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Indigenous culture museum to be rebuilt

June 17, 2010

The destroyed Pingpu Culture Museum in southern Taiwan will be rebuilt at a cost of NT$280 million (US$8.66 million), Deputy Minister of the Council for Cultural Affairs Hong Ching-feng said during a news conference June 15.

“We are rebuilding the museum, because the preservation, reconstruction and safekeeping of our indigenous culture are tasks that we have to do,” Hong said.

The museum, along with much of Xiaolin Village in which the museum was located, was destroyed August 2009 by Typhoon Morakot, one of the most devastating storms to have struck the Taiwan in the last 100 years.

“I appreciate the government’s efforts and hope the new museum will raise awareness of our culture,” said Chen Chiu-lien, wife of Wang Tien-lu, a noted sculptor and co-founder of the original museum who was killed during Morakot.

Despite the destruction caused by Morakot, more than 1,200 photos, 108 films and 227 artifacts from the old museum have been salvaged, thanks to the efforts of villagers and scholars alike, according to Chien Wen-ming, chief executive officer of the Association for the Reconstruction of the Aboriginal Culture of the Xiaolin Plains.

“The best cultural asset of Xiaolin lies in the heart and spirit of its inhabitants, who have worked so hard to bring their culture back from the brink,” he added.

A highlight for the new museum will be a sculpted human figure made by Wang. Discovered by chance, it is Wang’s only work to have been found since the disaster struck.

The National Taiwan Museum and the National Museum of Taiwan History will collaborate with the association in planning future exhibitions at the Pingpu museum, whose reconstruction is scheduled to be completed by 2012.

The museum, which will cover 6,453 square meters, will be a two-story building built like an indigenous “earth-terrace house,” covered with straw on its rooftop and with bamboo decorating its walls. (HZW)

Write to Tienying Hsu at tyhsu@mail.gio.gov.tw

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