Political process of cultural heritage preservation: A case study of the new tile house Hakka cultural district in Hsinchu

Abstract

This article adopts a political process approach from social movement studies to explain the successful conservation of the New Tile House in Liujia of Hsinchu which was originally planned to be demolished to make way for the Taiwan High Speed Rail. Based on interview and archival data, this article shows that the community-making movement and the implementation of environmental impact assessment have opened up political institutions for the concerned individuals in Liujia to negotiate with the government. Against this open environment in the 1990s, the culture and history workers seized their perceived opportunity and successfully demanded for the preservation of a Hakka cultural heritage.