The onlookers are worth a look

In Deng Nan-Guang's photograph of street performers in Beipu, I keep getting distracted by the crowd. Conical hats lean in. The children have fought their way to the front. Everyone forms such a neat circle that the street acquires a temporary room. No architect needed: wherever there's a spectacle, the room builds itself.

Deng grew up here, in this Hakka town in Hsinchu County. In the 1930s he studied at Hosei University in Tokyo, joined the camera club and encountered the street snapshots and realist aesthetics of Japan's New Photography movement. Back in Taiwan, his little Leica followed weddings, washing, harvests and, of course, people watching theatre.

At the southern end of Beipu Old Street, the family's 1926 house is now Deng Nan-Guang Memorial Museum. The house turns a hundred in 2026. Stop here to meet the people from back then before attending to the next snack stall's increasingly urgent calls.

The house in Beipu, the show in Tokyo

Beipu's centennial exhibition 《光影北埔．百年回望》 ran from April 28 to July 31, 2026, and has ended. The museum is still open to visitors. The historical street photograph here introduces Deng's work; it isn't a view of today's gallery.

Another Deng exhibition, co-organized by Beipu's museum, is currently at Hosei University's Ichigaya campus in Tokyo, September 1–October 11, 2026. A smartly dressed young woman in a hat faces the camera on its poster; another figure turns sideways behind her. If you're headed to Tokyo, check the university's exhibition page for each venue's hours. These dates belong to Japan. Let's not send the itinerary onto the wrong stage.

Walk to his house

Deng Nan-Guang Memorial Museum and Beipu Visitor Center is at 15 Gongyuan Street. Entry is free. Regular hours are 10:00–17:00 daily, except Lunar New Year's Eve; check the museum's announcements for special closures.

Take Taiwan Tourist Shuttle 5700, the Lion's Head Mountain route, from HSR Hsinchu or TRA Zhubei to Beipu Old Street. From the bus stop, it's about 350 metres to the museum; allow six minutes. Check the return timetable before the whole old street starts feeding you and you forget to go home.