National Palace Museum
We took an excursion to Taipei city, the first stop is the National Palace Museum.
It holds one of the largest collections of Chinese arts in the world. For thousands of years, Chinese craftsmen and artists created many exquisite objects and were collected by the emperors to demonstrate their power and wealth. The history of the museum itself is a reminder of contemporary Chinese history, tracing back to the nationalist revolution overthrowing the Ching monarchy, and leading to the formal departure of the last emperor from the Forbidden City in 1924.
Walking through the art works of the many different dynasties, I was able to find a renewed understanding and appreciation of my root. These objects help to define thousand years of Chinese civilization. I was reminded of all the Chinese literature and history classes in high school. They suddenly came alive.
For someone like me who was born in a colony and spent half of my life in a foreign country, this experience is very special. It is as if an adopted child has a face to face encounter with his birth parents. You know you have a close bond, and yet you feel distant at the same time....
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