An exhibition of matchboxes has opened in Keelung, showcasing thousands of matchboxes collected by former Keelung Fire Department director Tang Chen-yu (唐鎮宇).
“Just like vinyl records, matchboxes also showcase an era,” the Keelung Cultural Affairs Bureau said on Saturday.
The exhibition sheds light on a period when matches were a necessity of life, it said.
Photo: Lin Hsin-han, Taipei Times
Many businesses, such as movie houses, hotels, barber shops, banks and beverage vendors, used to post advertisements on matchboxes, reflecting the changing aesthetics and handiwork of past eras, the bureau added.
Tang said that while he was tasked with putting out fire, his father, Tang Kun (唐坤), was a “fire maker,” having worked for more than 20 years as a director at Taiwan Match Co’s Taichung and Hsinchu plants, and later as its general manager.
Tang Chen-yu said he gained most of his knowledge about matches from his father and witnessed the rise and fall of the match industry.
As matches were gradually replaced by lighters, regulations governing the establishment of match factories were abolished in 1998, making it impossible to produce matchboxes again, he said.
With Keelung-based artist Wang Yu-sung (王毓淞) helping curate the show, the exhibition presents matchboxes produced in different eras, Tang Kun’s manuscripts about his research on matches and old photographs that tell stories of a family deeply related to fire, the bureau said.
The exhibition at the Keelung Cultural Center runs until Dec. 15.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
A magnitude 4.1 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 2:23pm today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was 5.4 kilometers northeast of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 34.9 km, according to the CWA. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was the highest in Hualien County, where it measured 2 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 1 in Yilan county, Taichung, Nantou County, Changhua County and Yunlin County, the CWA said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
RSS