ABSTRACT
A cultural landscape is often the site of unresolved cultural differences and conflict. As culture and history are often reinterpreted and contested in cities, the space of an insurgent site is thus the materialization of competing urban histories. This chapter examines the cultural conflict and contestation concerning the preservation of Wenminglo in Taipei. Wenminglo is the name of a brothel house (Figure 17.1). The building was designated by the Taipei city government as a historic landmark in 2006. In the case of Wenminglo, what began as the sex workers’ protest movement in Taipei evolved into an effort to make the brothel a city-designated historic building. The movement began with the abolishment of licensed prostitution in the government’s effort to “clean up” the city back in 1999. Wenminglo was one of the buildings where the group of sex workers once worked. It later became the home of an NGO group: “Spring Every Day” or formally the Collective of Sex Workers and Supporters (COSWAS; see https://coswas.org/02sexworker/4storyofbailan/578#mo re-578). This material and discursive transformation prompts the questions: Whose culture and history should be preserved in a city? Can a brothel be part of the urban
collective memories? Who has the right to erase the culture of others? How can such memories and buildings be preserved in the city?
