Taiwan Today

Governments at all levels are playing a central role in the development of the museum sector.

This past May, Taipei City-headquartered National Palace Museum (NPM) triumphed at the 54th WorldFest-Houston International Film and Video Festival, bagging one platinum, nine golds, 10 silvers and six bronzes for a total of 26 awards. Its prize-winning works were notable for their use of new and emerging technologies including augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and 8K resolution.

As Taiwan’s most renowned museum at home and abroad, NPM manages a collection of 700,000 antiquities encompassing books, bronzes, calligraphy, ceramics, embroidery, jade, lacquerware and paintings. The items span some 7,000 years of history, dating from the Neolithic period to the modern era. While the facility in Taipei focuses on Chinese cultural treasures, NPM Southern Branch in Chiayi County showcases artifacts from diverse Asian civilizations.

According to statistics compiled by the Ministry of Culture (MOC), NPM is one of 322 museums across Taiwan, including establishments operated by central and local governments, schools, corporate bodies and other entities. The oldest of these is Taipei-based National Taiwan Museum (NTM), established in 1908 with a focus on natural history. Since its opening, museums have proliferated amid an ever-growing emphasis on cultural infrastructure.

“A major milestone in the development of the domestic museum sector was the promulgation of the Museum Act in 2015, which created a comprehensive legal framework for promoting the social role of such facilities,” MOC Deputy Minister Hsiao Tsung-huang (蕭宗煌) said. “Accordingly, a wide spectrum of programs have been implemented to help museums better execute their key functions of collection, education, exhibition and research.” An assessment scheme has additionally been implemented to identify institutions’ strengths and weaknesses to more effectively formulate future projects, he added.

Museums are widely recognized as agents of economic and social progress, Hsiao said, adding that it is essential for relevant government agencies to help them realize their full potential. According to the deputy minister, the sector’s latest priorities include utilizing new technologies to preserve collections and expand access to museum resources; making meaningful progress on environmental issues such as biodiversity and sustainability; and forming partnerships to extend the reach of individual facilities.

Technological Evolution

With the coronavirus pandemic heavily impacting the museum sector over the past two years, institutions are placing particular emphasis on cultivating their ability to engage with the public remotely. “Although cultural entities around the world are feeling the impact of COVID-19, we’re seeing them become more innovative and resilient in response,” Hsiao said, adding that the pandemic has served as a catalyst for expediting crucial innovations already underway, especially digitalization.

Bolstering museums’ efforts to incorporate digital strategies into operations and visitor services was a farsighted plan implemented by the MOC in 2017. The initiative, entitled the Taiwan Cultural Memory Bank and Digital Value-added Application Program, helped numerous institutions digitalize their collections over the course of a four-year period, achieving its objective to build a national database dedicated to the preservation of collective memories and local cultures with the launch of an official website in October last year. The platform currently holds entries on more than 2.7 million items ranging from prehistoric objects to modern photographs, all of which shed light on Taiwan’s history. The database was funded under the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program, which seeks to advance Taiwan’s digital ecosystem by leveraging its information and communication technology strengths as part of its overarching goal of meeting the country’s development needs for the next 30 years.

The Taiwan Cultural Memory Bank and Digital Museum Application Program, the MOC’s follow-up plan running from 2021 to 2025, aims to promote cultural rights through the adoption of digital technologies. It continues expanding the database and encouraging the open use and distribution of cultural assets while bringing new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), AR, VR, 8K and Internet of Things to top-tier museums like NPM. “We want NPM to be known internationally as a tech-savvy museum of the 21st century,” Hsiao said.

According to NPM Director Wu Mi-cha (吳密察), the museum offers close-up views of 3D artifact models, educational courses, open data, podcasts and videos through its online platform, in addition to virtual tours of popular galleries and exhibits. “Broadly disseminating our slice of the world’s shared heritage is directly in line with our public mission,” Wu said. “Digitalization of our archival materials has been made possible largely thanks to the government’s technology projects.” The director hopes the immersive experiences will draw in even greater numbers of international visitors once border restrictions imposed due to the pandemic are lifted.

Stronger Together

National institutions like NPM also have a major role to play in supporting the museum sector as it works to enhance community outreach and promote national goals. Such collaborations are boosting positive outcomes for all. Case in point is the 2019 exhibition “Eco-Rethink” held at Lanyang Museum in northeastern Taiwan’s Yilan County. Organized in partnership with NPM and NTM, it sought to raise awareness of the importance of biodiversity while closely examining the relationship between humans and their natural environment. Besides gaining the opportunity to appreciate a variety of cultural and scientific artifacts ranging from animal and plant specimens to historical maps, visitors could explore immersive digital exhibits spotlighting depictions of flora and fauna in classical artworks through AR and VR applications.

According to Lanyang Museum Director Chen Bi-lin (陳碧琳), the special event received enthusiastic feedback from visitors, garnering increased interest for the institution and its partners among the public. Founded in 2010 by the county government as Taiwan’s first ecomuseum, the Yilan facility took its name from the area’s Lanyang river. By safeguarding cultural and natural heritage and establishing educational and research programs, museums can greatly contribute to the advancement of Taiwan’s sustainable development goals, Chen said.

The county government has also teamed up with nongovernmental organization Yilan Museum Family Association to build a dynamic institutional network designed to treat Yilan as one big museum, allowing institutions to develop their own distinct brands while collectively forming a concentrated hub of knowledge about the region. The association consists of over 30 members holding specialized collections covering a broad scope of subject matter. As the largest county-level museum in Yilan in terms of floor space, workforce and funding, Lanyang has therefore taken a central role in fostering the network’s growth through resource sharing and co-hosting events.

With strong support from the central and municipal governments, museums in Taiwan are flourishing in the technological era. “The government recognizes the cultural, economic and social importance of museums in inspiring creativity, preserving heritage and promoting lifelong learning.” the MOC’s Hsiao said. “We aim to ensure museums have all the tools they need to make the biggest possible impact.”

Write to Kelly Her at kher@mofa.gov.tw