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Liu backtracks on floral museum

Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) yesterday corrected remarks made by Cabinet members on a plan to transform a planned southern branch of Taipei’s National Palace Museum (NPM) into a floral culture exhibition hall.

During yesterday’s question-and-answer session with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wong Chung-chun (翁重鈞) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chang Hwa-kuan (張花冠), Liu said the plan to build a southern branch of the museum hadn’t changed.

When fielding questions at a legislative Education and Culture Committee meeting on Thursday, NPM Director Chou Kung-shin (周? said the focus of the Chiayi County branch had been changed and that it would now concentrate on flower-themed artworks, books and documents covering both cultural and natural history perspectives.

Chou’s remarks prompted concern that the planned proposal to build a museum branch had been dropped.

“The dream of the people of Chiayi County is to have a National Palace Museum branch, not a floral museum. The dream should not be altered because the KMT came to power. You should not belittle people in southern Taiwan. Could it be that you think we don’t understand antiques kept in the museum?” Chang said yesterday.

In response, Liu said Chou hadn’t sent the revised proposal to the Cabinet for approval, adding that the Cabinet would insist that “the Chiayi branch have antiquities on display.”

Unconvinced by Liu, Chang said Minister Without Portfolio Ovid Tzeng (曾志朗) had already convened a meeting on Feb. 26 discussing Chou’s proposal.

Threatening to file a lawsuit against the government if it changed the plan for Chiayi, Wong said that “people in Chiayi County were ready to stage a protest against President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in his upcoming visit to the county.”

In an effort to clarify Chou’s remarks, Wong asked Liu if what Chou meant by floral culture exhibition hall was “six flower exhibition parks on top of the initial branch plan.” Liu agreed.

“We will not break our promise of a branch in Chiayi County,” he said. “Neither will we slash the promised budget [of NT$6 billion (US$177.431 million)] for the museum. As for how to design and decorate the museum … we need to listen to professional opinions.”

At a separate setting yesterday, Chiayi County Commissioner Chen Ming-wen (陳明文) of the DPP held a joint press conference with independent Chiayi County Council Speaker Yu Cheng-ta (余政達) and said the museum had not talked to them before it announced the change of plan.

Chen said he would lead ­Chiayi residents to protest in front of the National Palace Museum in Taipei if the museum canceled the original southern branch proposal — initiated by the former DPP administration — to serve as a gallery to showcase Asian culture and artifacts.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
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