During World War II, a POW camp named Kinkaseki was set up in the village, holding Allied soldiers captured in Singapore (including many British) who worked in the nearby gold mines.
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Jiufen also became popular in 2001, when its downtown was used as a model in the anime movie Spirited Away.
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In 1989, Hou Hsiao-hsien's A City of Sadness, the first film to touch on the 228 Incident, then a taboo subject in Taiwan, became a big hit in the theatres.