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The Dadaocheng Party

Dadaocheng: A Unique Reinvention of Tradition

Dadaocheng: A Unique Reinvention of Tradition

Source:Kuo-Tai Liu

When Dadaocheng was at its lowest point, the Sedai Group moved to renovate and reinvigorate an area long steeped in tradition. Today, old stores are embracing a new entrepreneurial spirit and reinventing themselves with cultural and creative flair.

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Dadaocheng: A Unique Reinvention of Tradition

By Tsai Chi-Mei
web only

Along bustling Dihua Street the night before Taiwan’s local elections, crowds of people gather in curiosity outside Yongle market, waiting for Taipei mayoral candidates to pass by stumping for votes. Enthusiastic chants of support resound throughout the area.

Dadaocheng, as the area is called, may be rarely found on maps, but it has long been a traditional beachhead for political campaigning, helping both galvanize public support and generate business. Each of the hundreds of small businesses there has its own story, and no area is more representative of this old commercial district than the one encompassing Dihua Street and the Xiahai City God Temple.

The consumer segment frequenting this resurging shopping haven has undergone a seismic shift in recent years. To accommodate the shift, the Dihua Street district now hosts creative and cultural businesses and restaurants in addition to the traditional smattering of shops selling Chinese medicine ingredients and dry goods and groceries (especially for Lunar New Year festivities).

Hsu Ching-chi, the president of the Dihua Commercial District Development Association, says that since a pedestrians-only area on weekends was opened in June of 2018, the street has moved toward a more tourism-oriented vibe. (Read: Conveying the Human Touch of Taiwan Through TV Dramas)

Over the past decade, the number of business registrations of restaurants and hotels/inns in Datong District – in which Dadaocheng is located – has risen 28 percent, according to Taipei Department of Economic Development figures. Registrations of companies engaged in art, entertainment or leisure services rose 42 percent, and those of other service businesses were up 30 percent, while the number of wholesalers and retailers were down 7.5 percent.

Du Hsiao Yueh Restaurant, an old noodles restaurant that originated in Tainan in 1895, opened a restaurant on Dihua Street at the end of November in 2018, and Nanmen Market fixture Shanghai Hoshing Rice Cake Shop also moved in. This infusion of new products incorporating old street elements that mesh with the neighborhood has drawn in younger crowds.

Given Dadaocheng’s history, it is not unusual to see tourists roaming around and exploring the area while following maps in a guide book. In a Tourism Bureau survey of overseas visitors to Taipei in 2017, tourists from Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand said their favorite spot in Taipei was Dadaocheng, and it ranked third in the city among all international visitors behind the National Palace Museum and Yangmingshan.

The main mover behind the latest wave of this old quarter’s resurgence has been Jou Yi-cheng, the head of the Sedai Group, who took advantage of society’s thirst for cultural and creative outlets and startups to forge new possibilities and dreams out of some of Dadaocheng’s aging, tall and narrow townhouses.

Dihua Street is one of only a handful of old streets to survive in Taipei, and four traditional products – dry goods, Chinese medicine ingredients, tea leaves and fabric – have dominated the commercial district’s economic pulse. (Source: Justin Wu)

Getting in at Rock Bottom

During the month-long Tua-tiu-tiann International Festival of Arts in October (Tua-tiu-tiann being one form of romanization for Dadaocheng in Taiwanese), Dihua Street is turned into a street carnival. As Jou walks along the popular thoroughfare, he is greeted by several familiar faces.

“Around 2008, the area had been declining for quite a long time, and then the global financial crisis came, sending the street’s economy to rock bottom. That’s when we arrived on the scene,” Jou recalls.

Since its first reconfigured building on Dihua Street was opened in 2011 and named “Small ArtYard”, Jou’s Sedai Group has rented eight buildings as it continues to hone its vision of a “street company”. Though it acts like a sub-lessor, it does more than just rent out space, bringing together a mix of retail entrepreneurs, investors and a concept of shared spaces. To date, the group has gotten more than 40 micro-businesses to move in.   

Day after day, some 200 people work in ArtYard-style buildings in the area, and nearly 10 brands have built up their businesses to the point of setting out on their own and opening their own shops.

Jou believes only a low-risk, low-reward “street” company like his can create a commercial balance in the area and promote its sustainable development. (Source: Kuo-Tai Liu)

The first textile design brand to move in – “inBloom” – eventually needed more space and in 2014 moved out of Small ArtYard. It currently has two self-operated stores in Dadaocheng and even has a dealer in Tokyo displaying its products.

InBloom creative director Ama Shen says the street company concept is ideal for groups that are just getting started and are unfamiliar with their location because it offers the advantages of being part of a cluster.

“But Dihua Street is also complicated. It’s not an old street that is promoted as a tourist spot. There is no organization that controls the area,” Shen cautions.

The street derives its inclusive yet competitive atmosphere from its historical past. Many of Taiwan’s best-known family business clans got their starts in Dadaocheng, including the Shin Kong Group’s Wu family, the Kuang Chuan Group’s Wang family, and the I-Mei Group’s Kao family, and a strong local flavor remains.

Many of the neighborhood’s big landlords have maintained a low profile and moved overseas over the years. Wealthy in their own right and feeling no financial pressure to rent out their properties, they can spend time screening and being picky about their tenants.

“Choosing someone who is trustworthy and can help forge a good look for their ancestors’ property” is important, Shen observes.

The Dihua Street district has also been able to maintain its uniqueness because of the lack of typically homogenous chain store operators.

Source: Kuo-Tai Liu

Cultural & Creative Sector’s Ups and Downs

Corporate Synergy Development Center technical director Molly Lin has provided guidance to many businesses in the Dihua Street district and has a good feel for how it has evolved.

“Commercial districts are rather scary ecosystems, often squeezed between different vested interests. Jou Yi-cheng and others have spent 10 years getting a clear understanding of the area, and they have attracted people with similar visions to theirs, bringing qualitative change to the area,” Lin says.


InBloom owes its success in part to its clever infusion of Taiwanese elements into its designs. (Source: Justin Wu)

In the past two or three years, however, the cultural and creative sector has brought the district a newfound popularity, driving up the prices of old buildings. One person familiar with the area revealed that a new business eager to get a foothold there recently offered a property owner a rent 60 percent above the market rate and then analyzed the pros and cons for him before finally consummating the deal. 

 “These landlords don’t need money. It’s up to how they feel. Signing long-term contracts and maintaining a certain market rate are the things our commercial district generally wants to see,” says one opinion leader in the area.

Dihua Street does not need property brokers because news spreads quickly, and these behind-the-scenes maneuvers and whispers have driven ups and downs in the district.

Continuously rising rents can lead to an exodus of shops that formed the backbone of a commercial district, hurting both landlords and the area – Taipei’s high-rent east district is a cautionary example.

In Dadaocheng, however, different generations are interwoven together, with old and new businesses co-existing. Because the area has a long history, the people there care more about leveraging its distinctive local features and sense of nostalgia to cultivate new groups of dreamers. Also, perhaps because of its long history, it may be able to face new challenges with greater wisdom, finding transformative opportunities in the cultural and creative sector.

Old Shops Showing New Tricks

Lunar New Year’s dry goods were once considered the backbone of the commercial district, but as Dihua Street has trended toward a night market feel, actual spending has declined, forcing old shops there to reinvent themselves if they want to survive.  

“We wanted to market more than just a pedestrian zone; we wanted to intensify the marketing of traditional businesses,” says Chen Shih-che, the executive director of the Dihua Commercial District Development Association, who has a marketing background.

The Tua-tiu-tiann International Festival of Arts. (Source: Kuo-Tai Liu)

The result: an “Herbal Party”. The party, a tribute to Chinese medicine and dry goods accompanied by electronic sounds, provides unique experiences tasting cocktails, getting tattoos, and sampling perfumes made with herbs used in Chinese medicine. The 1,000 tickets selling for nearly NT$1,000 each were sold out through social media marketing and crowdfunding, with 80 percent of the takers young women.

The Herbal Party recruited as partners nine of the area’s well-known shops that have been around for a combined 500 years and their second-, third- and even fourth-generation managers. The vendors include bird’s nest specialist Shiang Dih Co., Liu An Tang Chinese Medicine Co., and mullet roe vendor Li Ly Sun Co.

“Dihua Street has about two dozen very active young people, who represent the second generations of their family businesses, and we want to gradually bring them into the development association. There are a lot of stories here, and with just a tiny amount of change, young consumers will feel the positive impact,” Hsu says. (Read: Taipei’s New Hotspot for Young Entrepreneurs)

Looking out from the top floor of Museum 207 on Dihua Street, one sees a row of red-tiled roofs along the old street, with the Danshui River in the distance, which has flowed past the birth, decline and rebirth of the commercial district. (Source: Kuo-Tai Liu)

Some people continue to forge ahead, while others who left long ago are moving back in.

Yu Tien-ming, whose family home stands in front of a temple on Dihua Street’s Lane 72, founded the Toa Tiu Tia Creative Urban Blocks Development Association with other younger entrepreneurs, bringing together 72 business and non-business members found in the area’s side alleys, such as the Taipei Xiahai City God Temple, Thinkers’ Theater, and Taiyuan Asian Puppet Theatre Museum.

For the past four years, the group has closed off the street area to hold year-end banquets and Lunar New Year’s Eve parties to see how everybody is doing.

“Many old shops want to reinvent themselves, which has given those of us involved in organizing and promoting the area more opportunities,” says Yu, who started a shop selling tea-based desserts in 2014 after returning to the Dadaocheng area to live. (Read: Taipei's New West Side Story)

As long as places have people, there will be longstanding favors and resentments, and with those come a complicated faction-filled world unto itself that is a captive of its past. That world defines a commercial district. Squeezed by different factions, old movers and new entrants settle here, compete, pull together and germinate new ideas, ensuring that Dihua Street will maintain its vitality and continue to evolve.

Translated by Luke Sabatier
Edited by Tomas Lin

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