The Wistaria Tea House (), the Wisteria House, or Wistaria House is a historical

teahouse A teahouse (mainly Asia) or tearoom (also tea room) is an establishment which primarily serves tea and other light refreshments. A tea room may be a room set aside in a hotel especially for serving afternoon tea, or may be an establishment whic ...

in Daan District,

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the n ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

. The establishment is situated in a

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese-style wooden house built in the 1920s on Xinsheng South Road. The teahouse is named after the three

wisteria ''Wisteria'' is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae (Leguminosae), that includes ten species of woody twining vines that are native to China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Southern Canada, the Eastern United States, and north o ...

vines planted in the front courtyard forming a shaded area leading to the entrance of the building. The teahouse, with its circa 1930s decor, was reopened to much fanfare after a long needed renovation in 2008. The teahouse was used during the filming of

Eat Drink Man Woman ''Eat Drink Man Woman'' () is a 1994 Taiwanese comedy-drama film directed by Ang Lee, from a script co-written with James Schamus and Hui-Ling Wang.Howe, Desson.‘Eat Drink Man Woman’" ''The Washington Post''. 19 October 1994. Retrieved on 2 ...

History

The house served as a residence for the

Governor-General of Taiwan The governor-general of Taiwan ( ja, 臺灣總督, Taiwan Sōtoku) was the head of the Government-General of Taiwan in the Japanese era (including Formosa and the Pescadores) when they were part of the Empire of Japan, from 1895 to 1945. The Jap ...

under Japanese rule prior to 1945 and became government dormitories under the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

administration in 1950. The building became a teahouse and gained its present name in 1981 and was meeting place for political dissidents such as

Lei Chen Lei Chen (; 8 July 1897 – 7 March 1979) was a Chinese people, Chinese politician and dissident who was the early leading figure in the movement to bring fuller democracy to the government of the Republic of China. Born in Zhejiang in 1897, Le ...

(雷震) fighting for a democratic Taiwan during the 1980s. Since then, Wisteria House has been and continues to be a favored meeting place for Taipei literati, artists, and academics. It has since been designated as a historic monument by the Taipei government in 1997 and operation of the teahouse was turned over to the Wistaria Cultural Association by the Taipei City Cultural Bureau.

Gallery

File:WisteriaTeahouse 2F.jpg, View from the second floor File:WisteriaTeahouse Trellis for wisteria.JPG, Trellis supporting the wisteria vines File:Plaque and house number of Wistaria House 20170813.jpg, Plaque describing the Wisteria Tea House

References

External links

Wisteria House website Wisteria House — Traditional teahouse 紫藤廬古蹟茶館 90年人文風
{{Coord, 25.0246348, 121.5343317, display=title 1981 establishments in Taiwan Buildings and structures in Taipei Tea houses Tourist attractions in Taipei