Nantun District in Taichung City is the birthplace of culture in Taichung Basin. It was called “Litoudian” in the past. The origin of the name was because there were a lot of blacksmith shops for farm tools and plowshare production due to the demand of reclamation by the end period of Qing Dynasty, and the place became the trading center of farm tools. Residents in Litoudian made a living by farming in the early days. They planted jute to use its long fiber to produce hemp ropes, and the tender leaves of jute, muâ-ínn, became the characteristic food in Litoudian. Local cultural and history workers combine jute industry with jute culture and established “Jute Art Culture Museum” in 2004 under the management of Wanhe Temple Cultural and Educational Foundation which is supervised by Council for Cultural Affairs. In the museum, it displays and introduces the history of Litoudian and the cultural development of jute systematically. After visiting, visitors will have deeper understanding of jute. Local cultural teams also actively promote many activities related to jute and work with bakeries on the old street for the development of new jute products.
