Mini Cultural Trips in Taipei

Hu Shih, one of the founders and leaders of the New Culture Movement in China, is known from Taiwanese school textbooks for having a mother who had a profound influence on his approach to life. However, less well known is that during the last three years of his life, this important figure in the intellectual history of the Chinese-speaking world actually lived in a Western-style house in Taipei (the house which subsequently became the Hu Shih Memorial Hall).

Hu Shih’s former residence was jointly funded and built by the Presidential Office and Academia Sinica and uses the common American layout of the time. It still retains the appearance it had during Shih’s final three years of life. After his passing, it was converted into the present-day Hu Shih Memorial Hall. Next to the former residence are a cemetery and exhibition hall, the latter primarily showcasing Hu Shih’s writings, manuscripts, photographs, personal belongings, and memorabilia.

In Europe and America, the rooms of famous people are often seen as important landmarks where visitors can imagine how these figures thought, wrote, and lived. Cemeteries and museums dedicated to famous figures often receive visitors paying their respects. In Taipei, Hu Shih’s residence and the cemetery and museum are all in one place, so whether you want to understand the historical period he represented or simply want to learn more about this famous figure, it is an ideal destination.

Museum of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, Lingnan Fine Arts Museum, Academia Sinica, Zhongyan Market