Treasure Hill Artist Village

This guide to Treasure Hill Artist Village in Taipei traces three decades of clashes over this hillside, where mainland veterans built their own homes from river stones, salvaged brick and scavenged tin, and the city tried repeatedly to tear it down. It centers on the night of February 26th, 1997, when a resident named Zhai Suoxiang died by suicide on the eve of a forced demolition, and the public reckoning that followed. You'll hear how a Finnish architect named Marco Casagrande later moved into the ruins and staged a fiery ritual among the rubble. Listen for the eighteenth century Guanyin temple tucked near the top of the alleyways.