 Since
the second half of the 20th century, museums around the world
have placed more emphasis on public education and recreation
applications, thus influencing the rapid evolution of museum
managements. In a democratic and open society, museums have
gained much public acceptance and have become a necessary
cultural institute. The development of the museum industry
reflects the modernization of society; therefore, the characteristics
of museum evolution can also be interpreted as a social phenomenon.
In
the past century, the development of Taiwan’s museums has
been influenced by government’s cultural policies, the growth
and decline of the economy, the investment environment, private
collections, religion, as well as international cultural exchange.
Thus, the development of Taiwan’s museums can be divided into
the following four periods:
- The Burgeoning Period:
After the Treaty of Shimoneseki,
the Qing emperor gave up Taiwan to Japan. During the 50
years of Japanese occupation, the Japanese government
brought the museum model of democratized Europe to Taiwan.
In 1915, using tax money collected from the Taiwanese,
the Japanese government established the "Affiliated
Museum of the Business Property Bureau of the Civil Affairs
Department under the Office of the Taiwan Governor"
(now National Taiwan Museum) in Taipei, which became the
first public natural history museum in the Taiwan region.
In addition, in Tainan, Chiayi and other areas respectively
established the Taiwan Historical Materials Museum (now
Koxinga Museum), the Alishan Botanical Museum, industrial
museums and trade fairs opened to the public. Various
departments of the Taihoku (Taipei) Imperial University
(now National Taiwan University) also established anthropology,
botany, and entomology specimen exhibition halls with
reasonable scale. These museums survived the tumultuous
era, including World War II, and were able to remain intact
except during the 1946 Chiayi Earthquake. After the war,
these museums were returned to the government of the Republic
of China along with the resurrection of Taiwan.
- The Restoration Period:
In 1946, the Taiwan Provincial
Government took over and began operating the museums established
during Japanese occupation. In 1949, the government of
the Republic of China relocated to Taiwan, and brought
along valuable cultural assets from the Palace Museum
in Beijing and the Central Museum in Nanjing, bronze ware
and Tang tricolor pottery from the Henan Museum, artifacts
excavated from the Yin(Shang) Tombs by the Institute of
History and Philology of the Academia Sinica. Right after
the war, everything in Taiwan was required to start anew,
and despite the difficult material conditions of the time,
the Ministry of Education was determined to set forth
a series of museum restoration plans. In the 1950s, the
Academia Sinica and the National Museum of History were
established, and in 1965, the National Palace Museum officially
opened in Waishuangxi, Taipei City. Since then, these
museums have taken on the important role of education
that passes on the Chinese cultural tradition in Taiwan.
- The Vigorous Development Period:
During the 1970s and 1980s, Nativist
consciousness for local culture was on the rise, as well
as the 12th major cultural construction plan implemented
by the Executive Yuan , endeavored to balance the development
gap between urban and rural areas. Subsequently, 21 counties
and cities all over Taiwan commenced the establishment
of cultural centers and large museums, pushing Taiwan’s
museum industry into a vigorous development period. The
prosperous development of industry and commerce, and international
trade have brought up the transformation of Taiwan’s agricultural
society and traditional buildings were rapidly torn down
and traditional folk art and craft techniques also gradually
diminished. However, the local literature movement awakened
people’s Nativist consciousness and many began to collect
folk art, cultural works, and local natural specimens;
a number of private folk art and cultural museums were
also established. In 1977 the Executive Yuan began to
implement the 12th major construction in culture by constructing
in every city and county a cultural center, that includes
a library, a museum and a recital hall. In addition, large
museums on a national scale, for fine art, natural science,
science and technology, maritime, and pre-historic archeology
were constructed by the central government respectively
in northern, central, southern, and eastern Taiwan. With
such strong support of government policies and activities
of the large various-themed museums, the general public’s
acquaintance of museums has been greatly heightened and
international cultural exchange has also been vastly promoted.
The exhibitions held by the museums of those cultural
centers had a noticeable beneficial effect on the growth
of art activities in each area, and on the collection
of folk arts and crafts, and the nurturing of local art
talent. They also spurred the local interest and participation
in art activities, and indirectly had a positive effect
on the growth of the art market.
- The Peak Development Period:
The growth of Taiwan’s museums
since 1990 has been nothing short of incredible. In the
past dozen years, more than 300 new museums have been
established.
The
growth of Taiwan’s economy at the beginning of the 1990s was
miraculous, and while it led to a rapid increase in the national
per capita income, more and more people became interested
in art activities. Both large and small business owners began
to avidly collect art works. Several large corporations even
set up art and cultural foundations, art museums, or cultural
museums. Thus, the establishment of private museums began
to increase rapidly. During the mid-1990s, there was heavy
investment in art and entertainment industries, and more than
40 themed amusement and cultural parks appeared, many of which
had an affiliated cultural center or specimen exhibition halls.
By the end of the 1990s, the growth of Taiwan’s economy had
slowed drastically, and a number of private museums were forced
to be closed.
The
growth in the number of privately-funded museums is not only
due to rising incomes, but is also due to the cultural policy
initiated by the Council for Cultural Affairs over the past
decade. It has been almost eight years since the Council began
implementing its plan to increase local infrastructure. Its
“proposal to develop cultural software and hardware in cities
and counties” and its “plan for local cultural centers” emphasized
the integrated nature of Taiwan’s culture, identification
with local culture, the promotion of local creative enterprises,
and the development of a community consciousness. With a budget
of over US $1.5 billion, it will facilitate the set up of
over 300 locally-themed cultural centers by 2008. In addition,
over the past couple of years a number of museums run established
government have been entrusted to private organizations to
run the museums basing on the market principles and to develop
alternative audiences for the museums. There are currently
more than 400 public and private museums in Taiwan, and the
museum industry in Taiwan is thriving.
In
the future, the trend for Taiwan’s museums will be to attract
new audiences by meeting the cultural needs of the general
public and young people. This will be accomplished through
cooperation with the leisure and cultural industry, finding
new modes of operation by allowing the private sector to run
public museums, integrating community resources of local museums,
and having universities strengthen their training for museum
professionals.
Museums
provide a place for the public to learn while they are having
fun, and it’s likely that they will become the new cultural
creative industry of the next generation. However, the challenge
will be for museums to adapt to a society of consumerism,
to not lose sight of the fact that education is the primary
goal of the museum, and to simultaneously pay attention to
the interests of the public while also adding recreational
and entertainment elements. It’s a difficult balance. In order
to operate a museum, one must understand popular culture in
order to develop management strategies based on the different
location and time. Once museums begin to cater to the general
public, the energy of the museums adds something to the lives
of the public, and a museum culture gradually begins to form.
Museums should take into consideration the needs of the public,
actively integrate themselves into society, define their own
roles, develop their image, emphasize their strengths, and
develop “cultural products” that have a unique appeal. Creating
a museum culture for the new generation will necessitate a
complete evaluation of the museum by every academic field
from every angle and perspective. The culture of the museum
is based on the principles of truth, goodness, and beauty,
as well as inborn ability. The creation of a museum culture
is a primary medium that can be used in the reorganization
of social order, thus we should reexamine the role and power
of the museum.
(The author of this
article is the Standing Member of the Board of the Chinese
Association of Museums)
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