Over the coming month, the National Museum of History will be showcasing a selection of works by one of Taiwan's earliest, most celebrated and influential female artists, Chen Chin (
Born in Hsinchu in 1907, Chen was the first Taiwanese female artist to study in Japan. She studied at the Tokyo Fine Arts Girls School under the guidance of some of Japan's leading artists. Even at such a young age her works were so sought after and her style so respected that critics dubbed her "the female genius of the Southern Sea."
PHOTO COURTESY OF NATIONAL MUSEUM OF HISTORY
Chen's repertoire included landscapes and still-life, but it was her portraits of ladies and her ability to transform a painting into an image that incorporated a genuine feel for the era in which they were created that was to prove her enduring legacy.
By the time she passed away in 1998, Chen had become not only one of Taiwan's most prominent and eminent artists, but her works were taking pride of place in museums and galleries throughout Europe and the Americas.
Incorporating 32 of her works dating from 1932 through 1998, The Beauty of Chen Chin's Ladies (
Beginning with Modern Lady, the exhibition takes the viewer through Chen's early unmarried days form between 1925 and 1945. Her eye for detail saw her create works that depicted both the fashions, hairstyles as well as the mannerisms and moods of young ladies of the day.
Works such as her celebrated 1936 Applying Make-up (
The latter part of the exhibition, Traditional Mother deals with Chen's works from 1945 through 1998. Here viewers see how Chen's marriage, motherhood and life as a grandmother changed her outlook on both life and art and saw her style changing in subtle yet noticeable ways.
In later works such as 1968's Fragrant Orchids (
Regardless of which chapter of Chen's life the viewer chooses to enjoy, the current exhibition gives a highly appealing overview of not only the life of one of Taiwan's foremost artists. It is also an interesting insight into the changing fashions and mannerisms of Taiwanese women as see through Chen's eyes.
The Beauty of Chen Chin's Ladies (
Ajay Verma, a consultant gastroenterologist at Kettering general hospital in Northamptonshire, says our gut is a “complex machine.” “It is constantly providing us with the nutrition we need, initially to grow and develop, and then for us to survive, thrive and repair from injury and illness.” How can we keep it functioning well? Put simply: “Make sure what you put into it is balanced, and that you clear out its waste products adequately,” Verma says. “In a general gastroenterology clinic, the most common conditions we see are irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), gastroesophageal reflux disease, inflammatory bowel disease and constipation,” says Nisha
The arithmetic is straightforward and uncomfortable. By the end of 2025, Taiwan had committed itself to a 50-30-20 electricity mix — half natural gas, 30 per cent coal, 20 per cent renewables. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’s (MOEA) own monthly energy reports tell a different story. Natural gas reached 47.8 per cent of generation last year. Coal stood at 35.4 per cent, comfortably above its target ceiling. Renewables came in at 13.1 per cent, well short of the 20 per cent Taipei had pledged a decade earlier. Installed renewable capacity reached roughly half of the 12 gigawatts (GW) the government
Last week US President Donald Trump was asked by a reporter whether he would speak on the phone to the President of Taiwan. “l’ll speak to him. I speak to everybody. We have that situation very well in hand,” Trump said. This marked the second time in a couple of weeks he had said he would talk to the President of Taiwan. In 2016 he famously took a call from then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), when he was president-elect. Despite warnings that the apocalypse was nigh because of a phone call, the world quickly forgot about the conversation between two democratically-elected presidents.
Taiwan’s drone exports are taking off, fuelled by the war in Ukraine, as Taiwanese companies seek a stake in the fast-growing global market for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). Low-cost drones used for reconnaissance and strikes are in high demand as governments around the world boost defense spending in the face of intensifying conflicts. A relative new player in the increasingly competitive industry, Taiwan’s pitch is to be an “Asian hub” for the production of UAVs and components free of Chinese materials, or “non-red.” That means its UAVs can be up to three times more expensive than their Chinese competitors, like the world’s biggest
RSS