A New Life for the Old Sugar Mill: Tainan’s Shiyi Drum Cultural Village

Written/Compiled and Reported by the MOOK Scenic Spots Family Travel & Lifestyle Network Editorial Team

After the Chi Mei Museum in the Tainan Metropolitan Museum Park officially opened on New Year’s Day, having been built by the Chi Mei Group with an investment of nearly NT$2 billion over a period of six years, the Tainan City Government plans to connect nearby tourist attractions to create a cultural tourism route, injecting new vitality into Tainan’s arts and culture tourism. Within this route is also the “Shiyi Drum Ren Tang Cultural & Creative Park,” which is just a 10-minute drive from the Chi Mei Museum.

The Shiyi Drum Ren Tang Cultural & Creative Park, located near the Chi Mei Museum, is close to downtown Tainan yet separated from the bustling city by quiet forest paths, offering the people of Tainan a new space to engage with the arts. The park was transformed from the old Rende Sugar Refinery, covering an area of 7 hectares with 16 old warehouses built during the Japanese colonial period. In 2005, Shiyi Drum took over the site for redevelopment. With the concept of revitalizing idle spaces, and under the meticulous planning of internationally renowned designers Liu Kuo-Chang and Ye Shih-Chung (Liu Kuo-Chang is also the designer of Tainan’s Blueprint project), the long-idle old sugar mill has been integrated with Shiyi Drum’s uniquely created Taiwanese drum music, transforming it into Asia’s first drum music-themed international art village.