Museum 207 (二0七博物館) has become one of the first private museums to receive an operation certificate under the Museum Act (博物館法), which founder and executive director Chen Kok-choo (陳國慈) hopes will help many private institutions to thrive.
The museum’s building, like those of many private institutions, has been designated a “historic building” by the Taipei City Government, Chen said, adding that the government should be commended for certifying private museums under the act.
“The act is a welcome change and crucial to the development of museums in Taiwan,” the Hong Konger said after accepting the paperwork that officially registered Museum 207 as a private museum in Taiwan.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
“This act lays out how the government will assist private museums,” she said. “Through the registration process, it will provide the resources that we need.”
The 2015 Museum Act promotes the development of public and private museums to improve people’s exposure to culture, history, science, nature, and the arts and humanities.
Museum 207, established in 2017, was the first in Taipei to apply for the official operation certificate, which gives it access to government funding and other resources.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
On June 27, 20 months after applying, the museum received the operation certificate and held an event on Monday to celebrate.
“I hope that in the future, private museums, especially those converted from old houses, will benefit from the government’s assistance, from the design stage to the renovation and construction stage, so that everything is done right,” Chen said, adding that she hopes the government would also support private museums’ operations through the program.
Being registered under the act gives the museum two main advantages: tax breaks and, more importantly, funding from either the central government or the city for exhibitions, museum head administrator Fiona Wu (吳佩郁) said.
Having just been registered, Museum 207 has yet to apply for funding, Wu said, but she estimated that the government might subsidize up to 70 percent of each exhibition.
The act makes subsidies more direct, unlike previously, when the central government would give the funds to local governments, which would then disperse the money among various community exhibitions — a “big circle” that could take a while, Wu said.
Article 7 of the Museum Act commits the government to providing professional advice, technical assistance, personnel training and financial grants to both public and private museums.
Chen said that private museums like hers are culturally important, because they hold events — such as Museum 207’s Taste of Summer exhibition — that help visitors relive the past and appreciate traditional values.
The exhibition, being held until Dec. 15, portrays how Taiwanese spent their summers when there was no air-conditioning, Chen said.
“The ice shops of the past were the predecessors of today’s Starbucks and coffee shops, but a major difference was that the ice houses were where the whole family would go — but would you go to Starbucks with your whole family?” she said. “So it also represents a social change in family relations, and we would like to take people back to that time so that they can cherish what has passed.”
At Monday’s event, Deputy Minister of Culture Kevin Peng (彭俊亨) praised Chen for getting Museum 207 registered under the Museum Act and for her commitment to promoting culture, such as founding the Taipei Story House, which curates exhibitions on Taipei history.
The Museum of World Religions in New Taipei City and the Wufeng Lin Family Mansion and Garden in Taichung are other private museums that have registered under the act, the ministry said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods