The terra-cotta warriors have come and gone and the National Museum of History (國立歷史博物館) is now devoting its first floor to folk artifacts from the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam in an exhibition called Treasures of Southeast Asia (菲越泰印:東南亞民俗文物展).
While the terra-cotta exhibit covered one area of China, Treasures of Southeast Asia spans four countries and several centuries. It's geared toward "new immigrants and other Taiwan citizens … so that they can gain an enhanced understanding of each other's cultural background and way of life," according to the museum's brochure.
A joint venture between the Museum of Filipino People, National Museums of Thailand, Museum of Vietnamese History, National Taiwan Museum, National Museum of Prehistory and National History Museum, the exhibit contains 226 cultural artifacts including tapestries, bowls, masks, puppets, stonework and sculpture. There is even a section on betel nuts.
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF HISTORY
The exhibition is arranged around seven themes - country, costume and society, food and life, traffic and transport, house and crafts, religions and beliefs and drama and performance - and includes a general introduction to each. The four countries are color-coded.
Though the introductory section that visitors pass through as they enter the exhibit presents a Chinese-language overview of each country, it fails to make a connection between these cultures and Taiwan. While masks in the drama and performance section are also accompanied by a few explanatory sentences, other artifacts are not.
Object number NMP-05 is called Loincloth. Though the label indicates the country of origin, its accompanying explanation is: "'Uninvaded disease' [sic] handmade textile of Bali, Indonesia." Such labeling leaves English-speakers baffled at best.
The house and crafts section - which displays some finely woven textiles and delicately carved artifacts - features a Maranao Traditional Game. The caption reads: "A black wooden Maranao traditional toy with diagonal cuts at both ends and two rows of eight rounds of cavities on the surface." The display fails to explain how the game was played, when it was popular and why it is culturally significant.
Dates are also lacking from the majority of display items. In an exhibit spanning several centuries, this is problematic.
All these unanswered questions raise doubts about the museum's sincerity and professionalism. The extent to which this exhibit edifies the public is unclear. With expats from the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia making up the majority of the foreign community in Taiwan and in light of the country's Taiwan's shaky human rights record towards immigrants from the developing world Treasures of Southeast Asia doesn't pass muster.
The documentaries on display throughout the first floor, however, offer more insight. One focuses on three traditional artisans from the Philippines and shows why they are important to the cultures in which they operate. The video about Thailand, however, has more to do with tourism (women wandering around in bikinis and men playing golf) than it does with traditional crafts and cultures - the point of the exhibit.
The exhibit displays artifacts of interest to many - scholars, researchers and the general public alike - and is sure to pique the interest of museumgoers. Many of the questions the exhibition raises and leaves unanswered, can only be answered through further research, be it online, from a book or via direct contact with relevant experts.
A few weeks ago I found myself at a Family Mart talking with the morning shift worker there, who has become my coffee guy. Both of us were in a funk over the “unseasonable” warm weather, a state of mind known as “solastalgia” — distress produced by environmental change. In fact, the weather was not that out of the ordinary in boiling Central Taiwan, and likely cooler than the temperatures we will experience in the near-future. According to the Taiwan Adaptation Platform, between 1957 and 2006, summer lengthened by 27.8 days, while winter shrunk by 29.7 days. Winter is not
Taiwan’s post-World War II architecture, “practical, cheap and temporary,” not to mention “rather forgettable.” This was a characterization recently given by Taiwan-based historian John Ross on his Formosa Files podcast. Yet the 1960s and 1970s were, in fact, the period of Taiwan’s foundational building boom, which, to a great extent, defined the look of Taiwan’s cities, determining the way denizens live today. During this period, functionalist concrete blocks and Chinese nostalgia gave way to new interpretations of modernism, large planned communities and high-rise skyscrapers. It is currently the subject of a new exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Modern
March 25 to March 31 A 56-year-old Wu Li Yu-ke (吳李玉哥) was straightening out her artist son’s piles of drawings when she inadvertently flipped one over, revealing the blank backside of the paper. Absent-mindedly, she picked up a pencil and recalled how she used to sketch embroidery designs for her clothing business. Without clients and budget or labor constraints to worry about, Wu Li drew freely whatever image came to her mind. With much more free time now that her son had found a job, she found herself missing her home village in China, where she
In recent years, Slovakia has been seen as a highly democratic and Western-oriented Central European country. This image was reinforced by the election of the country’s first female president in 2019, efforts to provide extensive assistance to Ukraine and the strengthening of relations with Taiwan, all of which strengthened Slovakia’s position within the European Union. However, the latest developments in the country suggest that the situation is changing rapidly. As such, the presidential elections to be held on March 23 will be an indicator of whether Slovakia remains in the Western sphere of influence or moves eastward, notably towards Russia and