To the classical Chinese atmosphere of the National Palace Museum, some Western musical notes were added in late September: On display were 40 instruments in the violin family, as well as 30 violin bows, 18 antique instruments and 28 paintings and sculptures related to violins. The items in the exhibit "The Legend of Italian Violins" were on loan from the Chi Mei Museum. Among them were several famous instruments, including a violin made by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu that was much loved by Ole Bull, the "father" of Norwegian violinists; a 450-year-old tenor viola crafted by Pellegrino di Zanetto; and a violin made by Gasparo Bertolotti da Salo. The exhibit not only demonstrates the historical development of this family of instruments, but also the high esteem in which Chi Mei's collection is held around the world.

Chi Mei's connection to violins starts with the company founder Hsu Wen-lung, who still plays a violin before he goes to bed every night so that music can fill his slumber. He's been captivated by the instrument ever since he first heard a violin when he was only four or five. At the end of World War II, many Japanese who lived in Taiwan were deported, and they had to quickly sell their belongings. It was at one of those sales that Hsu purchased his first violin. He went on to form a musical group when he was a student at a technical school.

Playing every day led to strings breaking. Hsu didn't know where to go to buy strings, and couldn't have afforded them anyway. But he didn't give up hope. Instead he developed an ambition to make his own strings. He salvaged some steel rope and wire from the wreckage of downed Japanese planes, and, by trial and error, he found some solutions.

"For an E string, you've got to use very thin steel wire. For an A string, on the other hand, you've got to wrap the wire with fine aluminum, sand it, and then add some silk thread. For a D string you've got to use coarser aluminum wire and wrap it in more silk thread-that way the tone won't be too piercing. For a G string you've got to use copper wire...." Half a century later, Hsu still remembers clearly the various steps he took. Because pulling and wrapping these various metal wires took so much time and effort, it also sparked an improvisational DIY sensibility in him. For instance, he used an old clock cogwheel to serve as a thread winder. With a flick of his wrist he could turn the spool 10 revolutions. The metal strings he made by hand were of excellent quality, and he became Taiwan's first seller of handcrafted violin strings!

In 1990, after Hsu had become a successful entrepreneur, he bought a violin that Antonio Stradivari had made in 1709 from violinist Lin Cho-liang. "When I placed that violin against my neck," he recalls, "I was so thrilled that I couldn't speak. When playing the first note, Stradivari's spirit jumped across 281 years, beckoning to me clearly. It was like a religious epiphany." The purchase of this famous violin was the start of Hsu Wen-lung's collection.

Tainan's Chi Mei Museum contains 450 famous violins made by 340 renowned craftsmen. Among a great variety of impressive objects in the collection, they stand out. "Fifty years from now, Chi Mei Corporation may no longer exist, but the Chi Mei Medical Center and the Chi Mei Museum will last for generation after generation."

Hsu loves instruments, but he loves the people who play them even more. Many of these violins are made readily available for loan to young musicians. The Chi Mei Arts Awards, which he established, have provided more than NT$60 million to more than 200 artists and musicians over the last two decades. Showing concern for passing along the world's cultural inheritance and happily sharing, serving society by raising people's quality of life and aesthetic sensibilities-these attributes surely demonstrate the spirit of the phrase that Chi Mei uses to describe itself: "the blessed corporation."