Dusk Inside the Military Dependents’ Housing

The formation of veteran villages could be dated back to 1949-1950, when the troops of Nationalist government retreated from China to Taiwan. The government built village-typed housing in various corners of Taiwan in order to take care of the lives of soldiers and their dependents and to meet the needs of the warfare with centralized management. A unique culture of veteran village was thus formed. After 1990s, owing to the dilapidated infrastructure, the residents move from the veteran villages to the apartments of public housing one after another.

This photography project is to capture the family space of the modern military dependents' housing in Chiayi County, Taiwan. During the shooting process in the year of 2017, I wrote in my journal:

“As I set foot in the house, I saw a sticker of the national flag of R.O.C. still hold on to the mirror on the wall, fighters land themselves in the TV cabinet, calligraphy brushes and inkstone sit on the desk, biography literature stand on the shelf, a map of China hang on the wall, and a kneaded dough rest in the kitchen… All of these appear to be no different from the impression toward the traditional veteran villages. Yet, what I could not turn my eyes away from are the piles of medicine bags, wheelchair and oxygen tanks mixed with the smell of old man. The antique furniture from the old veteran village are mixed with newly-acquired, cheap and simple furniture. And judged from the family photos on the wall, it is obviously that most of the offspring are now settled abroad. The relationship between an authoritative military man and his obedient dependent back in the days is gradually shifted to a patient and his caretaker”.

This is somewhere remote and aloof within the contemporary society of Taiwan, a heavy memory framed by the previous time, and a space filled with the afterglow of dusk.

眷舍裡的黃昏

這個攝影主題是拍攝嘉義現代軍眷舍的家庭空間。目前嘉義幾乎所有的眷村都已經拆遷，居民多已搬到電梯大廈的集合式住宅群。在 2017年拍攝期間，我在筆記本整理寫下 ：「內懸掛的鏡子上貼著中華民國國旗、電視櫃裡放著戰機模型、桌上擺著毛筆硯台、書架裡有傳記文學、牆上掛著中國地圖、廚房有剛揉好的麵團，這些元素好似和傳統眷村的印象沒有什麼分別，但令人無法移開目光的是: 堆積如山的藥袋、輪椅和氧氣瓶，並伴隨著老人的氣味; 自舊眷村搬來的古董傢俱和臨時購買的簡易型傢俱混合著使用; 而從牆上掛的家族照片，可以知道大部份的兒孫後輩現在都已定居在國外; 早年夫妻之間權威軍人和順從軍眷的角色，逐漸變為被照顧者和照顧者的狀態。」如今的台灣社會中，這裡彷彿遺世而獨立，是個夾帶著被上個時代所框架的沉重記憶，並瀰漫黃昏氣息的空間。