Hsinchu the Sixth Fuel Factory (full name: Former Imperial Japanese Navy’s Sixth Fuel Factory, Hsinchu Branch ) is a key site for cultural heritage preservation and revitalization under the Ministry of Culture’s “Forward-looking Infrastructure—Reconstructing Historic Sites Program.” Located on Jianmei Road and adjacent to the National Tsing Hua University Night Market, the site embodies multiple significances, including its WWII industrial history, military dependent village culture, ecological habitat, and its role in the history of contemporary technology in Hsinchu.

This course primarily introduces the ” Localogy of the Sixth Fuel Factory: University Social Responsibility ＆ Local Praxis” initiative, a collaborative effort between National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, National Tsing Hua University, Chung Yuan Christian University, community colleges, and other partner organizations, aimed at promoting local heritage in Hsinchu. The program uses the Hsinchu the Sixth Fuel Factory — an industrial heritage site significant to the wartime fuel technology of the Japanese Navy—as a focal point for discussion. The course covers six key topics: “The History of the Hsinchu the Sixth Fuel Factory,” “Artistic Interventions in Society,” “Ecological Conservation,” “Sustainable Living Design,” “Revitalization of Local Cultural Heritage,” and “The Contemporary Significance of Museum Governance.” Each unit is closely tied to the Hsinchu the Sixth Fuel Factory and features a series of lectures showcasing how universities, expert teams, and local communities collaborate to preserve and govern local cultural assets. The course explores cross-disciplinary collaborations and community-driven practices, embodying the concept of university social responsibility.

The course will offer diverse perspectives that allow students to systematically understand the contemporary significance of the Hsinchu the Sixth Fuel Factory WWII site and its related issues. This is not only an opportunity to deepen one’s knowledge of the Sixth Fuel Depot, but also an inquiry into how the city of Hsinchu defines itself and constructs its identity. The course seeks to explore the potential for building a local knowledge system and discourse from the perspective of the Sixth Fuel Depot, gradually co-creating a new form of “publicness” and “social imagination.”