Taipei: Rising out of Chinese shadows

Taipei is both preserving the past and building for the future

By Damian Grammaticas BBC correspondent in Taipei

Taipei, the Taiwanese capital, has long been a rival centre of power with China's cities, overshadowed by them on the international stage because of the island's diplomatic isolation.

But Taipei is now striving to assert its own identity and is undergoing something of a renaissance.

Just off one of Taipei's busiest streets is one of the city's most exciting new developments.

There is music coming from loudspeakers hidden in the flowerbeds.

It wraps around the outside of a beautiful old white-fronted colonial villa.

Don't be fooled by the surface of what Shanghai looks like - Taipei is still far ahead

Lung Ying-tai, Taipei cultural chief

This used to be the residence of the American ambassador.

But when the US abruptly broke off relations with Taiwan, switching to Beijing a quarter of a century ago, Taipei House as it is known fell into disrepair.

There is a new cinema, bookshop, cafe and bar.

It is part of a cultural renaissance that Lung Ying-tai has masterminded since she was appointed to be Taipei's cultural chief two years ago.

"I do not have an ideology. If this was a Japanese temple I'd revive it. We are sitting in this old residence of the American ambassador, also a superpower. I do not care, I revive it and I try to give my city a complete historical and cultural memory back," said Ms Lung.

And she says traditional Chinese culture has been far better preserved in Taipei than in cities like Shanghai or Beijing.

The Kuomintang, who were driven from the mainland by the Communists, brought ancient arts like calligraphy, music and classical literature with them.

Ms Lung said that whilst China was trying to destroy its cultural heritage during the cultural revolution, Taiwan was trying to preserve theirs.

But Taipei does not just want to preserve its past, it also wants to put up new landmarks.

Things are looking up for Taipei architects

Soaring above the east end of Taipei a giant new skyscraper is taking shape.

Most of the city is drab, ugly, utilitarian, low-rise concrete built in the years after the World War II, when the Kuomintang turned an area of rice paddies into their capital city of three million people.

Taipei 101 will be the tallest building in the world, several times higher than anything nearby.

It will look like a series of glass boxes piled on each other into the sky.

Taipei is forging a new identity, but it is still a city that struggles to assert itself, ignored and isolated by much of the world, a capital city that most countries do not recognise as a capital and one that eyes anxiously the booming growth of mainland Chinese cities.

However Lung Ying-tai says her city has a trump card, the free democratic society that Taiwanese have built, but China has not yet achieved.

"It is not very hard to build tall buildings and beautiful parks, but to have your government respect intellectuals or respect intellectual properties, that is very hard to reach," she said.

"Therefore I would also say don't be fooled by the surface of what Shanghai looks like. Taipei is still far ahead," said Ms Lung.