Ten members of the North American Pastel Artists Association present their work in Joint Pastel Exhibition (國際粉彩名家聯展), a group show of paintings employing still life, city and outdoor scenes rendered in a realist style. Established in 1997 by prolific Taiwanese pastel artist Jason Chang (張哲雄), the association’s current president and a featured artist, the collaborative seeks to raise public awareness of this relatively neglected art form. Sylvie Cabal, Fong Ling (林峰怜), Dick McEvoy and William Hosner are among the more well-known participating artists.
■ 99 Degrees Art Center (99 藝術中心) 5F, 259, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段259號5F). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 6pm. Tel: (02) 2700-3099
■ Until April 25
Taiwanese sculptor and painter Chu Fang-yi (朱芳毅) seeks to simplify the relationship between three-dimensional objects and space in The Existence Between Memory and Dream (存在記憶與夢境之間), a series of abstract demirelief sculptures affixed to canvases and hung on walls like paintings.
■ Ever Harvest Art Gallery, 2F, 107, Renai Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市仁愛路四段107號2樓). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 6:30pm.
Tel: (02) 2752-2353
■ Until April 25
The National Museum of History has held several exhibitions by “Picasso of the East” Chang Dai-chien (張大千) over the past several years. Little, however, is known about the two teachers who exerted a formative influence on Dai, one of the 20th century’s greatest ink painters. The Mentors of Chang Dai-chien — Painting and Calligraphy of Zeng Xi and Li Ruiqing (張大千的老師—曾熙、李瑞清書畫特展) seeks to fill that gap and highlight their novel approaches to this genre by displaying 77 works of calligraphy and ink painting done by these two teacher-artists.
■ National Museum of History (國立歷史博物館), 49 Nanhai Rd, Taipei City (台北市南海路49號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm. Tel: (02) 2361-0270. General admission is NT$30
■ Until May 30
A look at the unique process of wood firing is presented in Exhibition of Anagama Pottery (陶博館穴窯柴燒成果展). When unglazed clay objects are fired in kilns that use plant material as fuel, the ash melts onto the pottery, forming a natural ash glaze of uneven thickness. This glaze often creates diverse textures because of the clay’s varying composition and different firing techniques and methods of placing the works into the kiln. The works on display were made by ceramicists, ceramics instructors, kiln owners and students.
■ Yingge Ceramics Museum (鶯歌陶瓷博物館), 200 Wenhua Rd, Yinge Township, Taipei County (台北縣鶯歌鎮文化路200號). Open daily from 9:30am to 5pm, closes at 6pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Tel: (02) 8677-2727
■ Until April 25
Insights into Established Prosperity: Ding Guanpeng’s Painting of “Peace for the New Year” (靜觀建福—丁觀鵬〈畫太簇始和〉) presents a Rabelaisian look at imperial Beijing through the works of Ding Guanpeng (丁觀鵬), an “Artist of the First Rank” painter under the Qianlong Emperor (乾隆帝). Ding excelled at painting Buddhist and Taoist subjects as well as figures and landscapes. This exhibition, located on the museum’s second floor, illustrates Ding’s fascination with the celebratory atmosphere that grips China’s capital city during the Lunar New Year. His paintings depict acrobats performing in front of teahouses and martial artists, tightrope walkers and plate spinners in temple plazas filled with fortune-tellers and diviners. Also on the second floor, The Ancient Art of Writing: Selections From the History of Chinese Calligraphy (筆有千秋業) offers a look at the history and development of Chinese calligraphy. From the small seal script of the Qin Dynasty (秦朝) and the clerical script of the Han Dynasty (漢朝) to the tradition of woodblock printing begun during the Song Dynasty (宋朝) and the innovative “stele school” of the Qing Dynasty (清朝), the exhibit offers a comprehensive and chronological survey of Chinese calligraphy over the past two millennia.
■ National Palace Museum (國立故宮博物院), 221, Zhishan Rd Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市至善路二段221號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9am to 5pm, closes at 8:30pm on Saturdays.
Tel: (02) 2881-2021
■ Until June 25
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
Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless