing, and Dadaocheng was one of its main stages Estimate.
Why a trading street of all places
It is no accident that an intellectual movement started in a wharf district. As the tea wealth of Ep.3 concentrated here, the capital and the population needed to sustain printing, lectures and meetings gathered with it Estimate. A port brings in not only goods but newspapers and ideas Estimate. Dadaocheng was where those two currents overlapped.
And the song
The popular-culture layer lies alongside. Li Lin-chiu, who wrote the lyrics of the Taiwanese-language song "Bāng Chhun-hong," released in 1933 and still widely sung, was from this district Fact. That song about waiting for the spring wind remains a classic of Taiwanese popular music, and it is hard to find a better soundtrack for this walk.
Seeing the street again
Once you know this layer, Dihua Street looks different. It is a street goods passed through, and at the same time a street of clinics, lecture halls and lyrics Estimate. All of it happened behind the façades you looked up at in Ep.4.