A total of 131 iconic artifacts from the National Palace Museum (NPM), including the well-known Jadeite Cabbage with Insects (翠玉白菜) and Along the River During the Qingming Festival (清明上河圖), debuted at the National Museum of the Czech Republic in Prague on Thursday last week, a milestone of the two countries’ deepening cultural ties across geographic and geopolitical barriers.
Founded in China and re-established in Taipei after the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) retreat to Taiwan, the NPM celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, having long played a crucial role in international cultural exchanges. The museum’s treasures have been showcased in many places, such as the US, Russia, the UK, France, Germany and Japan.
The “100 Treasures, 100 Stories: Treasures from the National Palace Museum” exhibition, running from Thursday last week to Dec. 31, has been a part of the government’s “2025 Taiwan Cultural Year in Europe” campaign to promote Taiwan’s role in preserving key elements of Chinese heritage, and its goodwill to engage with Europe and the rest of the world through culture.
To highlight the first-ever display of NPM artifacts in central Europe, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) and Minister of Culture Lee Yuan (李遠) attended the exhibition opening in person to meet “European friends.”
Facing accusations from China smearing the exhibition as an act of “desinicization” and an attempt to promote “Taiwan independence in culture,” Lin said that China’s remarks reveal its “insecurity” and “intention to monopolize Chinese culture.” He also said that “under the Chinese Communist Party [CCP], adhering to Marxism and Maoism, Chinese culture is dead.”
The CCP and its Red Guards during the 1966 to 1976 Cultural Revolution destroyed many Chinese historical and cultural treasures, including relics, shrines, libraries and monuments, to eradicate symbols of traditional society and to support Maoism as the only doctrine in China.
Given the Marxist view that cultural norms and institutions are part of a superstructure that could be shaped by the ruling classes for their interests and to maintain social control, the CCP vilified all cultural elements to instigate class struggle and to overthrow the previous ruling class in China.
Ironically, the CCP nowadays treats cultural assets and heritage as subordinate to politics to consolidate its own rule and expand its international influence.
Confucianism was once depicted by Mao Zedong (毛澤東) to be anti-intellectual and feudal, hindering China’s progress. Now, China establishes Confucius Institutes in many countries to spread its propaganda internationally and spy on Chinese communities abroad.
With ethnic Chinese as a major demographic in Taiwan, Chinese culture has been integrated into Taiwanese society. From indigenous people, to the Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, Chinese, Americans and migrants from Southeast Asia, whether they arrived as colonizers or immigrants, they have had their culture rooted in this land and become components of Taiwanese culture.
As Lin said: “When it [Chinese culture] takes root abroad, it often flourishes with new vitality.” The NPM artifacts being displayed in Europe would make those historical treasures transform into modern cultural assets to be appreciated by all humankind as part of global civilization, not just as relics of ancient China.
Not only with cultural treasures, but also technology, democratic values and agriculture, Taiwan should also make good use of soft power to further bridge Taiwan and the rest of the world.
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