The River

On the outskirts of Taipei, there is a leprosy sanatorium built by the Japanese occupiers in 1930 to seclude thousands of patients and maintain sanitary conditions on the land. For the last two decades, Taiwanese authorities have decided to turn the sanatorium into a museum to commemorate the history of leprosy medicine. However, the sanatorium has slowly been destroyed due to constant construction that has overwhelmed the remaining aged patients. To cope with this struggle, they protest and build landscape models with their gnarled hands representing their accurate memories and experiences. They continue to fight against the authorities’ efforts to erase the history of segregation and discrimination and have not given up.

Lo-Sheng Sanatorium, Taiwan’s only isolated hospital for leprosy patients, has become home to patients living here for 60 years. With the construction of MRT, the government forced patients to move out, tearing Lo-Sheng down for economic benefits. In the face of authority, patients encourage each other in their daily life.