( II ) Project Overview
*The contest category we are attending is：
Historical Landmarks
*Description of Our Community：
Wuxing Elementary School is located in Xinyi District, Taipei City. In addition to the natural resource of the Mt. Elephant around, there’s the Zhong Qiang Park nearby, in which the tree frogs are conserved successfully. Since the Xinyi line of the Taipei MRT started working, the transport network has become more convenient. Besides the landmark Taipei 101, there is the Xinyi Public Assembly Hall, which conserves the buildings of the Forty-Four South Village, the earliest military dependents ' village. The rich resources of the nature and culture here are worthy of our deep exploration.
* Summary of Our Project:
Near Wuxing Elementary School, there is the Xinyi Public Assembly Hall, in which some old houses are conserved as the legacy of the Forty-Four South Village. We wanted to know why it is called the Si-Si-Nan Cun (the 44th South Village), so we wrote to Curator Lin Jinghao. Not only did Curator Lin give us warm reception and useful information about the Village, but he also introduced us to Mr. Zhang Tianzhi, the head of the neighborhood, who grew up in Nan Cun and witnessed the beginning and subsequent development of the Village. Aunt Luo, a vvolunteer guide of the Museum of Military Dependents ' Villages, is also the second generation of the Forty-Four South Village. What’s more, we interviewed our team member Jia Weixuan’s grandparents, who had lived in the Village, and current Wuxing Night School student Wu Liching, an old lady whose husband had been a dweller in the Village. We visited these elders, as well as tasted the food at the noodle shop run by Grandma Lee, who had run a snack stall in the Village, and we also tasted the leek boxes at Grandma Chen’s. We have not only visited the Museum of Military Dependents ' Villages at Xinyi Public Assembly Hall for many times, but also visited Xinyi Elementary School, in which some heritage of the Village is kept. Eventually, with the aid of Chen Ching Hsiang from Nan Cun Culture Office, our questions and confusion about the Village are finally solved. We hope that people know more about the left-behind history of the Forty-Four South Village through this special web page.
* Our Computer and Internet Access：
The classrooms in our school are connected to the Internet with optical fiber, and there is a virtual host in the computer lab. Teachers can set each student computer desktop to the default operating environment to cooperate with the learning schedule before class in order to make students learn more efficiently.
* Difficulties We Had to Overcome
Without the experience of being homeless, miserable and forced to separate from their loved ones in life and death caused by the cruel war, it’s hard for our team members to be keenly aware of how the villagers felt when they had to take the village as a temporary refuge. What’s more, the references of the Forty-Four South Village on printed material or the Internet were just fragments, and the well-known Si-Si Dragon is currently in military custody, so we couldn’t see it for ourselves. The elders we interviewed were the second generation of the Forty-Four South Village. Old photos about the Village were scarce, and family belongings were discarded or lost. Fortunately, with the help of Weixuan’s mother, Weixuan had a profound interview with his grandfather, so that we can catch a glimpse of the village life. With the enthusiastic assistance of Mr. Chen Ching Hsiang from Nan Cun Culture Office, our questions and confusion about the Village were gradually resolved, and we were enlightened through the research process in the long run.
* Our Project Sound Bite：
We must step out to find, gather and explore the history that is almost passing into oblivion. It will be too late to do it in case the witnesses to history fade away.
