This year's Double Tenth Day has a special significance: Besides being the Chinese national holiday, it also marks the 60th anniversary of the world-renowned National Palace Museum. Sinorama concludes its commemorative series on the museum with a look at the present state of the museum, its exhibits, and plans for the future.
Many people may not know that the Palace Museum collection was moved this April to a new location again. But this move presented none of the perils of the past; in fact, museum workers were thrilled at the prospect. Why? Because the collection's new home is just 100 yards away from the main museum storerooms where the pieces had rested for 20 years, and the facilities in the new building are extraordinary.
The security system alone cost NT$120 million (about US$3 million). Activity within the storerooms is constantly watched and recorded by all-weather infrared and microwave scanners. Pass gates are equipped with electronic card readers. And cards are issued only to upper-level specialists and then only to the rooms for which they are responsible.
To protect against fire, extinguishing systems automatically operate should the smoke or temperature exceed certain levels. Special gases are used for paintings, books, and embroidery, for which water would be unsuitable.
Besides theft and fire, the collection has other, no less insidious enemies to contend with--temperature, humidity, and pollution. Different kinds of artifacts require different conditions of moisture and temperature. The conservation division is responsible for regulating these factors and for filtering the air to guard against pollution. "To compare it to medicine," says the division's Chang Shih-pao, "we take the preventive steps. But those artifacts that have been damaged over the years due to a lack of these measures in antiquity need to be 'cured'."
One of the "doctors" is Yang Yuan-chuan. According to him, the hardest part of restoration is not reassembly, which he compares to piecing together a puzzle, but applying the color afterwards. He is careful to use epoxies that can be removed later if necessary, because, he says, "restoration techniques are constantly improving and we're always waiting for better ones."
In addition to advantages in prevention and preservation, what the new building offers in abundance is space--over 250,000 sq. feet of it. "It will be much more convenient for us," says Chang Lin-sheng of the antiquities department. In the old caves, as he describes it, his department had about 60,000 objects packed into over 2,000 boxes stacked along the walls. Due to space limitations, the center corridor was too narrow to maneuver a forklift, so human labor had to be used. Some boxes weighed as much as 132 lbs.
Although the new antiquities rooms do not have open stacks like the paintings and documents areas, just being able to get at the boxes easily is enough to excite department specialists. "Of course, open stacks would be convenient for research," Tsai Pen-hsiung of the department explains. "But the collection's enormous size and the island's location in an earthquake belt make packing in boxes the safest, most practicable method of storage available at present."
Moving the objects to their new home has increased exhibition space in the main building from 30,000 sq. meters to 50,000. This provides an opportunity for rethinking display methods. Ideally, Museum Director Ch'in Hsiao-yi would like everyone who steps in the museum to be able to place each item in its historical perspective as well as appreciating its aesthetic value. A breakthrough in realizing this ideal was the recent opening of a special exhibit on "the Relationship Between Chinese and World Culture." Along the wall runs a 94-yard chronological chart illustrating 10,000 years of Chinese and world achievements in the areas of culture, thought, and technology. The chart makes clear the unique continuity of Chinese culture while at the same time pointing out how western technology overtook the East's in the last three centuries.
Besides the special "Relationship" exhibit, the museum, in celebration of its 60th anniversary, will display 25 other exhibits on three floors, many with works shown for the first time. The ceramics exhibit, for example, is the most complete ever, this time including prehistoric and folk works as well as the great pieces from the Sung (960-1279) and Yuan (1277-1368) dynasties. The jade exhibit will focus on a new methods of dating. Bronzeware will feature careful explanations of the ancient inscriptions on each piece. Painting and calligraphy will display a number of famous works usually kept stored to protect them from exposure. There is even a special display on clothing and ornaments. All the exhibits will make use of graphic explanations, transparencies, and multi-media presentations.
One of the most eagerly awaited exhibits is the new "Modern Art Exhibit" to be opened in the east wing. It will include representative works by acknowledged masters going back as far as the late 18th century. The show is an historic first for the museum. Will the museum now start collecting the works of contemporary artists? "We don't reject that possibility," a museum official answers tactfully.
Under the encouragement of Director Ch'in, the schedules of the museum's departments are full of plans and ideas. Continuing projects must be carried forward as well, such as the publication department's award-winning National Palace Museum Monthly of Chinese Art and its series on 5000 Years of Chinese Art and Chinese Art in Overseas Collections. Another continuing project is that of art reproduction, enabling the public to make art a more integral part of our daily lives.
The Palace Museum is truly unique. Some 2 million visitors tour its halls every year, taking unforgettable memories back with them to places around the world. One person's memory is particularly special: It's October 10, 1925, and a 19-year-old lad is standing on a chair in the Imperial Palace in Peking directing the crowds, "This way, this way forward!"
Forty years later, on October 10, 1965, this same antiquities specialist, having followed the collection to Taiwan, excitedly attended the opening ceremony of the Palace Museum in its present location. And now, on October 10th this year, he will take part in the museum's 60th anniversary celebration and receive an award along with other workers who helped evacuate the treasures from Peking. Eighty-year-old Na Chih-liang can't help but sigh. "In a full 60-year cycle, I've seen the collection locked away in the Forbidden City, carried in haste from the palace, and wandering about without a home. . . . The national treasures, to have come through what they did and be where they are now, have truly enjoyed a lot of good fortune."
(Translated by Peter Eberly)
[Picture Caption]
One of the goals of the museum is to help bring works of art into daily life. Pictured are some replicas of glazed pottery figures from the T'ang dynasty (618-907) created by the conservation division.
The museum has recently strengthened its pre-T'ang ceramics collection. Here a group of lively high school students imitate a glazed devaraja.
Vivid educational displays, like this one in the ceramics room, attract the attention of visitors.
The San-hsi parlor, with a panoramic view of the surrounding park, provides a pleasant place to relax and take tea.
As part of its restoration work, the conservation division invites experts, such as this pottery master, to recreate works after the originals.
When objects in the storerooms are selected for display, they are placed in pushcarts and taken by tunnel to the museum. Pictured above are some jade artifacts in one of the carts.
The museum has recently strengthened its pre-T'ang ceramics collection. Here a group of lively high school students imitate a glazed devaraja.
Vivid educational displays, like this one in the ceramics room, attract the attention of visitors.
The San-hsi parlor, with a panoramic view of the surrounding park, provides a pleasant place to relax and take tea.
As part of its restoration work, the conservation division invites experts, such as this pottery master, to recreate works after the originals.
When objects in the storerooms are selected for display, they are placed in pushcarts and taken by tunnel to the museum. Pictured above are some jade artifacts in one of the carts.
When objects in the storerooms are selected for display, they are placed in pushcarts and taken by tunnel to the museum. Pictured above are some jade artifacts in one of the carts.
