A special exhibition offering a look at Taiwan’s history of disease prevention from the late 19th century to COVID-19 is to open today at the National Taiwan Museum’s Railway Department Park in Taipei.
“On the Cusps of Epidemic Crises: Special Exhibition on a Century of Taiwan’s Fight Against Epidemics” provides an introduction to the nation’s experiences at preventing disease over the past century, as well as the modern transformation of the field, from the perspectives of public health, transportation and the public, the museum said.
While public health and disease prevention have been major aspects of the nation’s modernization, the implementation of public health policies has often clashed with traditional culture, it said.
Photo: CNA
The exhibition “offers a chance to time travel back through a century of disease prevention in Taiwan,” it said, adding that the exhibition features ukiyo-e (Japanese woodblock art), illustrations, photographs and scrolls that have been in the museum collection since the Japanese colonial period, alongside cultural relics of Han Chinese.
The exhibition also includes historical records on health and quarantine practices before and after World War II, interviews and displays of objects such as medical supplies, it said.
The exhibition revisits major events and policies in the nation’s history of disease prevention and explores how Taiwan developed an advanced public health system, museum director Hong Shi-yo (洪世佑) told the opening ceremony yesterday.
Through the context of Taiwan’s history, the museum hopes to inspire visitors to reflect on their surroundings and look differently at the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.
Many public health professionals helped the museum in curating the exhibition by offering their advice, as well as loaning literature on the subject, he added.
National Taiwan University executive vice president Chang Shan-chwen (張上淳), convener of the Central Epidemic Command Center’s specialist advisory panel, also attended the exhibition’s opening.
Before May, thanks to the nation’s past experiences with epidemics and its planning, as well as the public’s cooperation, Taiwan managed the pandemic exceptionally well, living in what some people described as a “parallel world,” he said, adding that despite an outbreak of infections beginning in May, the spread was rapidly controlled.
The arrival of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant in Taiwan has also been contained through enhanced measures and public cooperation, he said, calling the nation’s achievements in preventing the spread of COVID-19 “miraculous.”
The exhibit is scheduled to run until Nov. 6 next year.
The Railway Department Park, in Taipei’s Datong District (大同), is closed on Mondays.
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