The National Palace Museum (國立故宮博物院, NPM) yesterday took the first step in a new direction. After over half a century of looking inward on the great heritage of Chinese culture, it launched Exploring Asia (探索亞洲), a display of around 130 items related to the influence of Chinese culture throughout Asia. The show will run through to June 25.
Exploring Asia is described as "Episode One of the NPM Southern Branch" (故宮南院首部曲特展). The NPM's new branch in Chiayi City is scheduled to open to the public in 2011, and in contrast to the NPM in Taipei, will look beyond the borders of the Chinese world, focusing especially on Asia. The exhibition items are drawn from the NPM's huge collection, others have been borrowed or donated by collectors.
To use a musical analogy, this first Exploring Asia exhibition might best be described as an overture, for it whets our appetite by outlining a number of themes, six in all. We have Turning the Dharma Wheel: Buddhist Sculpture in Asia; A Moving Aesthetic: Asian Blue and White Porcelains; The Way of Tea: Asian Tea Cultures and Traditions; and so on. Unfortunately, the first impression is that these themes are rather haphazard, based on what the museum had at its disposal rather than a serious attempt to put forward a view and conception of Chinese culture's relationship with Asia.
Many of the items on display are fascinating and curators noted that a number had never been on display before. Items such as the Dish with Overglaze Red Decoration of Arabic Script, a Chinese bowl of the Ming Dynasty made at the imperial kiln and decorated with Koranic verses, and the bizarre Chinoiserie of the Ostrich Egg with Bird and Flower Decoration in Gold from the Qing Dynasty provide ample interest, and are worth a visit to the museum on their own account.
It's a pity that little effort was made to link the various themes together, and while one accepts that this exhibition is an overture, a stating of themes that will be developed more completely in subsequent exhibitions, and reach full realization with the official opening of the Southern branch, the absence of a clearly stated philosophical underpinning to this bold new step was slightly disappointing.
The NPM has always been strong on presenting items of its incomparable collection of objects, and in recent years has also proved increasingly adept at building up themes, as with its highly regarded Grand View exhibitions of Song Dynasty art. But on this occasion, it's hard to get away from the idea that the emphasis is on exoticism, and this is largely due to the lack of historical context. This is not helped by the somewhat desultory and tangential introductory notes provided to each section, which for the English reader are further marred by some over-literal translation.
But, as NPM director Lin Mun-lee (林曼麗) has pointed out on a number of occasions in reference to the new Southern Branch, the very fact that some of these items have been taken from the vaults and put on display is in itself a great achievement.
In an interview with the Taipei Times in January, she said that the museum was still in the process of "retooling," with current researchers acquiring new areas of expertise and the acquisition of new staff with Asian rather than exclusively Chinese specializations. "We have to take the first step ourselves before we will be able to attract this talent," she said.
The museum's focus, previously almost exclusively placed on a grand canonical tradition of Chinese culture, has begun to shift and look outward toward a diverse regional vista of colonial and commercial ties. This can only be applauded, and is certainly a major step in lifting the NPM to the level of being a truly international museum.
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