Author:CHENG JIA ZHANG 

Photo:REN ZE KUO

“Taipei Xiao Cheng” is a residential community located by the hillside of An-Khe Mountain of Sindian District. Unlike crowded tenements in urban, “Taipei Xiao Cheng” is surrounded by mountain greenery and nature sceneries. At dusk, night heron, fireflies and frogs can be seen around the area. The appearance of wildlife indicates the exceptional quality of natural environments which also attracted plenty of residents settled in here.　

    Under the impact of the ageing society and the physical boundaries of detached houses, the community development and interaction between residents have become distant and isolated. Moreover, the building and public infrastructures have gradually worn out by the rainwater and began to crumble. Meanwhile, the community public infrastructures were shut down due to the unsettled arguments between the construction company and disputes of land ownership. Therefore, the residents have united to support and speak up for the community.　

    Since 2013, a group of young residents have organized an internet community via the speared of social media. They believed that the participation of new-generation can sparkle more energy and stimulation. As they began to discuss various affairs of the community, they found out that the community has held group trips and other festival celebrations however, few young people were attracted to such events.  In order to provide more opportunities for interaction for young residents, they started to work on more attractive activities such as flea markets, group picnic, arrow shooting and other recreational events. 

    Since 2016, the first “Halloween Parade” has been held for parents and children of the community. It provided a chance for both adults and kids to enjoy the activity. Due to the great success of the parade, it attracted more residents to participate each year.

    To raise the awareness of disaster prevention of local residents, the chairman of the Community Development Association of Taipei Xiao Cheng – Mr. Guo, Ren-Ze, who were also the pioneer of crowd mobilizing of community participation. By gathering source and cooperating with the government, in 2017, the community disaster prevention program was successfully elected and funded by the Culture Affair Dept. of New Taipei City Government. The potential hazardous area of the community was evaluated by the program and it also raised up the consciousness of residents by holding educational events. For example, the community basketball competition for teenagers, slam-dunk competition for elderlies were held in the basketball field near the slope which has potential environmental crisis. As a result, residents had noticed the problem and began to show the support to the community environmental protection plans. Moreover, resident with plants ecology background has joined the force by providing touring, which help the development of community eco-tour guide.

    At the Xindian Art Festival 2018, the community created a theme song called the Song of Xiao Cheng to represent the community. Since then, the song became the “community anthem” on exhibitions and performances.

    Along with the cooperation and achievement with city government from 2017; in 2018 with the assistant by Ministry of the Interior and councillor Ms. Chen, Yi-Chun the emergency response unit and the neighbourhood watch team was established. Furthermore, disaster prevention device has been set up in the public area of the community which allowed residents to monitor environmental statics data such as the Crackmeter, groundwater level indicator, inclination rate counter, etc. Such monitoring equipment and the alarming system can help the community turning into a self-active Disaster Resistant Community, which is also the current trend of the government policy.

    The chairmen Mr. Guo has devoted himself to community affair since 2013, he has always visioned an energetic, peaceful and prosper future of the community. To Mr. Guo the most valuable part of community development is seeing all the resident working together and fulfilling a wonderful vision altogether.

　 This year, this lush greenery community will leave no stones unturned. In addition to complying government policy, the community will be cooperating with Jinwen University of Science and Technology to carry out the USR program (University Social Responsibility) for elderly dementia prevention. What’s more, the community is planning to open a board game curriculum for children, meal program for the elderly and executing the TNR program (Trap, Neuter, Return) for stray dogs and cats in the community.

 “Only with the help, finical support and the hospitality of all the lovely residents that we could have come this far and successful.  I was deeply touched and I believed that it will be more people willing to devote themselves to this community” said Mr. Guo.

As the community keep going strong, the best of Taipei Xiao Cheng is yet to come.

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