Natural history will collide with contemporary pop at Taiwan’s oldest museum tomorrow night.
The National Taiwan Museum has invited folk singer Fang Wu (吳汶芳), funky R&B crooner Haor (許書豪), DJ Ray Ray (real name Chao Hsin-lei, 趙心蕾) and futuristic “super cool” dance crew Luxy Boyz to deliver performances that reflect the museum’s exhibitions that focus on the nation’s natural and cultural development.
The Japanese authorities built the museum to commemorate the inauguration of the North-South Railway in 1908. It moved into its current building in 1915 and boasts an extensive collection that features specimens of Taiwan’s indigenous animals and plants as well as cultural artifacts.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Each act will tackle a different section of the museum — Luxy Boyz will put on a show that mimics the appearance and movement of dinosaurs, whose history can be explored at the “Walking within Skeletons: Dinosaurs Coming!” exhibit at the museum’s Land Bank Exhibition Hall.
DJ Ray Ray will incorporate the sounds of Taiwan’s endemic animals into her set, while Wu has chosen to work with Aboriginal elements reflecting the land. Haor will fuse railroad sounds into his existing pieces to preview the museum’s historic Railway Ministry Park near Beimen MRT station, which will open to the public in April.
The museum will also be lit up using cutting-edge illumination technology, and there will also be a VR experience on the Formosan clouded leopard, which is thought to be extinct despite claims of recent sightings.
Photo courtesy of Sanlih E-Television
■ Tomorrow at 6pm, National Taiwan Museum, 2 Xiangyang Rd, Taipei City (臺北市襄陽路2號)
■ Free admission; for more information, visit: www.facebook.com/events/585321115584780
Photo courtesy of Sanlih E-Television
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