On January 21, 1964, when Zhao Zhihua, Deputy Commander of the 1st Armored Division in Hukou, brandished a pistol on the parade ground and shouted "March North to Protect the King," Shengli Road behind him was still a quiet country lane. This failed coup, which lasted only two decades, caused Hukou to become synonymous with "insurrection" in the eyes of Taipei's high-level officials; however, to the people of Hukou on the other side of the wall, this behemoth presented a starkly different face.
In an era when material wealth was not yet abundant, the Hukou Military Camp was more than just a restricted zone; it was the community's "welfare center."
At that time, the camp housed a cinema, a swimming pool, and even a cooperative where residents could purchase daily necessities. For children growing up there, summer memories consisted of the humidity of the pool and military goods in the cooperative that were cheaper than those outside. The boundary between military and civilian was not an iron curtain back then, but rather a symbiotic neighborhood relationship.
📝 Curator's Note: When military camps shift toward daily consumption, the perimeter wall transforms from a political boundary into an extension of local community functions.
However, this "neighbor" also brought violent impacts.
Along one side of Shengli Road, the camp walls stand adjacent to residential houses. Due to the scarcity of parking space, locals jokingly refer to the area beside the wall as the "Shengli Road Great Parking Lot." The landscape here experienced its most shocking moment in May 2007: an F-5F fighter jet belonging to Singapore's "Starlight Squadron" crashed into the Hukou Military Camp during a mission. The massive explosion and rising plumes of smoke remain a terrifying memory for Shengli Road residents to this day.
The shockwaves the Hukou Military Camp brought to Taiwanese society reached their peak in 2013.
Corporal Hung Chung-chiu, belonging to the 542nd Armored Brigade in Hukou, died due to improper discipline on the eve of his discharge. This tragedy prompted 250,000 members of the "White Shirt Army" to march down Ketagalan Boulevard, ultimately leading to major amendments to the Military Trial Act. For the people of Hukron, it was the heaviest shadow within the walls, and it made the name "Shengli Road" appear particularly ironic in national news.
📝 Curator's Note: History has left two traces in Hukou: one is the challenge to power in 1964, and the other is the awakening of human rights in 2013.
Walking along Shengli Road today, the cinema and swimming pool have long since vanished into the dust of history. In the early 2000s, when President Chen Shui-bian visited Hukou to preside over a defense demonstration, the rows of passing tanks and circling helicopters were a source of immense novelty for visiting high school students.
Today, this place remains the heart of Taiwan's armored corps, but it functions more like a quiet giant living side-by-side with the residences on Shengli Road. From "the birthplace of insurrection" to a "local parking lot," the walls of the Hukou Military Camp record all the contradictions and warmth of Taiwan's transition from martial law and development to democracy.
References
- National Development Council Archives — The Full Story of the 1964 Hukou Incident
- Liberty Times — Report on the 2007 Starlight Squadron F-5F Crash in Hukou Military Camp
- The Reporter — Ten Years After the Hung Chung-chiu Case: Echoes of the Military Justice System and Social Movements
- Hsinchu County Government Bureau of Culture — History of Military and Local Development in the Hukou Area
- Ministry of National Defense Total Defense Education Website — Records of Annual Camp Openings and Defense Demonstrations