The newly DPP-appointed National Palace Museum Director Chen Chi-nan announced on his first day that the Taipei Palace Museum should become “the Palace Museum for Taiwan’s people.”
Regarding Chen’s remarks, even DPP heavyweight and ex-legislator Lin Cho-shui stepped forward, saying “Taiwanize” the Palace Museum? Have we lost our minds? Using the same logic, shouldn’t the British Museum become “Anglicized”? The Chimei Museum “Tainanized”?
What is a “Palace Museum for Taiwan’s People”?
When new Palace Museum Director Chen Chi-nan emphasized that the Taipei Palace Museum should become “Taiwan’s people’s Palace Museum,” media immediately questioned whether Chen’s statement was survey-based. Chen rebutted, “What everyone sees now is Beijing’s branch museum; this needs no survey.”—in one sentence revealing Chen’s “political correctness.”
Regarding Chen’s “political correctness” statement, Lin Cho-shui posted on Facebook: “Taiwanize the Palace Museum? Have we lost our minds? It’s true that’s what the new Palace Museum director says. But using the same logic, shouldn’t the British Museum become ‘Anglicized’? The Chimei Museum ‘Tainanized’? What attracts people to these three museums is precisely that they’re NOT localized, but rather present exotic appeal. For distant cultures, we appreciate exotic flavors; for nearby ones, we appreciate them as East Asian cultural artifacts.”
Lin concludes bluntly: “If we don’t return the collections to China yet call them ‘Taiwanized’ or ‘localized,’ isn’t that saying Taiwan IS China, the local IS Chinese? Moreover, if it’s truly local, why still call it the Palace Museum? When did Taiwan have an original ‘old palace’? Absolutely bizarre.”