Exhibition of Old Taiwan Images Debuts in Taichung, Taking Visitors Back to the 1960s

By Liu Jiawen, compiled and reported

Want to explore what life was like in Taiwan during the 1960s? The “Nostalgia – Old Taiwan Life Photo Exhibition” offers an authentic glimpse into that era. Following its runs in Taipei and Kaohsiung, the exhibition’s final stop is Taichung, where it will be on display from now until December 29th on the first floor of the Wenshin Building at the New City Hall. A collection of 100 photos records many precious moments from that time, taking visitors back to the past.

The black-and-white photos exhibited this time cover eight major themes: President Eisenhower’s Visit, Soldiers and Civilians on High Alert, Sunshine in the South, Mother, Childhood Inside and Outside the Home, The Distant Sea, Mountain Village Years, and Street Life. They also reflect the atmosphere of 1960s Taiwan, a time when the country was gradually transitioning from an agricultural society to an industrial and commercial one, with the whole nation focused on economic development.

The photos exhibited were taken by American Christian worker Sidney D. Gamble, who was stationed in Taiwan in 1960 to assist in distributing donations from American civilians. Over the course of two years, he traveled deep into Taiwan’s rural areas and outlying islands, using his camera to document the social conditions of the time, capturing nearly 3,000 negatives. These old Taiwan negatives had once been scattered across Europe and America, but were eventually collected by photo collector Hsü Tsung-mao in Europe, and are being shown in Taiwan for the first time.