National Palace Museum is getting a new director, with Chen Chi-nan beginning his tenure on July 16. He said "Taiwanization" should be the direction in which the museum is to grow, such that it can become the Taiwan people's National Palace Museum. However he will also aim to preserve the Chinese cultural relics even better , due to respect to the Chinese culture.


Thirteen years have passed since the last time new National Palace Museum Director Chen Chi-nan held a post in the government. He began his tenure as director on July 16. The 70-year-old director said the mental pressure of his new position is very great, and his most pressing task is to resolve the museum's long-standing positioning issue.

When others visit Taiwan's National Palace Museum, they are not there to get to know Taiwan, to get to know this piece of land. How can we make the National Palace Museum into the Taiwan people's National Palace Museum? It of course has its own importance, it is no longer an "administrative enclave" of Beijing's National Palace Museum.

Chen also showed a presentation that said the National Palace Museum has not completed its "awareness transformation." He said it is "ridiculous" that the museum only has Chinese cultural relics and therefore he advocates diversifying its holdings. As such, he believes the museum should develop with "Taiwanization" as the goal. Chen also said that even though he supports Taiwan independence, he thinks it's still necessary to take even better care of the museum's collection.

You can take a easy mannered approach. Even though I support Taiwan independence, I greatly respect Chinese cultural relics. Moreover, I will take better care of them than China.

Chen also announced plans to improve the National Palace Museum Southern Branch's dismal ticket sales. His suggestion was to make entrance tickets free. He also proposed positioning the museum as an Asian-level museum.

I believe the National Palace Museum Southern Branch doesn't have the capabilities at present. Even if you ask people to go there, they might not necessarily do so. They might not go even if you offer free entrance. Under these circumstances, you shouldn't be charging for entrance. Do you (Political Deputy Director Lee Ching-hwi) want to add anything?

When it first opened, this was a marketing technique, and whether or not we wanted to charge for entrance wasn't the most important thing. What was the most important thing? The most important thing was whether it (National Palace Museum Southern Branch) appealed to ordinary people.

The NPM has made efforts in recent years to appeal to young people and commercialize itself. Former Minister without Portfolio Huang Kuang-nan says one of Chen's future tasks will be to preserve the museum's subjectivity while systematically integrating academia, education and marketing.