Witness to History--National Taiwan Museum

Upon reaching Taipei Railway Station, if you head down Kuanchien Rd., cross three intersections and you'll come to a building with a distinctly classical, late-Renaissance feel-this is the National Taiwan Museum. In front of its main entrance stand two copper bulls, glistening in the sunshine. The museum has stood in this same spot through 90 summers, watching as Taiwan has gone through political transitions and into today's pluralistic society. The paths trod by the island's pioneers, which the NTM has borne witness to, have gone on to become cherished history to those of us today who enjoy the fruits of their labor.

History can be defined as changes wrought on situations by time or by the hand of man, and both of these factors have led the NTM to go through a number of names over the decades. In 1908, during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan, it was the Museum of the Governor-General of Taiwan Province. Then in 1915 it was merged with the Kodama-Goto Memorial Museum to become the Taiwan Governor-General's Museum. After the Kuomintang retreat to Taiwan in 1949 the museum became the Taiwan Provincial Museum, a name which was "corrected" 50 years later, becoming today's National Taiwan Museum. The place where the museum stands, too, has seen its share of changes. The park, a destination for innumerable school field trips over the years, has gone from being Taipei New Park to 228 Peace Park.

With the NTM having only been known as such for six years, and of those six being closed for three in the aftermath of the March 31 quake, many people are still unfamiliar with this particular museum. However, history proves it to be, in its various incarnations, Taiwan's oldest museum. Additionally, of the many museums set up in Taiwan under Japanese rule, the NTM is the only one to have survived the wartime fires that scourged the island, standing in the same location since its creation.

One of the most valuable items in the museum's collection, a Hayasaka rhinoceros fossil.

Annoyance to asset

Late in the Qing dynasty war broke out between China and Japan, leading to the Qing being routed and signing the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895, ceding Taiwan to the Japanese. From the start the Taiwanese public was vehemently opposed to this, and Taiwan declared independence. The Republic of Taiwan was established, and under their "Blue Earth, Yellow Tiger" flag the republic elected the former provincial governor Tang Jingsong president. But the Republic of Taiwan would be short-lived, lasting only 148 days before Japanese troops marched through Taipei's north gate, ushering in 51 years of colonial rule.

The first three appointed governors-general of Taiwan during this period ruled also as military leaders. They would find little pleasant to report to Tokyo-rebellions were continually springing up, including such major ones as the Seraian Incident, the Miaoli Incident, and Mona Rudao's Aboriginal uprising at Wushe. Amidst these constant anti-Japanese attacks, the Japanese began to question their ability to successfully govern the colony. Taiwan earned a reputation for being exceedingly difficult to administer, and there were even calls within Japan proper for the government to simply sell off Taiwan for ¥100 million and be done with it.

Then, in 1898, the fourth governor-general Kodama Gentarou and his assistant Goto Shimpei began a plan to develop and exploit Taiwan for economic gain, including completing running water systems; establishing Taiwan's first modern financial institution, the Bank of Taiwan; starting work on a north-south railway line; completing a full census; standardizing the currency and measurement systems; enforcing the ban on opium; constructing hydroelectric power plants in Taipei's Shenkeng and Kueishan areas; and reinvigorating the economy through implementing a monopolistic mercantile system and building up the sugar industry. These projects laid the foundation for Taiwan's modernization and jumpstarted its progress toward becoming a fully functional capitalist entity.

By 1905 Taiwan was fully economically independent and self-sufficient, no longer having to rely on assistance from Japan. Two years later, tax on sugar and trade tariffs began being paid into Japan's coffers, and the territory transformed from being an annoyance to a valuable asset. The government began to consider Taiwan a valuable addition to the empire. Through his enormous contributions to Taiwan, Goto has come to be regarded by Japanese and Taiwanese historians as the father of Taiwanese development.

Taiwan's oldest human fossil, Tso-Chen Man, dates back almost 50,000 years. According to experts, his lifestyle would have been very similar to that of the Changbin culture of the same time period.

Window on Taiwan

The reinvigoration of Taiwan made not only Japan sit up and take notice, but also several Western nations. Packaging their experience in Taiwan as a "shop window" of sorts to show their success to the world, the colonial government ordered the establishment of the Taiwan Provincial Products Expo on April 3, 1899. This expo showcased a range of traditional Taiwanese goods, both everyday tools and more artistic works. Over half of these exhibits would go on to become part of the Taiwan Governor-General's Museum's collection. So in a way this expo could be considered the forerunner of that very museum.

In April 1908, the second year since the end of Kodama and Goto's control of Taiwan, the island's main artery for transport and commerce, the north-south railway, was opened. To mark the occasion, the colonial government announced a plan of a kind previously unseen in Taiwan-the establishment of a museum. In October that year, Taiwan's first natural history museum opened to the public in the Lottery Department Building (now the Po-ai Building, at the corner of today's Po-ai and Paoching Streets). The museum was called the Museum of the Governor-General of Taiwan Province.

But as early as 1906, a month before Goto left office, there was already a local committee looking at establishing a museum on the site of the Tianhou Temple-which was about to be demolished-in Taipei's New Park. This museum would become the Kodama-Goto Memorial Museum.

That same year, Civil Governor Iwai Tatsumi proposed an island-wide fundraising effort, and with the help of the Sakuma Group, the proposed museum entered its seven-year fundraising and development phase. Ground was broken on the museum in 1913, and construction work finished two years later. The committee then presented it to the provincial government to officially become a museum. This new facility was soon merged with the Museum of the Governor-General to form a single entity, the Taiwan Governor-General's Museum.

The oldest known Taiwanese map, dating back to the reign of Emperor Kangxi (1661-1722)

Architectural treasure

This new museum sat at the intersection of the central east-west axis and subsidiary north-south axis of the city. It was a long, rectangular building, its main face built along the axis of the city and the whole building totally symmetrical. It was beautifully proportioned, with its crisp lines setting off the classical design. At the center of each main wall stand six columns, adorned with magnificent arches and triangular pediments, giving a look reminiscent of a Greek temple. The bases and supports of the columns either side of the entranceway form a perfectly stable equilateral triangle.

Architecture expert Li Chien-lang says that the occupation period, immediately following the Meiji Restoration, was a time in which the focus of society was not only on economic development but also on culture. The designers took inspiration from the late-Renaissance rebirth of the Greek Doric order of architecture, with the design marked by rounded tops and domes, triangular peaks, and decorative columns.

The most famous museums of the time-such as New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of London-were situated in parks, and so the Japanese government chose Taipei's New Park as the site of their museum, following global architectural trends.

Li explains that the structure of the National Taiwan Museum is built largely of brick and reinforced concrete, while the main decorative materials, black marble and white calcite, were imported from Japan. The wood that was used in the building was a combination of Japanese fir and Taiwanese cypress. The staircases and floors were made from colored marble, and to top off the exquisite workmanship of the building, the outer walls were done in stucco.

The spectacular main lobby is home to several gorgeous Corinthian columns holding up the central dome, which reaches 30 meters in height. The impressive structure is the central aesthetic focus of the building. The dome's accompanying stained glass is breathtaking in color and spectacle, and the entire structure is a rare example of Taiwanese architecture of the time.

The museum currently holds in its collection a "yellow tiger" flag, from the days of the Republic of Taiwan, given to the museum by Chiu Nien-tai, descendant of Chiu Feng-chia, the vice-president of the short-lived republic. It was repainted by artist Lin Yu-shan, but this flag is only one-sixth the size of the original ones.

Prized possession

The NTM collection at present numbers about 100,000 pieces, covering four major fields: anthropology, geology, zoology, and botany. The collection includes numerous specimens of animals from Taiwan that are now extinct, unique Taiwanese minerals and precious stones, and items collected during the Japanese occupation, including Aboriginal, Austronesian, Taiwanese, and prehistoric relics. This collection is Taiwan's most valuable natural history resource and is highly valued as an academic resource.

The museum's most prized possessions include Taiwan's most valuable mammalian fossils, those of Hayasaka rhinoceroses, which were discovered at the Tsailiao River near the town of Tsochen, Tainan County, by famous Japanese anthropologist Otsuka Yuji and Taiwanese geologist Lin Chao-chi in September 1971. They are the most complete fossils of this particular type of Asian rhinoceros, and date back almost 500,000 years, providing powerful evidence that Taiwan was once home to rhinoceroses.

Taiwan's earliest human fossil was also discovered in that same area-Tso-Chen Man, which dates back 50,000 years. It has been verified as paleolithic Homo sapiens, and their lifestyle appears to have been similar to that of the Changbin culture in Taitung and the Hengchun Peninsula at the same time.

Additionally, NTM is home to a rich collection of Aboriginal headwear and necklaces. These include unique Bunun "tooth necklaces;" are these necklaces, made from strings of human teeth, memorials to the departed, or are they the spoils of battle worn by warriors? Being relics of such a distant, bygone era, we may never be able to fully understand their true symbolism.

Set up in the plaza in front of the museum is a Tengyun class steam locomotive, which draws the largest number of pedestrians to the museum. It is also Taiwan's earliest and one of the world's best preserved old engines. In 2003, the Yongle, Taipei chapter of Rotary International held an event to celebrate the engine's 80th anniversary, raising funds for the refurbishment of its lighting and exterior, and today, despite its 119 years, the Tengyun is still in top shape. Visitors can walk up, pop in a coin, and hear a toot from the steam whistle that used to signify the train was leaving.

Set up in the plaza in outside the museum is a Tengyun class locomotive, Taiwan's oldest and one of the world's best-maintained old engines.

Lost?

In May 2005, the museum once again opened its doors to the public with the "Taiwan in Maps" exhibition, which includes Taiwan's oldest map, which is 600 centimeters long by 70 centimeters wide and dates back to the reign of Emperor Kangxi. Qing-dynasty censor Huang Shujing had a craftsman paint a gigantic silk map scroll of Taiwan after he visited and inspected the island, and in 1722, this map was presented to Emperor Kangxi, becoming the earliest recorded map of Taiwan created by Taiwanese. Also on display are an 18th-century deerskin scroll and over 300 maps drafted by early Spanish, Dutch, and British merchants and missionaries, as well as several from other countries.

On the day of the reopening, President Chen made a speech announcing a plan to expand the museum, solving the space limitations it was facing. This plan was formulated by the Council for Cultural Affairs, and will see the museum's premises extended into the former premises of the Land Bank across the road. The CCA has already reached a preliminary agreement with the Taipei City Government to this end. Upon the project's completion, not only will the NTM have a larger exhibition space, it will also have an area dedicated to presenting the evolution of the geology and culture of the Taipei Basin, becoming a natural history museum for Taiwan and giving the public a place to gain an appreciation of the natural history and ecological diversity of Taiwan.

Since the establishment of the National Taiwan Museum, the main road running in front of it has been known as Kuanchien Rd.-"museum-front road." At the other end of this road sat Taipei Railway Station. These two public facilities, each with their own vastly different architectural styles, stood facing each other, forming the heart of 19th century Taipei City. For the many travelers journeying into Taipei by train, and the others who had traveled long distances to sightsee in the city, this was the first sight that greeted them on their arrival. In 1986, when the train lines were shifted underground, the old station building began to be dismantled, leaving the NTM standing, alone, under its green canopy at the end of the bustling Kuanchien Rd., peaceful as always. It stands today, watching this vanishing hub of old Taipei, having silently borne witness to a century of ups and downs in Taiwan.

Taiwan in Maps

Exhibition period: May 18-September 18, 2005

Address: 2 Hsiangyang Rd., Taipei City (in 228 Peace Park)

Time: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. (closed on Mondays)

Tel.: (02) 2382-2699, (02) 2382-2684

After being closed for three years, the National Taiwan Museum reopened its doors on World Museum Day this year with a special exhibition, Taiwan in Maps. Visitors searched for familiar spots such as rivers and old place names on the ancient maps on show.

The central dome in the museum's lobby stands almost 30 meters in height, and its stained glass is held in place by mortised lead strips. The whole dome is a brilliant, elegant work, 90% of which has survived intact since the museum's construction.