Miky Wu was born in Tainan in 1982. In 2010, she ended her career as an auditor in Taipei and made the decision to return to her hometown and the house she had grown up in. What seemed like a romantic adventure, however, didn’t quite turn out as she had imagined. Not wanting to see her childhood memories go to waste, Miky had a plan to renovate the old house that had been in her family for over 40 years. The house was in livable condition before renovation. Yet, to fix up the house without maintaining it would be meaningless. Eventually, the idea of opening up a shop in the old house was born, an idea that gave the house the new lease of life it deserved.
As a child, she watched from the first floor as her parents worked day in and day out at the family owned ice cream shop, the Blue Eagle. Childhood memories of helping out her parents around the house are still vivid. When she came back home, she spent a year observing the spaces in the house, which way the wind blew, and how the light changed. She spent another six months renovating the house herself. Most of the work, including carpentry, iron work, and space design was carried out by her own hands. From the beginning, three years ago, Miky has always felt that she was not starting a business, she was simply doing what she loves.
1982 Life House is more than Miky’s childhood home, it is a space where she reaffirms her ideas. She calls the house an experimental space, where she attempts to validate her thinking through various activities. For example, she has always been concerned with environmental issues, regional farming developments, and the land. The ingredients she uses to make glace, a French gelato, for example, must come from local farmers. She would rather use fruits from local areas in order to decrease carbon footprint, than to use imported fruits like most traders, even at the cost of a slight difference in taste.
Aside from fruits, she uses fairtrade coffee beans and herbal tea that contains only organic ingredients. She details the source of all her ingredients in her menu, not only to assure the customer what they are eating is safe and healthy, but also to educate customers about valuing what they consume every day, and showing concern for our environment. Miky’s ten year plan is to use this small shop as an initiative to educate consumers and encourage them to look after our environment.
Other than her shop, Miky is also a member of Democracy Storefront, and organizer of the ‘Democracy Arts Festival’. Ever since the 318 Sunflower Movement in Taiwan, Miky has wondered what more she can do. She originally thought of curating an exhibit on the students’ protest in the Sunflower Movement, hoping to create more dialogue between people and bring about reflections on the meaning of the movement. So she combined the idea with Art Fort, her plan to provide residency and work space in Tainan for artists and performers, and co-founded the ‘Democracy Arts Festival’.
The objective of the arts festival is to impact people’s everyday life through various artistic acts, and to create dialogue that can motivate them to make changes in society. Every month from July to October, Tainan’s local artists and activists are invited to participate in artistic activities that concern different social topics from anti-nuclear, food safety and mass media, to economic policy and development. To quote from Voltaire, “I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.” Miky believes a lot of things cannot be judged absolutely, but it is only through continuous scrutiny and dialogue, that one can develop a clearer point of view. That is the true value of democracy.
一個1982年出生的女孩，結束在臺北十年的稽核師工作，毅然決然回到家鄉台南生活。過程聽似浪漫，對Miky來說卻不是如此。一開始對要開一家店並沒有太多想像，甚至也不認為自己要開店，原本因不捨看著小時候的家變老，單純想整理家中逾40年的老宅。倘若整理好後又沒人使用那也會再度使房子老去，於是才有了開間店的想法，讓空間有更多利用的價值。
這棟房子原是一大家子人生活的地方，一樓是台南老牌冰淇淋店「藍鷹」的工廠，從小便常常看著爸爸媽媽在工廠裡忙碌，自己從五歲開始幫忙，這些兒時記憶至今仍十分清晰。她花了一年的時間觀察這個房子，感覺風如何流動、光線如何變化，再花半年時間自己改造，木工、鐵工、設計不假他人之手，有八成是靠自己完成。如今已快三年的時光，Miky不覺得自己是在創業，而只是在做一件自己喜歡的事情。
1982 Life House 的意義除了是Miky成長的地方外，在這空間裡好好過生活更能道出她的想法。於是在這個場域中，她不斷嘗試各種事情，她稱這裡是一個實驗空間。她一直很關心環境議題、關心小農、關心土地，她用來做冰淇淋的水果原料一定來自於在地小農的產品，即使是同樣的水果在不同的風味會有些許差異，但是她寧可選擇在地的，減少碳足跡，亦不使用進口水果。
除了水果，咖啡豆來自於公平貿易，花草茶是有機的，這些原料的來源都在她設計的菜單上有詳細的介紹。對食材來源的堅持，除了讓客人可以吃得放心，也想藉此教育客人去重視吃下的東西，再更進一步去重視我們所處的環境。從小小的店出發，Miky打算用十年的時間來達成這個目標，希望大家對我們的土地更加友善。
Miky是民主店頭的一員，更是『民主藝術節』的召集人。自318太陽花學運後，Miky思考著還能做些什麼，原想藉由舉辦與學運相關的展覽來引起討論與對話，另一方面，Miky在長久以來自己舉辦的Art Fort藝術堡壘駐村計劃中認識了一些表演藝術工作者，於是想連結兩者，因而催生了民主藝術節的想法。
『民主藝術節』目的是想利用軟性的藝術活動來擾動常民的生活，促進思考與討論進而做出改變。這是一場非常特別的台南在地公民活動，從七月開始到十月，每個月分關心不同的議題，從核電、食安、媒體到經濟層面。集合了許多台南在地的藝術家與關心公共議題的人，共同促成這一系列的公民藝術活動。Miky引用了伏爾泰的名言：『我不認同你的觀點，但我誓死捍衛你發言的權利』，認為許多事情並不是絕對的對與錯，但要經過不斷的討論促進思考，也才能把許多事情想得相對地好，更能符合民主的價值。
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