Losheng Sanatorium

Losheng Sanatorium (

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.Fact|date=May 2007

In 2002, the new housing projects, Huei 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.Fact|date=April 2007

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.Fact|date=May 2007

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.Fact|date=May 2007

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 Yingpan (營盤) near Fu Jen Catholic University (FJU, 天主教輔仁大學), and FJU station should be terminal station. That's why the number of that station is O1, meaning "first station of Orange Line".

But the plan was altered by local politicians. It has been asserted that this is wrong for the following reasonsFact|date=May 2007:

#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.
#Disaster for the environment: What comes after flatting the mountains is a ten-story-tall retaining wall, which destroys the natural environment.
#Safety concern: the future depot will be situated upon earth faults.
#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.
#Ordeal for patients: the patients are forced to leave the place they spent their lives, suffering mentally and physically from the displacement.
#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. Furthermore, 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.

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.” This press release concludes that it is untrue for the media and Department of Taipei Rapid Transit System (DORTS, Taipei) 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.Fact|date=April 2007

Timeline

; March 11, 2007The activists held a sit-in protest in front of Premier Su Tseng-chang's (蘇貞昌) house, and demanded to negotiate with the Premier himself. The protestors, consisting of students and remaining Losheng patients, were later forced by the police into buses and immediately transported to suburban mountainous areas around Taipei City, and were ordered not to return to the scene that day.

; March 16, 2007There were scuffles as the authorities attempted to post the official notice issued by the Taipei County government to request the management of sanatorium to tear down the structure by April 16, 2007. Four students were arrested, and the protest organizers condemned police for the unnecessary violence against protesters.

; April 15, 2007A protest march of thousands of people from all over the country took place in Taipei on the day which had been announced for the eviction of the remaining 45 residents of the Sanatorium. Hsu Po-jen (許博任) of the Youth Alliance for Losheng was reported as saying that more than 100 civic groups took part.cite news
url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2007/04/16/2003356820
title=Thousands back saving Losheng Sanatorium
author=Loa Iok-sin
publisher=Taipei Times
date=2007-04-16
accessdate=2007-05-02]

; May 30, 2007The Public Construction Commission (公共工程委員會) of Executive Yuan ruled that 39 buildings of Losheng Sanatorium should be preserved, 10 to be reconstructed or reconstituted in selected locations, and 6 to be demolished. [cite news
title=樂生保留方案：原地保留39棟、10棟擇要異地重建或重組
url=http://www.pcc.gov.tw/news/news848.htm
publisher=Public Construction Commission, Executive Yuan
date=2007-05-30
accessdate=2007-05-31
language=Chinese] The project budget would increase NTD 670 million.

Image gallery

References

ee also

* Leper colony

External links

* [http://www.lslp.doh.gov.tw/ Losheng Sanatorium Department of Health, Taiwan. R.O.C.]
* [http://www.interlocals.net/?q=node/744 More background about the Losheng Sanatorium and the recent preservation campaign]
*" [http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/view01/63355551F63FFCAAC125704400573FB7?opendocument UN EXPERTS EXPRESS CONCERN OVER IMMINENT EVICTION OF TAIWANESE RESIDENTS IN LO-SHENG SANATORIUM] " UNITED NATIONS Press Release
* [http://www.pcschool.idv.tw/savelosheng/ English portal for Losheng-related news]
* [http://www.wretch.cc/blog/happylosheng Happy Losheng 快樂‧樂生─青年樂生聯盟行動網頁]
* [http://savelosheng.googlepages.com/home Portal for Losheng-related news (in Chinese)]
* [http://savelosheng.googlepages.com/update The 90% preservation plan explained (in Chinese)] LoSheng Republic
* [http://www.loshengrepublic.com/savelosheng/ Losheng Sanatorium's Preservation Movement English Homepage] Losheng Nakasi
*http://blog.yam.com/lsynakasi

Videos about Losheng"(痲瘋共和國的美麗與哀愁)"
*http://www.im.tv/vlog/Personal/334088/1306073