The National Palace Museum (NPM) in Taipei and its southern branch in Chiayi County are to stay open throughout the Lunar New Year holiday, providing the public with an artistic and cultural option for things to do with family and friends during the break.
Visitors to the Taipei museum may also pick up free red envelopes or new year couplets written with auspicious blessings until Wednesday next week.
The Gleam Ensemble, a small classical Western musical troupe from Taiwan, is to put on a free concert at the Taipei museum from 3pm to 4pm on Tuesday.
Photo courtesy of Chiayi County Government
Meanwhile, the Southern Branch of the museum said that it has an ongoing collaboration with the county’s Sugar Cane Train Railway at Suantou Sugar Factory, which allows train passengers to use their ticket stubs to enter the museum for free until Thursday.
In other news, the National Museum of History in Taipei is set to reopen to the public on Feb. 21, after a five-year renovation of the first public museum established by the Nationalist government in Taiwan after 1949.
Aside from expanding the museum’s display space by 866.12m2, people will for the first time be allowed to visit the top floor of the five-story museum, it said.
The fifth floor was previously used to store the museum’s collection of more than 50,000 artifacts, including prehistoric colored pottery, as well as modern calligraphy, it said.
The top floor is to host a special exhibition of the architectural features of the museum, which was built in the style of a northern Chinese palace, it said.
Visitors will also be able to enjoy views of the Taipei Botanical Garden and the cultural and educational institutes in “Nanhai Academy,” veteran architecture researcher Lee Chian-lang (李乾朗) said.
Formally opened on March 12, 1956, the museum was built next to the lotus pond in the botanical garden and started with a collection of artifacts handed over by Japan after World War II and items originally from Henan Museum in China.
A new permanent exhibition titled “Discover our connections, right here” features Chang Dai-chien’s (張大千) 1965 painting Morning View at Alishan (阿里山曉望), as well as fang-hu, a squarish ritual wine vessel, from China’s Spring and Autumn period, the museum said.
Three of the 750 so-called “Chinese culture” boxes containing copies of artifacts that included works by artists in Taiwan will also be on display.
The artifacts toured more than 30 countries between 1969 and 1986 to assert the role played by the Republic of China in preserving Chinese culture, as the country faced an increasingly challenging diplomatic environment.
The museum is also to host a special exhibition titled “Monuments of Brush and Ink” showcasing calligraphy and ink painting masterpieces in its collection, as well as the “Birth of the Modernist Art Movement in Taiwan” in another exhibition, it said.
‘OBNOXIOUS MAN’: The KMT’s Chen Ching-hui moved into Chung Chia-pin’s path atop the podium and reached for him before he grabbed at her legs with both hands Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱) yesterday said he slipped and lost his balance, and did not know who was around him, after jumping onto the speaker’s podium at the legislature in Taipei. He apologized after a collision with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chen Ching-hui (陳菁徽), who moved to intercept him as he mounted the podium. There was pushing and shoving when the session started in the morning as KMT lawmakers attempted to block access to the podium to shield Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) so he could preside over the session. Video footage showed Chung step on a chair and
While it is common to see bumper stickers informing other drivers about important information, such as “baby on board” or “rookie driver,” some motorist in Taiwan are using creative statements to warn other drivers to keep a safe distance to avoid a collision. A photograph recently circulating on the Internet showed a van in Changhua City with a bumper sticker saying that the driver received their license after taking the test three times, so it is dangerous to drive close to the vehicle. The person who took the photograph said all vehicles behind the van appeared to “subconsciously” maintaining a safe distance. Some
Taipei police on Saturday arrested 24 female Thai tourists on suspicion of working as hostesses and engaging in illegal activities at an underground bar in Zhongshan District (中山), the distict’s police precinct said in a statement yesterday. The police also arrested five other people involved in the operation, including the 29-year-old bar owner surnamed Chiang (蔣), and 17 customers, the statement said. The 24 Thai women were fined an undisclosed amount in accordance with the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法) by the police and transferred to a National Immigration Agency (NIA) special brigade in Taipei for repatriation to Thailand. The cases of
SHOW OF SUPPORT: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said 508 guests from 51 delegations are expected to attend today’s inauguration ceremony in Taipei Delegations from Taiwan’s diplomatic allies and other friendly countries have arrived in the nation to attend the inauguration of president-elect William Lai (賴清德) and vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) today. From the presidential election on Jan. 13 until today, 687 foreign guests from 73 delegations have come to Taiwan to deliver congratulatory messages to the newly elected leaders, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. Among them, 508 guests from 51 delegations, including eight led by heads of state, are attending today’s inauguration ceremony and other related events, it added. Pope Francis appointed the Holy See’s Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines Charles John Brown