The National Palace Museum

The National Palace Museum is a museum of antiques from the Forbidden City nestled in the lush forests of Shilin District in Taipei.

The museum was first established in 1925 at the Forbidden City after the expulsion of the last emperor of China and consists of valuable items from the Chinese imperial family. A large portion of the museum was then relocated to Nanjing and then Taipei to prevent the artifacts from falling into the hands of the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

As the Chinese Civil War resumed after the surrender of the Japanese in 1945, the decision was made to move the most valuable items from the museum to safety in Taiwan. Of the thousands of crates moved to Taiwan, only less than a quarter arrived.

I had visited the Forbidden City in December of the previous year only to find a shell of a palace largely empty of the treasures that used to belong in its halls. These treasures I had the pleasure of seeing in Taiwan several months later.

The item on the left in the image above is the Meat-Shaped Stone, a piece of rock meticulously carved to resemble a popular Chinese stewed pork dish and is a famous demonstration of ancient Chinese craftsmanship.

“When things are treasured dearly, one hopes that the deepest memories of them will live on for generation after generation. An object, passed down through the ages, perhaps truly can become a window for dialogue between people now and then. However, the moment seals or inscriptions are added to an object, it changes forever and quite ironically, sometimes those of falsehood and pretense are mixed in.”

Obligatory food shot at the museum cafe.