April24,2015Vol.204.docVIP

April 24, 2015 Vol. 204 by Theodore Pigott, Special Correspondent Painted Towns Are Making Taiwan Even More Colorful Around the world, Taiwan is known for its delicious food, friendly people, and high-tech products. However, it may soon become well-known for something completely different: painted towns and villages. In recent years, colorful murals and paintings have begun to appear on the walls of towns around the island, and many of these caihui cun (or “color-painting villages”) have now become tourist attractions in their own right, bringing in thousands of tourists on weekends. One of the most famous of these “painted towns” is Rainbow Village in Taichung, which was originally a settlement for Nationalist soldiers. Over the years, though, the population of this community gradually declined, leaving many abandoned and empty buildings there. That’s when Huang Yung-fu decided to start painting on the walls and even the streets of this village. Although the elderly veteran was a completely self-taught artist, his colorful paintings of animals, plants, and even local celebrities soon captured the interest of students from a nearby university. These students took pictures of the painted village and posted them online, where they quickly went viral and made the small village famous. Further down south in Tainan, another painted village has been gaining widespread attention as well. Until recently, Hujia Village had just been another drab, quiet area. However, about a year ago, three sisters who were visiting their grandmother, who lived in Hujia alone, started painting the walls of the village in order to keep her company. Though they had never painted large paintings before, the Li sisters were able to paint several colorful murals, including some that featured popular characters from their childhood, like Doraemon and Totoro. Other people soon joined in, and colorful paintings can now be found throughout the village. As with Rainbow Village in Taichung, report