The Century-Old Story of “Us”: Masterpieces from the National Museum of History Go on Display

Text by Li Xinyi, compiled and reported

This year marks the centennial of the founding of the Republic of China. From the beginning to the end of the year, a rich array of centennial celebration events have taken place, ranging from grand and lively commemorative ceremonies to historical retrospectives featuring precious historical materials. The National Museum of History tells the century-long story of “us” through the life memories of the people and treats the entire exhibition space as a theater, offering the public a unique visiting experience through spatial storytelling.

The exhibition entrance is inaugurated by four artifact crates that traveled from Henan to Taiwan, setting the prelude. The dusty and worn imprints, along with the tattered seals, reflect the movement of artifacts and mirror the flow of the nation and its people. This is the root of the NMH and also a microcosm of our own displacement, migration, and eventual settlement. These four crates carried national treasures unearthed from archaeological excavations housed at the Henan Museum in the early years of the Republic of China, including oracle bones and bronzes that are millennia-old relics of the nation. In 1937, with the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan and the spread of the flames of war, these national treasures—packed in wooden crates wrapped in oilcloth—were evacuated amidst the turmoil. It was not until the end of November 1949, just before the Nationalist government relocated to Taiwan, that 38 crates of Henan artifacts were urgently transported to Taiwan by two military aircraft.

Additionally, visitors to the special exhibition will have the opportunity to admire masterpieces from the NMH collection, such as paintings by Liao Chi-chun including “Temple,” “Still Life,” and “Three Leaf Village”; Lan Yin-ding’s “Dragon Dance”; Hong Rui-lin’s “Unnamed Underground Heroes”; Yang San-lang’s “Old House,” “Late Autumn,” and “Snowy Jade Mountain”; Lee Tze-fan’s “Longshan Temple in Taipei” and “High Mountains and Deep Clouds”; Lee Mei-shu’s “Autumn in Zhuolan”; Lin Keh-kung’s “Street Gossip”; Tsai Yin-tang’s “Twilight at Tamsui”; and Ma Pai-shui’s “Keelung Harbor,” “Kenting,” and “A Family in Meinong.” Also on display are photographic works by Chang Ching-yen, Tsai Hui-feng, Yang Chi-p?⒊lu⒈颉⒄抛甏?⒄耪仗玫热耍?as well as landscapes that reflect the connection between people and the land.