It has been said that the 21st century will be the century of the museum. This may be a slight exaggeration, but it does raise great expectations about an era in which educational and aesthetic activities will dominate leisure time. Countries all over the world are heralding the arrival of this new era with creatively designed museums. Taiwan's government, however, does nothing to promote the development of museums and to this day has no clear policy on the issue.
There is no clear procedure in Taiwan for announcing government policies. Apart from the announcements of policy platforms during election campaigns, policy announcements are not seen as very important. Implementation of policy often depends on the personal assessment of a leading official, leaving the impression that policies are constantly in flux. In such circumstances, the promulgation of laws becomes a kind of formal policy announcement.
Many serious problems have surfaced in the Taiwan's museum world in recent months. But the Legislative Yuan just talks of "unification of powers and res-ponsibilities," as if such an approach would solve all the problems in one stroke. I don't believe that legislators are actually that simple-minded. The problem receiving the most media attention is who has jurisdiction over the National Palace Museum. The real problem, however, is how to prevent political influence from being exerted on the museum and restoring professionalism to its operations.
One increasingly serious problem is the lack of qualified directors to head state-run museums. Some major state-run museums don't have directors. others have directors who have been rejected by the museum's staff. This shows that Taiwan lacks the necessary channels for training and promoting talent .
Museum budgets are inextricably connected to cultural policy. The policy of "public ownership, private management" has become a cause of concern in museum circles. Is it a fixed, long-term policy? Or is it a temporary measure necessitated by the poor state of public finances? The government's educational and cultural agencies seem to be at loggerheads with its financial agencies. How should museums be run?
What is the government's stance on private museums -- to encourage them, to seek to control them, or simply to leave them to fend for themselves? Why not treat them in the same way as private schools, giving them the responsibility for cultural dissemination?
The world is divided into two approaches on museum policy. One camp holds that culture is the responsibility of government. Most European countries belong in this camp, seeing state-run museums as a tool for the administration of culture. The US government, on the other hand, basically believes that culture, like public welfare, is an undertaking for civil society. State-owned museums in the US are no different from private museums, so no effort is spared in encouraging the establishment of private museums. Japan used to follow the European model, but has gradually changed to a policy of supporting the establishment of private musuems and not putting much effort into public museums.
Taiwan also has a strong private interest in establishing new museums. Once economic development has reached a certain level, it is likely that private financing will replace public financing. Why doesn't the government quickly establish a policy in support of the development of private museums?
The hope for the future of museums hangs on the early passage of a museum law. Such a law has been in the works for over a decade, but a consensus has yet to be forged on the issue. It must not be delayed any further.
Han Pao-teh is director of the Museum of World Religions.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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