Qualla: Matsu New Village

Matsu New Village: Introduction

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Foxy1219, CC BY-SA 4.0. The village's name has nothing to do with where its residents came from. It takes its name from Soong Mei-Ling — Madame Chiang Kai-shek — who led an Armed Forces Entertainment Regiment to visit the garrison troops on the Matsu Islands as a morale-boosting gesture. When the new settlement in Taoyuan was named, that journey of solidarity was folded into its identity. Matsu New Village was built for officers, carries the memory of a first lady, and has survived long enough to become one of Taiwan's most important living records of the juancun era.

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Image: Foxy1219 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Matsu New Village: First Village, First Officers

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit bryan..., CC BY-SA 2.0. Construction of the first phase of Matsu New Village was completed in 1957, less than a decade after the Nationalist government retreated to Taiwan following the loss of the Civil War to the Communists. The settlement was designed specifically for military officers: 84 army major...

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Image: bryan... | CC BY-SA 2.0

Matsu New Village: The Name Behind the Name

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Foxy1219, CC BY-SA 4.0. Why name a village in landlocked Zhongli after a chain of small islands off the coast of Fujian? The answer lies in one of the Republic of China's most enduring figures. Soong Mei-Ling, Madame Chiang Kai-shek, was not merely a diplomat's wife — she was one of the most prominent p...

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Image: Foxy1219 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Matsu New Village: The Taoyuan General Village

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Foxy1219, CC BY-SA 4.0. Over time, Matsu New Village earned an unofficial nickname: the Taoyuan General Village. The honorific acknowledged the settlement's origins as an officers' compound and its unusual degree of historical integrity. While most of Taiwan's juancun were gradually demolished as land v...

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Image: Foxy1219 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Matsu New Village: Preservation and Recognition

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Foxy1219, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 2012, Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense selected Matsu New Village as one of thirteen sites across the country to be designated as national Cultural Preservation Areas for Military Dependents' Villages. It was the only village in Taoyuan to receive this distinction. The de...

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Image: Foxy1219 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Matsu New Village: Flying Over the Western Plain

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Foxy1219, CC BY-SA 4.0. Matsu New Village sits in Zhongli District within Taoyuan City, on the broad western plain of northern Taiwan at roughly 200 meters elevation. The area surrounding the village is thoroughly urban now — Zhongli has grown into one of the major cities of the Taoyuan metropolitan are...

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Image: Foxy1219 | CC BY-SA 4.0