YunTech Connects Cultural Hubs Across Central Taiwan to Build a Sustainable Network for Local Culture Through “Echoes of Place”
National Yunlin University of Science and Technology (YunTech) is implementing the 2026 Central Taiwan Cultural Hubs Co-Creation Initiative. Recently, the university held the “Echoes of Place: Exchange and Sharing Forum for the Top 100 Cultural Hubs” at the Yunlin Creative Life Academy in Yunlin County. The event brought together more than 70 cultural hub operators, cultural practitioners, and partners from related fields across Taichung, Changhua, Nantou, and Yunlin. Through experience sharing and in-depth dialogue, participants exchanged insights into local cultural practices and explored how cultural hubs can move beyond individual initiatives toward cross-regional collaboration and sustainable development. The event demonstrated YunTech’s commitment to applying design and interdisciplinary expertise to local cultural initiatives and strengthening regional cultural networks.
The initiative is guided by the Ministry of Culture, organized by the National Changhua Living Art Center, and implemented by YunTech. Professor Lu Li-Shu, Director of the Center for Design and Media Outreach at YunTech, serves as the project principal investigator. Professor Chen Fang-Ru from the Department of Visual Communication Design, Professor Li Yi-Lin from the Interdisciplinary Design Program, and Professor Lin Chia-Li from the Department of Digital Media Design serve as co-investigators. Bringing together expertise in visual communication, interdisciplinary design, digital media, and cultural curation, the project team connects cultural hubs across Central Taiwan with local partners through site visits, experiential workshops, exchange forums, and collaborative exhibitions. These initiatives bring university expertise into local cultural settings and facilitate the documentation, interpretation, exchange, and dissemination of local experiences.
Professor Lu Li-Shu noted that sustainable local development cannot rely solely on a single cultural hub or individual practitioners. Instead, it requires interconnected networks and collective participation in public life. The exchange forum was designed to bring cultural hubs from different regions and with diverse backgrounds into dialogue, encouraging the flow of experience, resource sharing, and cross-disciplinary collaboration. Through these connections, local initiatives can create meaningful “echoes” of one another and gradually form a cultural action network that spans places and regions.
Four representatives of cultural hubs were invited to share their long-term experiences in local engagement: Chou Su-Ru, curator of the Yue Mei Sugar Factory Cultural Route Hub; Pai Yu-Chun, director of the Changyuan Hospital–Lukang Historical Image Museum; Lai Chao-Hsu, executive director of the Babu Canal Head Cultural Revitalization Initiative; and Yeh Che-Yueh, executive director of the Old Prison Regeneration Island project.
Drawing on their respective experiences, the four representatives discussed local team building, cultural heritage revitalization, community participation, cultural values, and sustainable operations.
Although the four cultural hubs have developed along different paths, their experiences point to a shared challenge: cultural hubs must do more than preserve local heritage. They must also encourage resident participation, build partnerships, and bring culture back into contemporary life. The discussions moved beyond the achievements of individual hubs to consider their broader impact on local communities, focusing on common challenges involving talent development, resources, resident engagement, inter-hub collaboration, and cultural sustainability.
Participants were also invited to reflect on the question, “What changes do we hope our cultural hubs will bring to our communities three years from now?” This question encouraged them to reconsider how the value of a cultural hub should be measured—not simply by the number of events held or visitors attracted, but by its ability to build local trust, establish lasting relationships, and generate sustained cultural impact.
Professor Chang Wen-Shan of YunTech’s Department of Digital Media Design, who moderated the forum, emphasized that strengthening local memory depends on involving residents in the process through which culture grows and develops. He compared local revitalization to a marathon that requires long-term commitment, noting that beyond activities and immediate results, it is essential to cultivate lasting connections with people who engage with a place and build mutual trust. Cultural hubs should not function merely as operators of physical spaces; they should become active members of their communities. Through continuous listening, local collaboration, and long-term engagement, they can gradually establish mutually supportive relationships with the places they serve.
Secretary Li Ming-Chun of the National Changhua Living Art Center explained that local memory does not emerge overnight. Rather, it develops as a collective experience through repeated reflection, practice, and participation in everyday life. The Top 100 Cultural Hubs have spent years engaging with their communities. Their mission is not only to preserve existing cultural heritage, but also to integrate cultural initiatives into local life, grow alongside residents, and create new opportunities to interpret and practice local memory in contemporary contexts. Through exchanges such as this forum, the center hopes that cultural hubs will learn from one another, inspire new ideas, and extend the reach of their accumulated experiences.
Notably, the forum did not begin with abstract or formal discussions of cultural issues. Instead, it adopted the theme “Culture Is Part of Everyday Life” as its starting point. Professor Chang and the four cultural hub representatives guided conversations in an accessible, informal manner, drawing on everyday experiences to explore culture. This approach made cultural preservation and local revitalization more tangible by connecting them to residents’ memories, interpersonal relationships, and daily routines.
Participants actively joined the discussions, raising questions about talent and resources, resident participation, cultural values, sustainable operations, and collaboration among cultural hubs. The lively exchange between speakers and attendees transformed the event from a series of one-way presentations into a co-creative space for questions, responses, and mutual learning. In this way, “Echoes of Place” became more than an event title: it was reflected in the connections and exchanges taking place throughout the forum.
The central message of “Echoes of Place” is that cultural hubs must evolve from preserving local memory to participating in everyday community life, and from operating independently to co-creating cross-regional networks. The true value of a cultural hub lies not merely in its own growth, but in the changes it helps bring about in local people, culture, and relationships through sustained action and engagement.
Through this exchange, cultural hubs from Taichung, Changhua, Nantou, and Yunlin moved from sharing local memories and experiences toward building connections across regional boundaries. For YunTech, the initiative represents more than the organization of cultural events. By applying expertise in design, curation, and interdisciplinary integration to local cultural settings, the project transforms the knowledge and practical experience accumulated by different cultural hubs into cultural content that can be shared, exchanged, and further developed. These efforts continue to deepen collaboration between the university and local communities.
The YunTech project team will continue these efforts on November 7 at the National Changhua Living Art Center with an event titled “Envisioning Local Futures: Connecting Cultural Hubs to Co-Create New Possibilities for Communities.” The event will be held alongside the “2026 Central Taiwan Cultural Hubs Co-Creation Exhibition.” The exhibition will bring together the work and outcomes of cultural hubs, local communities, associations, and other community-based initiatives across Central Taiwan. Through curation and design-led interpretation, it will enable diverse local cultural practices to become more visible, connect with one another, and expand opportunities for cultural co-creation and interdisciplinary collaboration across the region.
Looking ahead, the YunTech team will continue to draw on its strengths in design research, visual communication, digital media, and interdisciplinary integration. Through collaboration among the university, cultural hubs, and local practitioners, the team aims to ensure that design expertise responds to genuine community needs. By fostering exchanges, co-creation, and exhibitions, it will establish further connections across regions and open up new possibilities for the sustainable development of local culture.
Project Information
- Guiding Organization: Ministry of Culture
- Organizing Institution: National Changhua Living Art Center
- Implementing Institution: National Yunlin University of Science and Technology
- Project Execution Unit: Center for Design and Media Outreach, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology
01 Project Principal Investigator Professor Lu Li-Shu expressed her hope that exchanges and connections among cultural hubs would foster experience sharing and cross-disciplinary collaboration, allowing local initiatives to resonate with one another and create meaningful “echoes” across communities.
02 Representatives from four cultural hubs shared their practical experiences, exchanging diverse perspectives on local engagement, cultural preservation, and the development of cultural hubs through discussion and dialogue.
03 Professor Chang Wen-Shan, moderator of the forum, emphasized that the key to deepening local memory lies in engaging residents in the process of creating and nurturing their own culture.
04 Secretary Li Ming-Chun of the National Changhua Living Art Center delivered remarks, expressing his hope that exchanges and experience sharing among cultural hubs would help sustain and expand local cultural practices.
05 The “Echoes of Place” Exchange and Sharing Forum brought together cultural hubs and cultural practitioners to strengthen the cultural action network across Central Taiwan.
Center for Design and Media Outreach
Director: Lu Li-Shu
Contact Person: Yang Chun-Chien
Tel: +886-5-534-2601 ext. 2481