Jinzi Theater (金紫戲院)

A slightly Art Deco style pervades the architecture of this small town theater. Jinzi Theater was built in Anxiliao (安溪寮) by Lin Yaodong (林耀東), a resident of Yanshui, who named it for an ancestor, Lin Jinzi (林金紫). Completed in 1956, it is remarkable for its relatively grand scale despite being located in a small village in rural Houbi, Tainan. Management changed hands twice within a few years of opening, and from around 1958 a couple from Taichung, Wu Bokuan (吳伯寬) and Wu Linyu (吳林玉), held the operating rights, screening mainly Taiwanese-language films alongside glove puppetry and touring opera troupe performances. The exterior of the theater was decorated by students in 2017. After dark from within the ticket booth. Another study of the ticket booth, this time by day. The theater is a two-storey structure with a reinforced-concrete façade. The symmetrical design features round windows and horizontal banding evoking a hint of Art Deco style. The body of the theater is timber-framed…