Taitung Expo 2026 is a major event opened up by the entire city. With the Central Taitung District as its central axis, the expo extends outward to connect nine major exhibition areas, including the Taitung County Library, Taitung Art Museum, and National Taitung Living Art Center. The overall program features ten curatorial themes, 23 themed exhibitions, and more than 200 events, with the main event period running from July 3 to August 20, 2026. This is not a one-way mobilization for an exhibition. Rather, it is an opportunity to unfold before the world the ways of life that have slowly accumulated over the years between Taitung’s mountains and sea.
Sparks Lit by Local Communities
The slow economy was not created through top-down planning. It grew gradually through the efforts of one person after another in local communities. Marine educators who have spent years bringing children close to the Pacific proposed the “School of the Sea,” organizing learning experiences gathered along the shoreline, reefs, and intertidal zones into actions that invite more people to enter the ocean and understand it. Local partners deeply rooted in the Dulan community proposed the “Dulan Slow Travel Guide,” transforming the original slow travel rhythm of the community into a guide that can be read, used, and carried forward. The expo covers culture, resilience, environment, and social systems. It does not hastily pull local initiatives into exhibition halls. Instead, it builds a shared stage for the things already taking place across Taitung’s townships, allowing the depth of the land to be seen by more people.
From the Old Station to Twilight, Seeing Taitung’s Inner Rhythm
The Central Taitung District is the key starting point of the entire expo. The main venue, “The Living School,” begins its narrative with a “slow economy seed” and unfolds ten major themes, including air, water, natural forces, sound, drift, and everyday life. “The Memory Bank” turns the memories of ordinary people in Taitung since the 1940s into eight sensory spaces that visitors can walk into. After nightfall, the light projection show “Taitung Line: Route of Dreams” lets trains move through five rhythms of life: Taitung’s wind, sunlight, coexistence of mountains and sea, the sky, and the land.
At the square, “TTwilight Golden Theater,” built from ten stacked containers, centers on the theme of “Drifting and Striving.” Its main visual echoes the letter “V” on Taitung residents’ national identification cards and focuses on the life experiences of those who have left home, returned home, or relocated to Taitung. The project is also built on a year-long field study. The open-air cinema features video letters filmed by director Cheng Chih-Ming, portraying three protagonists: national treasure craft master Chen Li-Youmei, publisher Lin Tsai-Chueh, and young Taitung newcomer Xiao Fei. These “Three Beams of Light” shine into the struggles of Taitung people across different generations.
The Scent of Literature Beyond the Exhibition Cities
Once visitors step out of the Central Taitung District, the entire city becomes the real exhibition site. At the Taitung County Library, the Discover Center of Taitung uses immersive methods to unfold Taitung’s time, space, literature, music, and rituals layer by layer. At the Taitung Art Museum, “Pan-Pacific Triennial: Archipelagic Encounters” invites artists from across the ocean to speak about Indigenous knowledge and the environment. At Just Arts House, the Austronesian Cultural Living Room extends conversations among islands through forums, music, and residencies. Every corner responds to this grand event in its own way.
An Ongoing Present that Never Ends
This is an event without a closing moment. Every performance, every conversation, and every young person who newly settles in Taitung becomes the next present moment within this ongoing process. The expo writes mountains and sea into everyday life, growing from a single seed into a rhythm that extends across the year. As people walk through The Living School, pause at The Memory Bank, or sit down for an open-air screening at TTwilight Golden Theater, they will discover that “slow” does not mean simply reducing speed. It is a way of living more deeply. And that depth is exactly why Taitung invites the world to step inside.
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2026 Taitung EXPO
𝗦𝗟𝗢𝗪 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗟𝗜𝗙𝗘 ｜07.03 Fri. to 08.20 Thu.
@Taitung Expo 2026
