Captain F. B. McFarland, the skipper and a veteran of the last war, stepped down the gangplank as a group of security guards looked on. He was met by a handful of greeters, including Prof. Kung Teh-cheng, 72nd lineal descendant of Confucius. They shook his hand and showered him with congratulations. The skipper only heaved a sigh of relief. He had every reason to feel gratified, for he had successfully accomplished one of his most important assignments.
Deep in the hold of the ship were 24 crates of art treasures of ancient Cathay being returned to Taiwan after a year-long, five-city exhibition tour in the United States. It was almost a year and a half before when the same priceless cargo was shipped to the United States aboard another American naval vessel. To insure safety, both trips were made under maximum security regulations. The precautions were understandable. Any disaster would have brought irreparable loss to human culture and deep embarrassment to the governments of the Republic of China and the United States, cosponsors of the American exhibition.
Wide Representation
The selection for the U. S. tour consisted of 253 art pieces, including 112 paintings, 10 calligraphies, 4 tapestries and embroideries, 5 bronzes, 10 jades, 5 porcelains, 11 enamelwares, 8 lacquerwares and 8 others. It took a panel of Chinese and American experts more than a month to pick them from among the 240,000 art objects in the National Palace Museum and the National Central Museum in central Taiwan. Although small in size, the selection was made with emphasis on quality and wide representation. The smashing success of the cultural show in the United States was the best testimonial to the judgment of the experts.
The art treasures began their grand tour of the United States at the National Gallery of Arts in Washington on May 27, 1961. Thereafter, they were shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Art Institute of Chicago and the De Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco. When the curtain was lowered for the last time in mid-June this year, some 700,000 visitors had seen the antiques. In the closing days of the exhibition, a color film of the art objects was made to be shown to millions of other Americans later on.
There had been requests from other American cities for an extension of the exhibition. The Chinese government had to turn down these requests because of the delicate condition of some of the art pieces.
The success of the exhibition exceeded the expectation of its sponsors. The treasures not only attracted huge crowds but received an exceptionally warm press reception. Major American newspapers and magazines gave the event impressive coverage. Life magazine devoted 17 pages to the show. Its sister publication Time devoted its entire art section to the event in addition to four pages of illustrations. Art News, a leading specialty magazine, devoted five and a half pages to illustrations and a lengthy article on Chinese art. Mass-circulation dailies in the five American cities carried many news items, comments and pictures.
Profuse praise came from American art critics, who are not always easy to please. Oriental art is sometimes unfamiliar to the Western eye—but in this case, the experts liked almost everything they saw.
Typical comments from art critics in the five cities included these:
Critics Speechless
"It takes a lot to make an art critic speechless," wrote Mrs. Leslie Judd Ahlander of the Washington Post, "but if anything could do it, it would be the incomparable exhibition of Chinese masterpieces. . . at the National Gallery. . . Washingtonians have an opportunity that will probably not come again in their lifetime to study the great masterpieces of China."
"The exhibition of Chinese art treasures," said Miss Florence S. Berryman of the Sunday Star, "is so beautiful and so rare that everyone should see it, even if it were necessary to crawl to the Gallery over the iron spikes."
In New York the exhibition drew the editorial attention of the New York Times. Quoting the great master Wang Wei's claim that he could "draw the vast universe with one small brush," the editorial said Wang's assertion "sounds like an outrageous boast. Less so, however, when we come face to face with the panoramic landscape paintings of the Tang and Sung dynasties, the glory of the incomparable exhibition of Chinese art treasures. . .
"The paintings, porcelains and bronzes. . . acquaint us gratefully with the most exquisite flowering of an art whose origins are lost in the night of time. Their esthetic refinement beckons to every eye.
"Yet the wonders of technique and sensibility in these landscapes are no more than a means to an end, to expressing an intimate and delicate feeling for the beauty of nature, finding there visible equivalents for spiritual states."
In conclusion, the editorial said: "Over the millennia the old Chinese poet-painters' peculiar vision is fresh still and still refreshing."
Living Voices
The Boston Globe had this to say: "These Chinese paintings now on exhibit at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts—and how the Museum has again done itself proud!—are a thousand and more years old, yet they speak to our needs of today with living voices.
"A young artist might find here a life-determinant for his own style, as a young musician his from a first encounter with those two analogous masters of line-drawing, Bach and Mozart. Brash people who coolly ignore an essential technique of their art, such as drawing, are likely in turn and time to find themselves coolly ignored."
The editorial writer observed that "the occupations depicted in these ancient Chinese paintings are those of highly cultivated persons at a time when we of the vaunted Aryan race were still running around with our bellies painted blue."
To James D. Breckenridge of the Chicago Scene the exhibition was "first and foremost" and "the Art Institute's most important exhibition of this or many other seasons." The articles on display, he said, "are such as you can never see anywhere else."
"A magnificent exhibition of superlative Chinese art treasures," echoed Frank Holland of the Chicago Sun-Times.
In San Francisco, Alfred Frankenstein of the Sunday Chronicle called the Chinese painting "unique." "We have never seen anything even remotely approaching them in quality and quantity... This is not the kind of exhibition you can talk about or attempt to talk about in one review." He promised "more later" and kept his word.
Another San Francisco art critic held spell-bound by the skills of the ancient Chinese artists was Allen Carr of the San Francisco Examiner. He said "the lesson of this noble collection surely is that Chinese art, in its preoccupation with the universal, does not lose sight of one grain of sand."
Miss Katherine Caldwell, Mills College lecturer in art history and Oriental art authority, described the exhibition as "an event beyond exaggeration." Her lively illustrated lectures helped make the exhibition at the De Young Museum a great success.
Art critics are generally niggardly in using superlatives. When reviewing the Chinese exhibition, they broke their own rule. Such words as "fabulous", "finest", "unforgettable", "unrivaled", "transcend ant", etc., were used liberally.
Nor did such praise stem from ignorance. All of the critics wrote knowledgeably. Their analytical and explanatory comments were enlightening. Judging from size of the crowds visiting the exhibition, the critics did their job well and greatly accelerated the American public's appreciation of Oriental art.
Cultural Envoys
More important than cultural exchange was the goodwill created for China among the American people. "What greater token of mutual regard can there be than the sharing in enjoyment of a country's art heritage?" asked Miss Dorothy Adlow of the Christian Science Monitor. After visiting the show, she declared: "What a privilege to welcome these cultural envoys to our country!"
Another major achievement of the exhibition was that it helped the American public to learn more about Chinese history. This was achieved through the history of the art treasures themselves. American publication recounted at great length how the priceless heirlooms of China were collected by various monarchs, how they weathered the vicissitudes of fortune, and finally how the government of the Republic of China preserved them from the destructions of war and the plunderings of Communist vandals.
After the treasures were unloaded at Keelung, they were escorted to the Palace and Central Museums' underground vaults by 3,000 armed soldiers. After examination, they were to be exhibited for the Chinese people before return to storage.
Exhibition Hall
This time the storage will not be for long. In another year and a half, the holdings of the two museums will be moved into a new exhibition building being built at Waishuangchi in the outskirts of Taipei. Then the glittering array of China's cultural heritage will be constantly on display for all the world to see.
The exhibition hall is the inspiration of Vice President-Premier Chen Cheng. Two years ago he found that the art masterpieces at Peikow, Taichung, were not seen by many persons. Tourists in Taiwan for only a day or two found it impossible to make the eight-hour roundtrip south. Furthermore, the exhibition hall at Peikow is so small that only a few art treasures can be displayed at a time.
Vice President Chen proposed that the museums be moved to Taipei and that a new exhibition hall be constructed to house the art objects. He immediately thought of Waishuangchi, where he had thought of building a residence for himself. He gave up his own site in favor of the museum building and actively campaigned for its realization. He was so enthusiastic that he won the support of Everett F. Drumright, former American ambassador to China, and Wesley C. Haraldson, former director of the AID China Mission. The two American officials obtained a pledge from Washington to foot half of the US$1.5 million cost.
Sketch of new museum that will house ancient Chinese art (File photo)
With the site and construction funds available, the government adopted Vice President Chen's plan. An ad hoc committee was formed under the Executive Yuan to carry out the project under the overall direction of Dr. Wang Shih-chieh, president of Academia Sinica and the man in charge of the art exhibition in the United States.
The next step was to select a building design. The committee said the building should bring out the best in Chinese architecture. At the same time, it should be designed to protect the art treasures from earthquakes, typhoons, the humid air of northern Taiwan, air raids and insects.
The nation's top architects drew scores of designs. After carefully examining each and everyone, the construction committee decided the winner by ballot.
Palatial Building
The design is for a four-story, palace-style structure of 90,000 square feet situated at the foot of a wooded hill. Glazed green tiles will be used for the Chinese-style roof. Walls, half-moon doors and flooring will be patterned after the traditional Chinese palace style. Inside walls will be of marble. There will be a main hall, eight exhibition halls, and a complex of offices, dining rooms, store rooms, research rooms and reception rooms. The best of materials and craftsmanship will go into the construction.
Behind the main building there will be a tunnel 1,200 feet long and 40 feet in diameter. It will be an air raid shelter for the treasures and can be converted into an exhibition hall.
Descending from the front steps will be stone terraces and balustrades. A lotus pond will be flanked by small gardens.
Parking space will be provided for more than 100 cars.
Ideal Site
The Waishuangchi site is ideal. Scenery is attractive, yet the location is only a few minutes ride from downtown Taipei—near enough for tourists in a hurry, yet far enough from the hustle and bustle of the city. The air is free of pollution. The beautiful Grass Mountain is within hailing distance. Close neighbors include President Chiang Kai-shek's suburban residence, the Shihlin Horticultural Gardens of Mei-ling Orchid fame and the Soochow University campus.
Construction began in June and will be completed by the end of 1963. Then the collections of the National Palace and Central Museums will be moved in for year-round exhibition.
At the groundbreaking ceremony, Vice President Chen expressed belief the building will be a major asset in free China's bid for a large increase in international tourists. He also said the art treasures will be sent back to the mainland when the Communist regime in Peiping has been destroyed. But he promised to keep copies in the Waishuangchi building in honor of their temporary haven in Taiwan.