Losheng Sanatorium
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[edit] History
Losheng Sanatorium(Traditional Chinese: 樂生療養院; pinyin: lèshēng liáoyǎngyuàn) is a hospital for lepers, which is located in Hsinchuang City, Taipei County. During 1930s, this hospital was the only public sanatorium for leprosy patients in Taiwan and also the first leprosy hospital in Taiwan, designed for the quarantine and treatment of lepers. With the force of sanitary police and medical officers, the investigation, quarantine, and imprisonment of lepers were conducted thoroughly in the period from 1934 till the end of colonial governance of Japan. As a result, Losheng Sanatorium became the institution of compulsory quarantine as well as life-long imprisonment for the leprosy patients.
Losheng, named Rakusei Sanatorium for Lepers of Governor-General of Taiwan (臺灣總督府癩病療養樂生院 Taiwan Sōtokufu Raibyō Rakuseiin?) originally, was built in 1929 during Japanese colonial period and served as an isolation hospital for leprosy patients at that time. The Japanese government forced leprosy patients to live in this hospital. The first 5 buildings can offer more than 100 patients.
[edit] Debates
In 1994, Taipei Rapid Transit System planned to build a depot on the site where now the Sanatorium is. Chen Jing-Chuan, (陳京川) the ex-director of Losheng was opposed to this decision, and did three surveys among the patients to see what they thought and needed, shortly before he got demoted and reprimanded. Ever since then, the patients had no access to the MRT construction plans and its related discussions.
[edit] Fight for preservation
In 2001, due to the construction of Hsinchuang Line, the government planned to transform Losheng to a community hospital, thus put an end to its dedicated hospitalization and care for leprosy patients. Many students, urban planners and NGO tried to protect this sanatorium ever since then.
In 2002, the new housing projects, Hui-Long Hospital (迴龍醫院) was initiated, but instead of ‘houses’ which were earlier promised to the patients, the new director gave them two tall buildings with modern hospital facilities. It became clear that the new administration team intended to run a hospital business and make money. The skyscraper-ish hospital buildings were designed mainly for housing short-term patients; therefore it has inadequate space for residents to move around freely. Moreover, the hospital management team forbids the patients from bringing with them personal belongings, from cooking, and from coming over to the front building, which policy is nothing less than discriminative.[citation needed]
Long before the depot construction was initiated, Loshen’s ex-director and history professionals have demanded a large-scale inspection of Losheng’s position as a historical site. The scholars appealed to the MRT Department that they should spare the Losheng Sanatorium, while they unanimously agreed the entire site should be preserved. However, the officials unilaterally terminated the process of inspection, and decided the Sanatorium should be torn down entirely.
It was not until 2004, when Prof. John K.C. Liu (劉可強) came up with a symbiosis plan, and when the Council for Cultural Affairs has deemed the Sanatorium a historical spot, that the MRT Department was pressured to rethink the possibilities of preservation.
[edit] Reasons for preservation
People who claimed that the Losheng Sanatorium should be preserved have raised the following issues:
The MRT depot was originally planned to be built near Fu Jen Catholic University(輔仁大學), but the plan was altered by local politicians. This is wrong for the following reasons:
1. Waste of money: 3/5 of the depot site needs to be built on flatland; therefore $90 million (USD) will be spent on flatting and improving the soil.
2. Disaster for the environment: What comes after flatting the mountains is a ten-story-tall retaining wall, which destroys the natural environment.
3. Safety concern: the future depot will be situated upon earth faults.
4. Ravaged historical site: the Losheng Sanatorium is an important cultural asset for people in East Asia. The depot construction will turn all this treasure into dust.
5. Ordeal for patients: the patients are forced to leave the place they spent their lives, suffering mentally and physically from the displacement.
6. Autocratic decision-making: the MRT Department never inquired the needs of Losheng patients--the ‘residents’ of the site—which is a violation of fundamental human rights.
Futhermore, they argued that the Losheng Sanatorium should be an accredited World Heritagesite for it has witnessed the inhumane treatment (such as discrimination and compulsory quarantine) inflicted on the lepers, who had undergone 70 years of governmental oppression.
[edit] Doubts for the 90% plan
In the press release issued by the Council for Cultural Affairs (CCA, 文建會) in Jan. 23, 2007, it was mentioned: “according to recent news, some local representatives and organizations in Taipei City and Taipei County claimed that the 90% Losheng preservation plan proposed by CCA will severely delay the MRT construction. Hereby CCA reiterates that the 90% preservation plan, evaluated by Hsin-Lu cooperation, will lengthen the construction period for about four months, and appends a three billion budget to it. It is not true to say the MRT construction will be delayed for two to three years.” It is untrue for the media and Department of Taipei Rapid Transit System(DORTS, Taipei, 台北捷運局)to say that the 90% preservation plan will delay the construction of MRT for two to three years and result in a two to three hundred billion NTD (approx. 760 million USD) increase in budget.
[edit] Confrontations
[edit] March 11, 2007
The activists held a sit-in protest in front of the Prime Minister Su Tseng-chang's (蘇貞昌) house, and demanded to negotiate with the Prime Minister himself. The protestors, consisting of students and remaining Losheng patients, were later forced by the police into buses and immediately transported to the suburban mountainous areas beside Taipei City, and were ordered not to come back to the scene that day.
[edit] Appeals
The Taipei County Government has issued an official order that Losheng should be torn down no later than April 16, 2007. Until now, the students and social activists in Taiwan are continually fighting to make their oipinions known to the oblivious officials, as well as to the oblivious people.
[edit] Image gallery
 Whole sanatorium is on the hill |
 Convenience Shop |
 Dormitary |
 "Keep Losheng completely" |
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Losheng Sanatorium Department of Health, Taiwan. R.O.C.
- More background about the Losheng Sanatorium and the recent preservation campaign
- UN EXPERTS EXPRESS CONCERN OVER IMMINENT EVICTION OF TAIWANESE RESIDENTS IN LO-SHENG SANATORIUM UNITED NATIONS Press Release
- English portal for Losheng-related news
- Happy Losheng 快樂‧樂生─青年樂生聯盟行動網頁
- Portal for Losheng-related news (in Chinese)
- The 90% preservation plan explained (in Chinese)
Losheng Nakasi
Videos about Losheng "(痲瘋共和國的美麗與哀愁)"
