Lawyer will run historic museum

Noted Taipei lawyer Chen Kok-choo (陳國慈) was endorsed Monday to become curator of the Yuanshan Resort museum (圓山別莊), making her the first private citizen ever to be authorized to manage a publicly owned historical site.

Lung Ying-tai (龍應台), director of the Cultural Affairs Bureau of Taipei, handed over the keys of the Yuanshan Resort museum to Chen at a ceremony at the site Monday.

The museum will reopen in the spring after two years of renovation and refurbishment.

Chen, originally from Hong Kong, has made Taipei her home for more than 20 years. She will pay the first bill of NT$30 million (US$867,000) to make the Yuanshan Resort -- built in 1914 by a rich Taipei tea merchant -- into a museum after the city government conducted two years of restoration and maintenance work.

The Yuanshan Resort, located next to the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, has a 15th century British architectural style. It was built nearly 90 years ago by Taipei tea merchant Chen Chao-chun (陳朝駿) as a country retreat and a place for him to entertain his buyers and guests from abroad.

Tea, along with sulfur, timber and deer skins, were major commodities that made fortunes for many in trade with China and other countries in Asia and Europe during the later period of the Ching Dynasty.

The building was later owned by the late legislative speaker Huang Kuo-shu (黃國書).

The building had lost much of its splendor following years of neglect before the Taipei Fine Arts Museum was authorized to launch a restoration and renovation job two years ago after the building was handed over by its owners to the Taipei City Government.

At the ceremony, Chen told Lung that she is determined to take on the commitment of running the museum.

She said she envisages making the resort building a museum telling the stories of Taipei.

Chen said visitors will be able to hear and feel the stories of old Taipei by visiting the building and in turn reflecting on their own personal stories.