Ryotei Theater

This building was constructed during the 1940s and is designed with the classic Japanese  “Ohiroma (great hall)” layout. The spacious, open hall is usually used for banquets or gatherings and used to be the guest house of the Japanese Artillery Unit. After the war, the space was used by Army Supply Command Military Law Division, and the space was separated into the land of two households in the 1960s. During the 1960s, it became the residences of colonels Xi Zeng-Guang and Zhao Yuan-Xun, a classic example of repurposing Japanese-era architecture into residences. The two residences were built by directly compartmentalizing the original architecture and expanding outwards, and the different styles are visible in the front and back entrances. The changes in usage of the building show the three chapters from Japanese public architecture, private dependents' residence, and scene of military dependents’ village, embodying the unique cultural and societal changes of post-war Taiwan.