Taiwan has had television broadcasts for close to 60 years, but only one station has managed to keep its old programs, filming equipment, and other paraphernalia intact in its archives. Now, this TV station’s collection of artifacts from the airwaves of yesteryear has been condensed into a single book, preserving Taiwanese TV history for posterity.
Taiwan’s first TV broadcast was in 1962, but the station behind this broadcast has since sold off much of the accumulated film, cameras, and other artifacts it had gathered over the decades that followed. Another of Taiwan’s oldest stations lost a significant part of its archives to Typhoon Nari in 2001.
Of Taiwan’s original TV stations, only CTS has managed to keep its collection of film, antique equipment, records, and costumes for period dramas together in an archive.
After a three year project to assess the collection, led by Tainan National University of the Arts on behalf of the culture ministry, highlights from the collection have been gathered together into a book. The book includes interviews with station veterans that illuminate Taiwanese TV history as well as the preservation and restoration of so many artifacts.