Walking Tour of Dadaocheng: Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je Actively Promotes Museum Without Walls

Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je came to Yongle Plaza in the Dadaocheng district yesterday (the 11th) to kick off the 2020 New Culture Movement Month activities, and at the same time gave citizens a preview of a major cultural event in 2021, namely the centennial of the founding of the Taiwan Cultural Association. Mayor Ko Wen-je also personally visited the distinctive temples and shops of Dihua Street, leading citizens in experiencing the history and culture unique to Dadaocheng.

Speaking at the event, Mayor Ko Wen-je said that cultural development represents a city's long-term standards. Taipei currently has a 5+3 plan, namely 5 museums without walls, plus 3 important popular culture performance venues and cultural parks: the Taipei Music Center, the Taipei Performing Arts Center, and Songshan Cultural and Creative Park. The original intention behind Taipei's promotion of museums without walls is the belief that culture should not be confined within museum buildings; the walls should be broken down, so that the entire district and community become a museum for citizens.

Drawing on his own medical background and the pandemic developments in various countries, Mayor Ko Wen-je also analyzed that the pandemic will not come to a complete end within two years. Taking advantage of the pandemic period, the Taipei City Government began planning in-depth urban tourism, working to make Taipei's tourism routes and cultural foundations better and more thorough. In this way, when the pandemic ends and international tourism begins to recover, Taipei will be able to attract more foreign tourists.

Mayor Ko Wen-je said that the city's Museum Without Walls 5+3 plan hopes to broadly incorporate local opinions, so it will extensively listen to suggestions from local citizens and various cultural groups, and then have multiple departments work across bureaus to integrate hardware, activities, organization and other aspects, making the city's tourism resources more integrated and more coherent.