Established by former miners themselves, the Houtong Miners' Culture and History Museum at the Ruisan Coal Mine in New Taipei City holds a collection that is modest in appearance yet rich with stories interwoven with Taiwan's industrial history. What lingers longest in visitors' memories is the one the miners themselves called the "sesame bento."

Museum director Chou Chaonan recounts with a smile that the "sesame" in question was never a food ingredient—it referred to the coal dust that fell from miners' helmets. In the sweltering heat of the tunnels, with coal powder thick in the air, miners snatched whatever brief moment they could to eat while the ore carts were being hauled out. Miners would hunch over their lunchboxes, with coal grit settling onto the rice, and they would simply blow it off and eat. The anecdote is told lightly, but it speaks volumes about the miners' resilience and their will to find humor in hardship. Lin Zhengfu, chairman of the Houtong Miners' Culture and History Association, recalls that most families struggled financially in those years. A typical bento was plain white rice with homemade pickled mustard greens, with a piece of pork appearing only during festivals. His father, he says, often couldn't bring himself to finish it, and would bring it home, wash it off, and take it back down the next day.

Tours Led by the Miners Themselves

In the 1970s, coal was a vital energy source in Taiwan—classified even as a strategic defense material. During two successive global energy crises, Taiwan's power generation depended heavily on domestic coal, and miners worked around the clock to increase output. Yet as the industry wound down and energy sources shifted, the miners gradually faded from public memory. Fearing their stories would be lost to time, a group of former miners founded the Houtong Miners' Culture and History Museum in 2019, funding it out of their own pockets. As director Chou notes, the artifacts all came from the miners' own homes, and tours rely not on elaborate displays but on the miners' firsthand accounts—and it is precisely this authenticity that has earned the museum praise from visitors both local and abroad.

Many visitors also follow the thread of miners' memories into Houtong's local food scene. Near the station, miners' bento boxes—braised pork, pickled mustard greens, and a fried egg—recreate the simple home-cooked flavors of the era. Along the old street, Cat Village Café serves sweets made with regional ingredients such as brown sugar and sweet potato. Heading toward the Ruisan Mine, visitors may come across small stalls selling piping-hot wood-fired sweet potatoes and handmade steamed buns. These everyday foods echo the flavors miners once knew, drawing visitors closer to the texture of that vanished daily life.

☛ Houtong Miners' Culture and History Museum has been selected as one of the Ministry of Culture's inaugural 100 Culture Bases.