Nestled against a hillside with the sea at its doorstep, Gugang Village in southwestern Kinmen was once known by its older name, Huxing—meaning "a settlement that thrives at the water's edge." At its heart stands the Gugang School building, a structure that blends Southeast Asian architectural influences with Southern Fujian vernacular design. Its red-brick arcades and open facade bear witness to the history of overseas remittances flowing home to fund local education. Today, the building has been reimagined as Koki Quemoy Cafe, where visitors can enjoy coffee alongside dumplings made with locally harvested dried seaweed—a transformation that both extends the building's life and makes it a compelling gateway into Gugang's cultural heritage.

From Schoolhouse to Military Post to Cultural Revival

Gugang's residents once made their living fishing and harvesting seaweed; material conditions were modest, but the community placed an exceptional value on education. Local clan associations pooled resources to establish a private school within the Tang family ancestral hall. By the late nineteenth century, some villagers had ventured to Southeast Asia, returning with both wealth and new perspectives. Overseas community leaders Tang Oen Yauw and Tang Chunpo contributed funds to construct a proper school building; completed in 1922, the Gugang School—a western-style structure—introduced a modern curriculum to the village. It stands as a testament to the community's drive to invest in education—and to the broader Kinmen diaspora ethos of giving back to one's hometown through education.

The village's relationship with the sea shaped its culinary identity in lasting ways. Seaweed grew abundantly along the coastline; residents harvested and sun-dried it before incorporating it into everyday cooking—a tradition that lives on in the café's seaweed dumplings, their filling fragrant with the briny, savory notes of the sea. Simple as they are, these dumplings carry the memory of a community that built its livelihood resource by resource, tide by tide.

Coffee tells a different story. Tung Senpo, an advisor to the Gugang Community Development Association, notes that in the Kinmen dialect, coffee is not called ka-pi as it is elsewhere in Taiwan, but ko-pi—a pronunciation rooted in Southeast Asian usage, brought back by emigrants who had lived and worked abroad. To sit in the old school building today with a cup of ko-pi and a plate of local food is to inhabit that layered history: diaspora and homeland, past and present, all at the same table.

The Gugang School building has passed through many lives. From schoolhouse it became a military facility, then fell into disuse. Beginning in the late 1990s, restoration efforts were undertaken with the involvement of cultural preservation agencies and the Kinmen National Park authorities. In recent years, a collaboration between the Tang clan association and local youth has placed the building at the center of a broader effort to animate the surrounding village—weaving together guided tours, local food, and hands-on cultural experiences to help visitors understand what Gugang has been, and what it is still becoming.

☛ 　Gugang School Building has been selected as one of the Ministry of Culture's inaugural 100 Culture Bases.