Zhong Shan Auditorium

In 1935, Japan had been the governing authority of Taiwan for 40 years. Japan was proud of its colonies Korea and Taiwan, which made Japan like all the European powers(England, France, Germany, Belgium, Holland, .. ) that had colonies around the world. (The US had the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Liberia, ... as colonies too.)

To celebrate the the 40th year of being a colonial power, Japan built a memorial hall on the site the defeated Qing Dynasty court house. It was the Taipei City Hall. After Japan was defeated in  WWII it was renamed ZhongShan Hall, (Zhong Shan means "central mountain" which was the honorific name for Chang Kai-Sheik, the Nationalist Dictator of China,(many main roads and parks in Taiwanese cities today have the name "ZhongShan" as part of the cult of personality of Chang Kai-Sheik)).

When the Western World still saw Chang Kai-Sheik as the alternative to the communist Mao TseTung this was the place to visit "China". But now the world realizes that China is not "communist",  just another party dictatorship controlled by something called the CCP, the "Chinese Communist Party". Just another dictatorship controlled not by one man but by a "party", like Vietnam or Singapore. Capitalism is good, even by an entity called the "Communist Party", let's not get hung up on titles. As long as a dictatorship says it is capitalistic, that's enough. Money is number one, don't forget that!

Even now, 77 years later, it is still an impressive building in the middle of downtown Taipei.

 At one time,  Taiwan used receptions at ZhongShan to poke China in in the eye as an alternative. Here we have the current President Ma Ying Jiu greeting the spiritual leader of Tibet, the Dalai Lama. at ZhongShan in 2009. Even now President Ma wouldn't repeat this performance for fear of upsetting Mainland China.(Money does not talk, it shouts!).

Nowadays, the auditorium addresses less controversial topics like Chinese arts and music. There are art galleries, flower arrangements, and music lessons. The classrooms for music are exceptional.

There was a time when Chinese worried about why a such a strong nation like China wound up subjugated by European powers. I feel that the obsession with art was part of the reason, against those that embraced science and technology, the artists will always lose.

There is a coffee shop on the 4th floor, I had the best cocoa of my life at that shop. Classic Italian Cocoa, I highly recommend it.