The tracks of time: The National Palace Museum is a space that resonates with historical and cultural significance.
Time leaves its marks on concrete things over the long course of history. Artifacts of exquisite craftsmanship and objects that demonstrate the most marvelous artistry of their eras have been passed down from generation to generation. Captivating and wondrous, they bear witness to history. Many such items eventually find their way to the National Palace Museum, whether from secret repositories of Chinese culture or on overseas journeys from places such as the Vatican. All reveal classical nobility and elegance. By exhibiting great Chinese and Western artifacts, the two branches of the NPM, north and south, peruse the tracks of time, studying its linear march from eons past to the present day.
Those tracks are evident in the exhibitions found in the museum’s galleries, however narrow their scope or broad their perspective. They are found in every bowl, robe, tripod, jade tablet, plate, teapot and scroll, every gem, artwork and curio that has survived the tumultuous currents of history to find a haven at the museum. This month, Taiwan Panorama opens the doors onto the nation’s cultural heritage at the NPM. Through the mysterious depths of history, through the succession of dynasties that the museum details, may we root ourselves in the eternal legacy of a great civilization.
Another institution that bears the tracks of time: the National Taiwan Museum.
The museum’s five buildings allow us to review a century of aesthetics. To observe their fusion of Asian and Western styles is to feel the pulse of history. We examine how time has left its tracks on these buildings with the guidance of sketches hand-drawn by architectural historian Li Chien-lang. Between his drawings and our first-hand views of the buildings in the present day, we highlight and deconstruct—from literary, aesthetic, and structural perspectives—how they have changed, and in the process we come to new clarity about the beauty of time’s passage.
Some more exemplars of the passage of time: The lunar year, and the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac that bring good tidings at the new year.
Rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig line up auspiciously, one after another, on the ever-turning wheel of time. At this time of renewal and thanks—seen in the sharing expressed in small farmers’ catered feasts, the care a “clown doctor” brings her patients, and the giving of creative gifts—it is with gratitude of our own that we offer our sincerest wishes for your happiness in the New Year. Amid the noisy bustle, let us return to the true meaning of the holiday, adopt a more tranquil frame of mind, and count our blessings.
A good year arrives on the tracks of time: A troupe of auspicious simians, jumpy and boisterous, are reporting for duty. May the Year of the Monkey see all your wishes come true!
