The upcoming show in the United States of works from the National Palace Museum originally excited the whole nation. But then I got a call from a stranger, a youth who was sobbing: "Mr. Chu, have you seen the send-off show?"

"No I haven't. What's the matter?" His sobbing grew more severe: "Famous paintings that we Taiwanese usually have to wait a year or even three years before having a chance to see are going to be taken to America to be tossed about for a year and shown in four different museums for two months each. They will all be exposed for at least four or eight months. Can this be allowed?"

[The young man went on to list the famous paintings being sent abroad. I expressed dismay that so many of the most famous works could go at once, and he left me with this parting shot:] "Is our cultural leadership asleep? I doubt if you care about your own culture."

Upon seeing the show, I couldn't help but feel depressed. Yet upon reflecting on how a youth could be moved to tears by the prospect of these easily damaged works being exhibited in America, I thought that maybe there's still hope for Taiwan.

In the way we have gone about preparing to send off national treasures to America, we have indeed relinquished our own rights and shamed the nation. Take, for comparison, the exhibition of paintings from the Louvre at the National Palace Museum. We spent NT$130 million, and the orientation of the catalog was set by their experts, with the explanations and essays in it largely written by French scholars. For the upcoming American exhibition, on the other hand, not only were most of the written materials prepared according to the specifications of the American museums, but Taiwan had to pay the American museums US$3 million for them to accept the honor of holding the shows. In the catalog that the National Palace Museum paid for, besides a preface by Ms. Chang Lin-sheng, the museum's assistant director, all of the remaining articles and explanations were written by Americans. Can it be that no one is qualified to write such essays at the museum? The government spends a bundle for all its experts. Can't they be pressed into service when needed?

After this incident, I believe a law should be passed to prohibit Jin, Tang, Song and Yuan dynasty "major national treasures" from leaving the country. These are part of the world's collective cultural wealth. We can't let their fates be manipulated by a few people who like to fawn on foreigners.

Furthermore, most of these paintings have been reproduced by a Japanese publishing house in copies that are virtually indistinguishable from the original. By bringing printing machinery to the National Palace Museum to make copies, we paid a high price. Each time one photograph was taken in this process it caused damage equivalent to exhibiting the work for half a year, but such steps were once again taken in the name of "the nation." After having paid such a high price to obtain these copies, can't they now be of some use?

The American museums say that the National Palace Museum has even better paintings than the ones being sent abroad. But I ask, what paintings are better than Fan Kuan's Travelers Among Mountains and Streams Guo Xi's Early Spring and Li Tang's Soughing Wind Among Mountain Pines. These paintings, truly national treasures, are already in extremely fragile condition, and every time they are handled one is apt to tremble in fear. What kind of absurd logic would have them shipped abroad because "there are even better paintings"?

Even if only 330 artifacts from the National Palace Museum are exhibited this time, it will provide quite enough excitement. And the 145 "Selected Paintings and Works of Calligraphy from the Museum Collection"--excluding those above-

mentioned rare treasures in need of protection--are ample enough to satisfy Americans. Is the expertise of the American public such that many museum- goers would even know that such paintings were particularly rare?

If opposition by our countrymen should prevent a small number of national treasures from risking damage on a foreign trip, then Americans, who are democratic by nature, as well as the people of other nations will gain respect for us. This can only help us diplomatically. Otherwise, this generation of Chinese will simply be mocked even more by the people of the world.