The long-delayed National Museum of Taiwan History in Tainan is finally open. I went there yesterday and spent around two hours in the grounds (nicely landscaped) and the museum itself. The displays are quite detailed and feature some very attractive models, waxwork figures, building mockups, maps etc. A few of the multimedia items weren’t quite ready.
Almost everything is in English, and the English information panels were generally very good - a couple of misspellings, and some minor errors that I noticed (e.g. John Dodd was Scottish, not an Englishman). My main criticism is that the English wording on many labels is very small indeed; the Chinese is bigger, but not much bigger.
Admission will be free until October 2012. A city bus service links the museum with the downtown, but being Tainan I wouldn’t bet on it being a frequent service. The car park is spacious but the bicycle racks are hard to find.
Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll definitely check it out next time I’m down in Tainan.
By the way, I’ve always thought it should be called Taiwanese history, but I’ve pretty much resigned myself to the fact that people are always going to use Taiwan as an adjective, even in America English.
Good to hear they have a good parking area. I’ll have to take the family over there. It’s about 15 minutes from my place. I’ll try to give a second opinion of it in this thread.
I guess there’s a small chance people may misconstrue it as a museum about the history of the Taiwanese language - or about the “Taiwanese people,” meaning those of Fujianese descent.
BTW, if you plan to cycle there (as I did) be warned the road from downtown Tainan has a lot of truck traffic.
But… but… can anything else be more important than the parking and eating?
Anyway, even if one can’t park and eat to one’s heart’s content there, the opening of this museum adds another tick to Tainan’s box in my search for the best place to live in Taiwan.
I didn’t take any photos inside, as I knew they’d provide me with pictures to go with the article. Also, they seemed pretty keen on stopping photography inside - I don’t know whether for copyright or conservation reasons.
It’s out in the boonies so you’ll probably want to go there by car. There’s plenty of parking spaces; one criticism I didn’t put in the article is that the bike racks (I went by bicycle) aren’t easy to find, and aren’t numerous.
I didn’t notice any eating facilities.
Visited this museum on Friday, and I can honestly say it’s one of the best museums I’ve visited in Taiwan. The exhibits gave a great overview of Taiwanese history, without glossing over the unpleasant bits. Pro-greens in general will tend to minimise the nasty side of the Japanese era, while pro-blues will stay quiet on 2-28 and the White Terror, but the museum steers clear of both of these pitfalls by treating everything pretty even-handedly. Obviously they can’t cover every single incident (there is no mention of the French blockade of 1885, for example), but what is there reflects the sweep of the island’s history very well. We also talked to a knowledgable member of staff who mentioned that they see very few “foreigners” there, which is a real shame. If you want a good introduction to Taiwanese history, a couple of hours following the exhibits round is a great way to do it.
I’m just back from the Lanyang Museum in Yilan County, and while that’s a good museum (and an excellent piece of architecture) I do think the NMTH far exceeds it as an engrossing place to learn about Taiwan.
This painting from the Netherlands will be on display at the National Museum of Taiwan History starting Feb 2.
This painting from 1643 depicts Reverend Robert Junius baptizing Soulangh villagers of the Sirayan tribe. Reverend Robert Junius was the second protestant missionary to arrive in Taiwan during Dutch Formosa. He stayed in Taiwan until 1643, making him the Dutch missionary who stayed in Taiwan the longest.
The portions of Soulangh villagers were painted in Taiwan by a Chinese artist with western training, and the portion of Reverend Robert Junius was finished by Dutch painters after Junius returned to the Netherlands.
This painting belongs to a private collector, so it’s pretty cool we’ll get it see it in Taiwan.
Good catch! This painting will be exhibited in Tainan’s NMTH as part of a larger show called “Transcending 1624: Taiwan and the World.” It will be exhibited until the end of June.
