The Douglas Co in Tamsui

At 10:30AM on March 21, 2013, Tamsui re-opens the buildings that once belonged to the Douglas Shipping Co得忌利士洋行 (founded by a Scot, Douglas Lapraik, in Hongkong in 1863).

 

In its heyday when Tamsui reigned as the most important seaport in Taiwan, the Douglas, beginning in 1871, had operated passenger liners sailing to Hongkong and other ports in both Taiwan and China. The company owned administrative offices, dormitories, storage houses and staples, and a large waterfront warehouse in the 龍目井"Wells of the Dragons' Eyes" district in Tamsui. After Japan took over Taiwan in 1895, the Douglas shipping rights were gradually stripped, often by decree, and eventually given to Japanese shipping companies instead. The Douglas company properties, initially leased from the Qing Gov't, were also nationalized by the Japanese Colonial Gov't. And in 1912, a developer 中野金太郎Nakano Kintaro with permission from the gov't had built residential houses for elementary school teachers emigrated from Japan. Some of these houses have survived to this day. 

A few of the Douglas buildings located on No 316 Chung Cheng Road Sec 1 [above], were occupied by squatters when the Japanese left in 1946, while others remained unoccupied, unkept hence becoming quite dilapidated, and were in danger of being condemned. A restoration project was set in motion when Tamsui was administratively still a township with its own budgets.

The Douglas waterfront warehouse was a noted landmark until destroyed by fire in 1959-60. This rare 1945 photo shows a torpedo boat yard to the left of the building. The jumbo seaplane 神津 (J-BACT) parked in front of the warehouse was operated by the Greater Japan Air, it arrived on Sept 9, 1945, from Yokohama, loaded with a large amount of paper money to fund the evacuation of the Japanese. Some would argue that this infusion of money had helped fuel the post-war inflation, seeding the discontent of the Taiwanese with the KMT rule that had led up to the 228 Incident of 1947.

After 103 years, the Douglas buildings are now restored, another piece of Tamsui history coming to life! 

Friends of Tamsui are invited to join us in the celebration of this event. 

Pictorial update (courtesy of TengFeng Fishball Museum):

Happy St Paddy's Day!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

School myopia in 80 years

This graduation photo of the Class of 1933, Tamsui Elementary School [courtesy of Mr N Hirokawa], shows that none of the students wore glasses. Vision screening with a visual acuity chart was already a standard, in fact, mandatory practice, at that time. It was tested in classrooms by class teachers. More recently, it is carried out by school nurses assisted by teachers.

The DOH reports that by 2006, 61.8% of the 6th Graders are myopic (near-sighted), and in seniors at high schools, 85.1%. This alarming trend continues even today.

While the intense schooling with increasing urbanization in Taiwan may be fundamentally responsible; however, the myopization factors still remain unknown. A large-scale study conducted by EyeDoc and his colleagues may have begun to provide some answers.  

Below is an official announcement on the impending publication (photo of sunset in Tamsui coutesy of Christina Hong) by EyeDoc's group: 

Risk Factors for Myopia in Taiwanese Children  Under 12 By age 11 almost 50% of children in Taiwan are myopic (at least -1D).  Our authors studied almost 2,000 elementary school children (ages 6 to 11 in grades 1 to 6) and found that, of the 20 myopization factors they looked at, two thirds (66%) of refractive error were associated with just 4 of those myopization factors. Those associated with decrease in myopic refractive error were daily outdoor spectacle wear, spectacles for different working distances, and weekend outdoor physical activities.

Cheng, Huang, Su, Peng, Sun, and Cheng, Am J Optom, April, 2013