Taiwan Docs

An architecture can manifest the multiple facets of political, economic, and cultural influences within a specific time frame. My previous work, In Memory of the Chinatown, documents the last days of the “Chinatown” in Tainan City before demolition. The once bustling residential and commercial complex, an architecture style popularized in the 1990s, has embodied some older generation’s nostalgic imagination toward China. This time, I am drawn to spaceship houses made of plastics, the so-called “UFO Houses”, on the northern coastline. Originating from futuristic mania in Western societies, the idea of UFO Houses was repackaged into beachfront resort advertisements in Taiwan. Catering to the fantasy of American life, such an idea was embraced by frenzy phenomena of housing transactions and tourism brought by economic boom. After decades, real estate speculators and opportunists were long gone, what remains is the northeast monsoon wind howling across the semi-abandoned houses. After all, history is repeating itself, akin to annual crab migration. With this essay film, I attempt to combine still photography, digital and celluloid materials, as to document a peculiar sight that once conjured thoughts of a more hopeful time and has witnessed never-ending repetition and futility of human behaviors.