Framing “the First Street” in Taipei: Material and Representational Community Practices in Urban Community Building

Community building has been viewed as a means to reduce negative impacts of urbanization on individual well-being, living environment and social justice, and has considerably increased local capability in urban governance in Taiwan. Relatively few studies have focused on the agency of cultural objects and streetscape which offer people a way to understand the everyday places they live and recognize a sense of community. This paper examines the folk materials-based mobilization strategies for community building and draws on the fieldwork surrounding the neighborhood of Guiyang Street, Taipei. It aims to explore how folk material resources, including historical built environment, religious instruments and practices, and local industrial products and services, and the way of “revisiting” the material aspects of folk culture help to make sense of place under the framework of urban community building.

It is believed that community building is hardly pushed forward in urban neighborhoods, given that people living in apartment buildings may not have shared experience, background, values and religion. However, there is still some tacit knowledge and “indigenous category” that rules cultural practices in the old town of Taipei City, which is largely populated by families that have lived there for generations, and being an integral part of local people’s identity. By analyzing the process and preliminary outcome of community development of the city block of Guiyang Street, I explain how folk materials, as cultural symbols, contribute to bring together fellow community members who normally have little contact, facilitate the collaboration among state, local stakeholders, and the “outsider” volunteers on revitalizing this neighborhood, and encourage the folk to work together with rising issue-driven communities.