Sunday 30 December 2018

Meet 94 Year Old Huang Yung-Fu,

a veteran of the Chinese Civil War,


 and this is where he lives, Rainbow Villagein Nantun District, Taichung, Taiwan. photo by SAM YEH/AFP/Getty Images, 

this is just one of the many villages that were set up by the government and were erected between the 1940s and 1950s for Taiwanese veterans returning from mainland China, these villages were cheaply built and were intended as temporary settlements for to the Kuomintang soldiers, this specific village was home to 1,200 people, but like many of the veteran villages it started to gradually die out, as residents moved away the investors started to buy the land piece by piece,

 but then a transformation started taking place, 

 it all began when Yung-Fu started to paint the interior of his home with colorful birds, when he stood back to admire the results he took his art outside,

 a few years ago, students of Ling Tung University discovered these amazing pieces of art, gradually, the village started to attract attention both from people living in Taichung and from tourists coming from abroad, the fact that the village started to become a tourist attraction and the protest of the locals supported by all the people enamored by Yung-Fu’s art deterred the Taiwanese government from demolishing it,

 nowadays, the Rainbow Village only has 11 houses left and a small number of people still living there,

but it has gained almost world wide status as the Rainbow Village,

all thanks to one man, the entrance to this magical place is free, as of recently there is a small souvenir shop selling unique handmade goods based on the Rainbow Grandpa’s artwork and run by his grandson, what a remarkable village Huang Yung-Fu has created.


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