The National Palace Museum (
Likewise, artifact exhibits themselves often need to be approached in a new way to appeal to younger generations. Last year the Palace Museum began the laborious challenge of updating its collection, which resulted in an interactive Web site and a series of e-learning DVDs, both of which are geared toward personal use at home or at school.
PHOTO COURTESY OF COURTESY OF TECHART
With the help of a team of graphic designers called TechArt (
The small exhibition is a sample of what is now being accomplished in the art/tech field, said Tuan Li (
"We wanted to do something different from other interactive exhibits. It needed to be innovative," Li said.
The exhibition is divided into two rooms. The first is equipped with six computer monitors, each displaying a different version of the e-learning DVD. The second and more engaging room is designed in the image of a Song Dynasty garden. Antique dressing screens and plants are placed around the room to create a garden feel. All the artwork is in digital form. The explanation of how to use the equipment and the accompanying text to the art pieces are in both English and Chinese.
On one side is a large table monitor that uses a question-and- answer game to provide
information about calligraphy. The lesson focuses on Song Emperor Hui-tsong's (
Moving to the other side of the room, the focus shifts to activities of the nobility during the Song Dynasty incorporating three famous garden paintings. To operate the device, visitors must hold a fan equipped with an infrared sensor to chase away butterflies when they stop on the screen.
While highlighting a painting the interactive board explores various themes in the work, such as the significance of mountains in the landscape painting of Su Han-chen (
The technological features of the exhibition are innovative and the interactive aspect is entertaining. But in terms of its size, there is not a lot to look at. Likewise, if the purpose of the exhibition is to bring art to the people, then it would fare better somewhere more populated, not hidden away in a small room at the back of the CKS museum.
Exhibition notes:
What: National Palace Museum Digital Learning Exhibition
Where: Zhiqing Exhibition Room at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Museum, Museum (
Telephone: (02) 2711-1153
When: Until March 27
The year was 1991. A Toyota Land Cruiser set out on a 67km journey up the Junda Forest Road (郡大林道) toward an old loggers’ camp, at which point the hikers inside would get out and begin their ascent of Jade Mountain (玉山). Little did they know, they would be the last group of hikers to ever enjoy this shortcut into the mountains. An approaching typhoon soon wiped out the road behind them, trapping the vehicle on the mountain and forever changing the approach to Jade Mountain. THE CONTEMPORARY ROUTE Nowadays, the approach to Jade Mountain from the north side takes an
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
Relations between Taiwan and the Czech Republic have flourished in recent years. However, not everyone is pleased about the growing friendship between the two countries. Last month, an incident involving a Chinese diplomat tailing the car of vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) in Prague, drew public attention to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) operations to undermine Taiwan overseas. The trip was not Hsiao’s first visit to the Central European country. It was meant to be low-key, a chance to meet with local academics and politicians, until her police escort noticed a car was tailing her through the Czech capital. The
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and