National Glory and Traumatism: National/cultural identity construction of National Palace Museum in Taiwan

Abstract

This paper examines two Taiwan projects: the National Palace Museum (1965) in Taipei (NPM) and the NPM Southern Branch (NPMSB) in Chiayi (2003). The NPMSB targeted the liberalisation of the NPM from the stained political connotation of Chinese nationalism and constructs anew Taiwan's autonomous national identity. This paper argues that the construction of NPM/NPMSB in Taiwan is a cultural and colonial traumatism of national identity, and a struggle between official Chinese nationalism and rising prior Taiwanese subjectivity in a postcolonial context.

Keywords:

• national identity
• cultural nationalism
• traumatised memory
• National Palace Museum
• Taiwan

Notes

1. Such a strategy was probably inspired by the successful example of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, where the museum operates as an international brand.

2. On 24 November 2004, the final result of the competition was announced. Kris Yao, whose project appealed to a strategy of enshrouding and concealment as the virtue of modesty in Asian culture, was placed third. The architecture was hidden amongst the woods and landscape; and visitors from afar could only see the land rising up, suggesting that something precious was hidden beneath (Yao, 2004). The second place went to Daniel Libeskind, who showed a strong personal artistic design of a sculpted landmark building “Wings of Asia”. Inside the highest wing, traditional Chinese landscape scroll paintings inspired Libeskind to design a “vertical garden of Asia” in representing the unique art form and aesthetic of Asian arts (Libeskind, 2004).

3. During World War II, a few Taiwanese went to China to join the war against Japan. However, those are exceptional cases, and their wartime experiences and national identification should be discussed separately.