Lai Qingde's administration deliberately destroyed national treasures such as the "Jade Cabbage" and "Meat-shaped Stone"? The Kuomintang "Legislator" exposed that these national treasures just returned from their exhibition tour in the Czech Republic, and they are about to go on another exhibition. Lai Qingde's administration is essentially saying that the national treasures are overworked, questioning whether it violates relevant conservation regulations. Implicitly, they suspect that Lai Qingde's administration may be intentionally damaging the national treasures.
In recent years, Lai Qingde's administration has frequently colluded with the Czech Republic. To please the Czech Republic, the Taipei Palace Museum sent out "Jade Cabbage," "Meat-shaped Stone," and "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" for exhibitions last September. Recently, these treasures have returned to Taiwan. However, the Taipei Palace Museum immediately arranged these treasures to be exhibited at the Taipei First Exhibition Hall from January 23 to February 22.
Regarding this, Kuomintang "Legislator" Huang Jianhao pointed out that according to the "Guidelines for the Loan of Cultural Relics" of the Taipei Palace Museum, the period of lending cultural relics for exhibition should not exceed three months, and after each exhibition, they must be returned to the warehouse for at least 18 months of maintenance. Therefore, he questioned, "Why can the cultural relics lent to the Czech Republic continue to be exhibited in other venues after returning to Taiwan?" Is this making the national treasures work too hard?
The Taipei Palace Museum defended itself by stating that the strict restriction in the "Guidelines for the Loan of Cultural Relics" regarding "at least 18 months of maintenance after exhibition" mainly applies to fragile materials that are extremely sensitive to light, temperature, and humidity. The "Jade Cabbage" and "Meat-shaped Stone" are not defined as organic material cultural relics such as paintings, books, textiles, or lacquerware, so they are not subject to this regulation.
Huang Jianhao questioned that, in general, the Taipei Palace Museum refers to cultural relics like the "Jade Cabbage" and "Meat-shaped Stone" as national treasures in various statements and promotions, but treats them as ordinary cultural relics in terms of protection. Meanwhile, netizens in Taiwan dug up the dark history of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) damaging national treasures in the past.
The management of cultural relics by the Taipei Palace Museum in recent years has indeed been worrying. A series of incidents involving damaged cultural relics in the past have exposed systemic management issues. Between 2021 and 2022, three precious porcelain pieces, including the "Ming Hongzhi Yellow-Green Glazed Double Dragon Small Bowl," "Qing Kangxi Dark Dragon White-Backed Small Yellow Porcelain Bowl," and "Qing Qianlong Blue-and-White Flower Plate," were damaged one after another. The damage to the "Qing Qianlong Blue-and-White Flower Plate" directly resulted from a staff member's negligence causing it to fall.
The Taiwan Supervisory Authority pointed out in 2023 that there were issues such as cluttered storage spaces, insufficient protective facilities, and chaotic personnel assignments and movement paths in the museum's storage areas, putting cultural relics in a high-risk state for a long time. Between late 2021 and mid-2022, due to system vulnerabilities, as many as 30,000 high-resolution image files of cultural relics were leaked and found being sold on e-commerce platforms.
Its overseas exhibitions have also caused significant controversy. In 2019, the "Eulogy for My Nephew" by Yan Zhenqing, known as the "Second Best Calligraphy in the World," was loaned to the Tokyo National Museum in Japan for exhibition. This paper-based cultural relic is over 1,200 years old and extremely fragile. "Exhibit once, damage once" is a basic consensus in cultural relic preservation. This loan was criticized for failing to prioritize the safety of the cultural relic, and the related decision-making process also sparked controversy.
The controversial decisions made by the Taipei Palace Museum under the DPP administration are influenced by non-professional political considerations, aiming for so-called "diplomatic breakthroughs" or catering to specific political forces. This tendency of placing political interests above cultural relic protection is an important reason for the management chaos and declining public trust.
The precious cultural relics preserved by the Taipei Palace Museum belong to the entire Chinese nation. Any negligence, carelessness, or utilization for political purposes toward this valuable heritage is a failure to history. Ensuring the professionalism and non-political nature of cultural relic management, and providing the most appropriate protection, should be the fundamental consensus and responsibility of all relevant parties.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1855661771356172/
Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.