Wubei Village in Yunlin Goes Viral for Its Iron Window Grilles: A Small Coastal Village Becomes a Check-in Hotspot

Wubei Village in Kouhu Township, Yunlin, was originally a quiet seaside village, but recently went viral because of 13 retro iron window grilles, becoming a pilgrimage and check-in hotspot for netizens. These iron window grilles take the lives of the villagers as their subject matter, with patterns including a farming woman, laboring hands, Wubei's famous products of sugarcane, sweet potato, and garlic, the side occupation of harvesting and shucking oysters, and the "Thousand-Year-Old Lion Dance Troupe" whose members' ages add up to more than a thousand years, all vividly portrayed on the iron window grilles.

This renovation project came from the "Heart of Yiwu Town" cultural landscape renovation project within the Kouhu Township local revitalization plan. It was originally intended to improve the village's living functions and barrier-free spaces, and the landscape design was only an accompanying part of the plan, but because the iron window grilles were so distinctive, they unexpectedly sparked social media interest in searching for this ordinary village.

However, a small village suddenly swarming with large numbers of tourists: is that good or bad for the community? The artists who designed the iron window grilles, Tsai Chia-yin and Huang Chi-hsuan, believe that the truly captivating charm of the Wubei community lies in its plain, unadorned sense of daily life and the community feeling of looking after one another. They hope that outside visitors will not just take photos and check in, but will see the real Wubei community through their visits.

At the start of the renovation plan, the villagers could not see themselves

Tsai Chia-yin (Xiao V) and Huang Chi-hsuan (Summer) were classmates at Tainan National University of the Arts, and together they use art to tell stories for communities. Invited by the Buffalo Planning Team, they took part in the design proposal for the Wubei community renovation, and the creative idea for the iron window grilles came from them.

"The first impression upon stepping into Wubei was actually that it was an utterly featureless, ordinary farming village." Tsai Chia-yin described. "Many of the elderly in the village get around on four-wheeled mobility scooters, most with empty eyes and their heads bowed low. Many traditional three-sided courtyards are deserted, and although the windows are broken, the residents are reluctant to repair them."

"In the villagers' stereotypes, the city symbolizes prosperity, while the countryside represents decay and dilapidation. Everyone feels they have nothing, habitually treating themselves as supporting characters, while the leading role is always someone else." She believes that Wubei is a typical rural village in central-southern Taiwan, with an aging population and serious outmigration. "After nightfall, villagers often stay home watching other people's stories on TV, but they do not seriously look at their own lives."

Guided by Little Swifts, the iron window grilles tell stories for an unremarkable village

Tsai Chia-yin stressed that the renovation of the Wubei community is not for tourists, but for the residents who live there. "I hope the villagers of Wubei Village can also see themselves becoming the leading characters in their own lives."

Huang Chi-hsuan looked back on an interesting discovery from the fieldwork process: "Some people write poetry every day on torn-off calendar pages, and some paint ink wash paintings when they have nothing to do; villagers also take turns recording the village's big and small events in a guestbook with poems and slang." Therefore, behind the design of each iron window grille is the flavor of villagers' lives. "There are poets here, farmers here, the daily life of helping shuck oysters, and a community of goodwill and mutual aid."

"In addition to solving local living problems, spatial renovation also lets residents see the beauty of life in their own community through artistic design." Huang Chi-hsuan added. "If you look carefully, every iron window grille contains a pair of hands, and that is a tribute to everyone here who works hard to make a living."

The two also took the little swifts commonly seen nesting under the eaves in the community as their theme, cleverly designing a little swift wayfinding system on the village's wall corners, turns, and under the eaves to guide visitors in getting to know this lovely little village.

Home-style dishes, documenting the warmth and mutual aid of rural life

Another easily overlooked design is the sticker collage of home-style dishes handmade by the villagers themselves outside the elderly cafeteria at the community activity center.

Inside the cafeteria, many volunteer mothers help cook, and villagers living elsewhere also occasionally donate food or money for extra dishes. From time to time there is this kind of donation culture, such as "someone donated ten jin of pork" or "a batch of rice noodles donated," which left Tsai Chia-yin deeply impressed at the time by this phenomenon of distant relatives and friends conveying affection through food.

"Many people who have left their hometown not only care for the elders in their own families through donated goods, but also extend that to the elderly of the village." Tsai Chia-yin noticed that many expressions of affection are conveyed through food, and people also use the taste of food to remember loved ones and their hometown.

"For example, the chairperson, who once left home to make his way elsewhere, uses the dish of shrimp fried rice to remember the taste of his mother often cooking for him." Tsai Chia-yin and Huang Chi-hsuan therefore designed a set of activities for volunteer mothers and the elderly to make pictures together with stickers, pasting up the most unforgettable dish from their memories.