“...GHOST STORIES AND UNKNOWN DANGERS…”
The thing which has really enchanted me about Kinmen is the ghost stories and unknown dangers which consume the collective consciousness about this little island. I often heard some superstitions about haunted lands, spirits still occupying abandoned buildings and rumors about land mines waiting to explode in some wild areas. With so much mystery surrounding Kinmen, it’s clear that this island still holds some treasures to be found as well as some adventures to be had. There are typical tourist attractions here like museums and cultural villages but the the essence of Kinmen does not reside in those places; they are a facade and merely a representation of the past, but not actually where the true history is. The real narrative of the island can be pieced together by probing its abundant ruins, sites which have been left to be in a relatively untouched state over the past couple of decades.
“...COVERED BY FRAGMENTS OF THE SLOWLY COLLAPSING ARCHITECTURE…”
Everyday in Kinmen is an investigation to uncover the secrets of this place. Collecting some mismatched fragments of images in order to gain an understanding of its identity. Being here is like trying to assemble a jigsaw puzzle with an unknown solution. On one routine walk between the hardware store and the tea-house, I decided to take the backstreets and the alleys to make the journey shorter. While passing by one abandoned house, it compelled me to stop and explore. The house had a big yard made up of square stones that had grasses growing between them and a deep well filled with dark water. I walked straight across the yard and into the main room of the house. The space was overwhelming, filled with evidence of the family that lived there and the generations who have died.
Ghostly photographic portraits hung eerily above the doorways and a metal desk was on the right side of the room, a number of small totems to the family’s ancestors sitting on top with everything covered in dust. On the floor in the main room were piles of debris but also a small porcelain clown, which was relatively clean.
The smaller room to the right of the main room held the usual fragments of daily life, left in random piles to decay. In the same room there was an attic that stored furniture of different kinds including some documents like a black and white wedding portrait with golden hand painted details and certificates of achievement for military service.
In the other room, on the left side of the main room, was small bed that was partially covered by fragments of the slowly collapsing architecture, a floor littered with bits of plastic as well as other non-descript garbage, and a desk which protected artifacts. On and in the desk were a number of objects including three rifle magazines, two large stamps, a collection of family photographs which had been purposefully ripped, a schedule as well as a address book. This one house shows the history of the island through the evidence of military service in addition to the familial ties which have been honored and estranged.
“...INVESTIGATING THE UNCURATED GHOSTS THAT REMAIN…”
There are countless other deserted buildings on Kinmen containing objects which, when viewed as a collection, can tell a story about the people that lived or worked there. The process of entering into such spaces allows one to enter into a realm of anthropology by investigating the uncurated ghosts that remain lurking in the nooks and crannies. The problem with museums is that they only show history from a certain perspective, which is usually refined, often propagandistic and also simplified. In such places, the unfiltered and complicated story of common individuals can be understood through the exploration of architecture which has been abandoned, only to be affected by the entropy in the passing years.
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