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.
Photo: CNA
Gouache is a water-based opaque paint that offers brighter and heavier pigment coverage than watercolors, and the “Eastern gouache” technique has been defined as paintings that use colors mixed with gelatin, clay or metal.
One of the featured paintings, a 1968 work called Orchid (香蘭), was done by pioneering female artist Chen later in her life and portrays a woman in formal attire seated on a chair.
Another of the works, Lin’s 1930 classic masterpiece of Taiwanese Eastern gouache during the Japanese colonial period called Lotus Pond (蓮池), depicts a field of lotus flowers and an egret in the lower left.
Photo: CNA
Meanwhile, a display combining the 1930 work Festival on South Street (南街殷賑) by Kuo, which depicts a festive look at Taipei’s Dihua Street during the colonial period, with the modern Taipei 101 skyline, is the favorite of the head of the pavilion’s organizer.
James Huang (黃志芳), honorary chairman of Tamayama Digital Tech Co, said Kuo’s work, reinterpreted through technological innovation, is the one he most wanted to introduce to foreign visitors to the event.
The gallery also features recreations of works of other famous Taiwanese artists, including Huang Tu-shui (黃土水), Chen Cheng-po (陳澄波), Lee Shih-chiao (李石樵) and Li Mei-shu (李梅樹).
The government spent NT$2 billion (US$61.55 million) to build the Tech World pavilion, which is taking part in the World Expo as a private-sector pavilion.
Beyond the AI-based art gallery, it showcases a slew of smart technologies and products developed by Taiwanese companies such as Asustek Computer Inc, AUO Corp and Hiwin Technologies Corp, said the Taiwan External Trade Development Council, which James Huang also heads.
The pavilion has three multimedia theaters offering visitors an interactive and immersive experience through display technologies.
Takashi Kubota, a Japanese visitor to the Tech World pavilion, said he visited Taiwan 30 years ago when he took the Alishan Forest Railway train in Chiayi County, but Tech World had shown him scenic spots in Taiwan he had not seen.
He said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw.
The World Expo opened on April 13 and runs until Oct. 13.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
Taiwan has activated backup communications for its northernmost territory, the remote and strategically located island of Dongyin (東引), after poor weather conditions apparently shifted the wreckage of a ship onto an undersea cable causing it to break. The vulnerability of undersea communication cables linking Taiwan with its outlying islands has been a persistent cause of concern for Taipei, whose government has on several occasions blamed Chinese ships for intentionally causing damage. Dongyin, home to about 1,500 people, sits in a strategic position at the top of the Taiwan Strait and the island has a heavy military presence. It does not have an
RSS