Museums should serve the public

Lastly, let's go back to the debate over whether the National Palace Museum should set up a branch in southern Taiwan. During the hearing, many of the opinions expressed, regardless of the pros and cons, revolved around the confrontation between Chinese and Taiwanese cultures, between re-unification and independence, as well as the cultural balance between northern and southern Taiwan. Thus, the whole hearing became immersed in politics and served as a press conference for lawmakers to declare their platforms, or even as a preview (前哨戰) of the year-end elections.

In contrast, the main focus of the hearing -- the question of how the museum should effectively handle its pieces and fulfill its duty of educating the public -- became a minor issue.

The problems, in fact, do not have to be so complicated. The National Palace Museum is one of the few museums in Taiwan which has a sound international reputation, and it is important for promoting Taiwan's name. Since the museum has only an average display rate of less than 3 percent due to limited space, it is apparently a must for the museum to either expand or to open some branches.

From the perspective of professional museological ethics, the palace museum, as Taiwan's top museum, has an unshirkable responsibility to preserve Chinese treasures and to educate the public. As for whether a branch should be established in southern Taiwan, or which city or county would be better suited for the new branch, further study is needed. The museum, for its part, should also propose a detailed plan for its future operation and management.

Those who have paid close attention to the development of Taiwan's museums know that local museums, which have long been entangled with political ideologies and commercialism, are now facing a critical period of transformation. To promote museum reform, the establishment of such things as a museum law (博物館法) and academic and professional institutions of museology as well as legalizing museums as corporate bodies would all be positive measures.

If museums themselves lack respect for their collections and fail to promote the public's welfare, and if society lacks respect for museums and allows them to become an appendage of politics or commercialism, who knows where museums will end up.

Chang Yui-tan is director of the Graduate Institute of Museology, Tainan National College of the Arts.

Translated by Eddy Chang