|
 Literature
museum set to open
doors in Tainan
Structure regarded as milestone that expresses Taiwan's heart and
voice
2003-10-16 / Taiwan News, Staff Reporter / By Dennis Engbarth
Taiwan's
people will secure the power to interpret their own literary and
cultural history when the doors of the long-awaited National Museum
for Taiwanese Literature officially open Friday, Council for
Cultural Affairs Chairwoman Tchen Yu-chiou (陳郁秀)
said yesterday.
Friday's
ceremony will coincide with the 82nd anniversary of the
establishment of the Taiwan Cultural Association, which played a
major role in promoting political opposition to the Japanese
colonial occupation and fostering Taiwanese culture during its short
history.
First
mooted as a museum for "modern literature" 12 years ago, the focus
of the facility was redirected to showcase Taiwanese literature in
1998, an orientation enshrined in the draft statute to set up the
National Museum of Taiwanese Literature as an "administrative legal
entity" sent by the Cabinet to the Legislature October 9.
"The
National Museum of Taiwanese Literature will manifest the common
voice and heart of the Taiwanese people and its establishment marks
a milestone in both the history of Taiwanese literature and Taiwan
itself," Chen stated.
"Until now,
the power to Taiwanese literature was always in the hands of foreign
scholars, but now will be returned to the hands of the people who
have grown up on this land," Chen said.
The museum
thus symbolized that symbolized that "we have finally can tell our
own stories and create our own literary works, establish our own
aesthetics and philosophy and historical perspectives," observed the
CCA chairwoman.
Chen also
said that the new Taiwanese literature museum and other facilities
would foster the construction of Taiwan's own literary perspective
in the midst of a globalizing world.
"In the
process of globalization we must understand what is irreplaceable
before we can establish our own special historical character and
position," Chen added.
National
Museum of Taiwan Literature Curator Lin Juei-ming (林瑞明),
who is also a professor of history in Tainan's National Chengkung
University, noted that the museum is located in the gracefully
designed former Tainan City Hall, which previously had served as the
Tainan Prefectural Government during the Japanese colonial period
(1895-1945).
"The
opening of the museum will signify the transformation of a symbol of
political power into a center for culture and literature," said Lin,
who related that he grew interested in Taiwanese literature through
meeting the late author Yang Kui while a student in Taichung's
Tunghai University in the mid 1970s.
Through his
acquaintance with Yang, who worked as a farmer opposite Tunghai, Lin
discovered that in the KMT education system "no one mentioned that
Taiwan had such a rich literature of protest and resistance against
Japanese colonialism."
This
discovery launched Lin into a new career as a historian of Taiwanese
literature, which particularly flourished after the lifting of the
38-year martial law decree in July 1987, a watershed which "let us
finally speak clearly what we thought" and allowed the rediscovery
of Taiwanese history and literature by its citizens.
Although
working on a book on Taiwanese literature and culture, Lin said he
"had an unavoidable responsibility" as a literary historian and
Tainan native to accept the offer to serve as the first curator of
the new museum.
The new
cultural facility will hold exhibitions on major Taiwan writers,
including displays of their written manuscripts, personal effects
and other artistic creations or collections and also offer reading
and audio-video rooms.
NMTL Vice
Director Chen Chang-ming (陳昌明)
added that the museum will also offer "dynamic" programs such as a
"Retrospective of Taiwanese Literature and Taiwan Cinema" which runs
from October 17 to December 21 and hold activities ranging from
professional academic seminars, film shows and theater presentations
in its 400-person auditorium.
Citing
plans for the emergence of the museum as a center for new artistic
creation indoors and outdoors as well as preservation, CCA
Chairwoman Chen declared that the NMTL "will extremely lively.
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