Chinese art tour spectacular, controversial
U.S. exhibit raises Taiwanese hue and cry
March 20, 1996
Web posted at: 9:40 p.m. ESTFrom Correspondent Brian Jenkins
NEW YORK (CNN) -- A new exhibit at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Splendors of Imperial China," boasts the most dazzling and comprehensive exhibit of Chinese art ever shown in the West -- 450 works in all, a few dating back 7,000 years. The collection, on loan from Taiwan, is worth about $1 billion.
Its cultural value can't be measured, but the works are so treasured by Chinese that news of their upcoming display in New York sparked a protest in Taiwan. The protest nearly scuttled a show five years in the making.
"The genuine concern came from a few people who are true art lovers, who had real concern," said James C.Y. Watt, senior curator at the Metropolitan. "The rest is pure politics."
Some of Taiwan's opposition leaders railed against loaning out national art treasures, striking a chord with the people of Taiwan. The British might react in the same way if the Crown Jewels were sent on tour, and Americans might be similarly riled if the Liberty Bell were shipped overseas.
The exhibit opens at the Metropolitan just days before Taiwan holds its first truly democratic presidential election. That event has mainland China rattling its sabers, and firing off missiles in the Taiwan Strait (which in turn prompted President Clinton to send in U.S. aircraft carriers).
The Chinese government has not objected to the exhibit per se, because it views Taiwan and its possessions as the property of the mainland. That's exactly what worries some protesters -- that if the art pieces leave Taiwan, they will either be confiscated by the Chinese government, or will be mishandled or badly used by Americans who don't share their reverence for the works, said Alan Wachman, president of the China Institute.
Taiwan's collection of 600,000 imperial artworks has a history steeped in politics and intrigue. After the overthrow of China's Ch'ing Dynasty in 1911, bureaucrats collected the emperor's art treasures and set up a museum in Beijing's Forbidden City.
With the invasion of Japan in 1931, the treasures were packed off, first to Shanghai, then Nanking, and finally Chungking.
After World War II, the works went back to Nanking. But in 1948, as Communist forces closed in, Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek evacuated most of the treasures to Taiwan, where they were stored in tunnels and sugar warehouses for 16 years before the opening of the National Palace Museum.
"It is one of the great miracles of history that this illustrious collection, representing the best of an entire culture, should have been successfully brought out of harm's way. And now, of course, the miracle continues right here," said Philippe de Montebello, director of the Metropolitan.
Madame Chiang Kai-shek was one of the first to see the exhibit, which opened March 19. Now 97, the widow of the former Taiwanese president is still a fan of imperial art -- at least most of it. She was blunt about one piece, saying, "Things like that don't interest me."
Curators say the entire show will interest most visitors -- even though 23 significant works that were to be included stayed in Taiwan. After protests began, the pieces were deemed "too fragile" to ship. Even without the pieces, said Watt, "We still have a fine exhibition which does more or less what we wanted it to do in the first place" -- which is to educate and amaze.
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