Mailiao Jincheng Theater (麥寮金城大戲院)

Jīnchéng Theater (金城戲院) is located in Mailiao, a remote coastal township in northwestern Yunlin, Taiwan. It was reputedly built in either 1957 or 1965 and probably closed in the late 1980s or very early 1990s, a casualty of changing consumer habits and population outflow to larger urban centers. This hulking monster of a theater accommodated approximately 600 patrons in wooden seats at its peak, catering to the mostly agrarian population of this small town. The functional façade of Jincheng Theater from an laneway at the back of Mailiao’s traditional morning market. The front entrance to the old theater. Little effort has been made to prevent access to this hulking ruin. Jincheng was the third cinema to open in Mailiao. It began as a joint venture of ten shareholders some four hundred meters from the older Mailiao Theater (麥寮戲院). These two cinemas soon fell into a ruinous price war; Jincheng slashed tickets from three yuan to one, enriching the offer with a free popsicle (枝仔冰), and by…