Lin believes that his achievement in organizing this exhibition is to break out from the confines of an actual historical event and look at perceptions of it over many centuries. “The exhibition is not caught up in the events of 208 (when the battle was fought). It starts there, in the earth-shattering battle, then it becomes a topic from which artists and poets drew inspiration, and finally into a popular story known by all. I am looking at how the idea of Red Cliff developed through history and art,” Lin said.
The exhibition itself fails to update this iconography by not relating ancient artifacts to recognizable characters such as Tony Leung Chiu Wai (梁朝偉) and Takeshi Kaneshiro (金城武), who both play major parts in Woo’s movie. From the perspective of foreign visitors to the museum, who may well have at least heard about the Battle of Red Cliff as a result of the significant publicity for Woo’s films, the exhibition tantalizes, but offers little to draw them deeper into the subject.
The museum has attempted to make good this deficiency by staging a program of educational activities and performances, but the opportunity to build this kind of accessibility into the exhibition itself is wasted.
The desire to be enlightened about subjects of popular appeal can be seen from the fact that a Parents and Children DIY class (scheduled for June 21), which includes a special guided tour of the exhibition and various hands-on activities, is already full. Two further DIY activities aimed at families are scheduled for July 5 and July 15 (online bookings can be made at tech2.npm.gov.tw/signup/frontend/index.asp). An online educational game has also been designed for children (tech2.npm.gov.tw/98events/redcliffgame).
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