Air Force's Sunshine Season launches weekend event; 80th War End exhibition recalls defense history.

The Kongzhong National Cultural Base, located in the heart of Taipei, is currently buzzing with the 2026 Qingkong Season series of cultural events. Among these celebrations, this weekend will feature a Military Special Weekend that carries particular historical significance. The organizers have planned a program with several highlights, one of the most substantial being the grand display of the 80th Anniversary End‑of‑War Special Exhibition inside a historic building on the campus. Through precious historical artifacts and visual presentations, the exhibition invites the public to revisit and reflect on Taiwan’s past defence memories, linking this former military stronghold once again with the collective memory of the populace.

The site of the Kongzhong base itself is a living piece of modern Taiwanese history. It was once the headquarters of the Republic of China Air Force, playing a long‑standing role as the strategic command and administrative hub of the R.O.C. Air Force. As time passed and the capital’s defence strategy evolved alongside urban development plans, the land was transferred from the military and transformed into a venue for contemporary art, experimental performance, and cultural innovation. Though the space has been repurposed, the architectural complex still carries the weight of history and defence memory. The special Military Weekend, scheduled during the Qingkong Season, takes full advantage of the unique character of this site, allowing modern cultural art and historical military memory to intersect and dialogue within the same spatial and temporal context.

At the core of this Military Special Weekend is the 80th Anniversary End‑of‑War Special Exhibition housed within the historic building. The show not only echoes a pivotal point on the historical timeline but also offers contemporary Taiwanese society an opportunity to reassess the relationships between war and peace, defence and society. Through meticulously curated displays that combine historical documents, archival footage, and physical objects, the exhibition draws the public’s gaze back to a turbulent yet steadfast era. For many younger generations, the exhibition bridges the gap between history and reality; for older veterans or those who once served on this land, it is a profoundly emotional reenactment of history and a stirring of collective memory.

In recent years, the Kongzhong National Cultural Base has worked to break the conventional framework of cultural venues, attempting to merge avant‑garde art, technology showcases, and social public issues in an organic manner. The inclusion of a military theme in this Qingkong Season is more than a simple historical review; it demonstrates contemporary cultural governance’s inclusiveness toward diverse historical narratives. By weaving defence memory into the daily operations of the cultural base, the organizers have endowed the old military site with new public significance. It is no longer a closed military zone, nor a purely artistic white‑box space detached from the past, but an open field that accommodates historical reflection, defence education, and contemporary cultural aesthetics.

The event program for the Military Special Weekend includes, in addition to the 80th Anniversary End‑of‑War Special Exhibition, a variety of interactive experiences and artistic performances around the perimeter. These attract families, history enthusiasts, and young people interested in defence matters. Combining on‑site visits, guided tours, and immersive scenarios, this approach is more effective than dry textual material in stimulating the public’s contemplation of national security, historical heritage, and civil‑military relations. In a rapidly changing regional security environment, rediscovering and understanding the defence memory belonging to this land carries profound social significance for stabilising public sentiment and building historical consensus.

With the successful launch of the Military‑themed Weekend during the Qingkong Season, the Kongzhong National Cultural Base once again demonstrates its limitless potential as an urban cultural laboratory. It has successfully transformed solemn military history into an accessible, tangible, and thought‑provoking public cultural asset, allowing historical traces to