Introduction
The National Palace Museum (NPM) Southern Branch, one of the most highly anticipated projects, officially opened for trial operation on Dec. 28, 2015 as scheduled. The project, which took more than 15 years to complete, was carried out during the terms of Presidents Chen Shui-bian and Ma Ying-jeou as well during those of NPM Directors Tu Cheng-sheng, Shih Shou-chien, Lin Mun-lee, Chou Kung-shin, and Fung Ming-chu. Although the project was implemented by various parties prior to its inception, all of them shared the same goal, which was to balance in cultural assets between Northern and Southern Taiwan.
The NPM Southern Branch has a total area of 70 ha, 20 ha of which is occupied by the museum main buildings. The said buildings, designed and supervised by architect Kris Yao of Artech, feature Chinese calligraphy techniques such as nongmo (flying white), feibai (thick dark ink), and xuanran (applying colors to drawings) that form the real mass (i.e., artifact display areas and artifact storerooms) and virtual mass (i.e., public reception areas) of the museum. These characteristics turn the NPM Southern Branch into a unique environment and a new spotlight of the Chianan Plain.
This book offers a detailed description of the various aspects of the museum such as its park landscape, public art, opening exhibitions, artifact collection, current exhibition situations, service facilities, construction history, exhibition galleries, and cultural missions, enabling visitors to gain a deeper insight into the NPM Southern Branch and to understand the historical journey of the museum from different perspectives.
The inauguration of the NPM Southern Branch marks a major cultural milestone for Taiwan, in which education is promoted and research is shared to fulfill the museum’s missions and responsibilities as well as to introduce art and culture to the public. In the future, the museum will be connected to the cultural landscapes of the Yunlin, Chiayi, and Tainan regions to create a new paradigm of cultural education, allowing museum visitors to enjoy an artifact “feast” that differs from that of the NPM Northern Branch.