China Real Time - Jan 1, 2016
In late 1948 and early 1949, toward the end of the Chinese civil
war, Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek transported across the Taiwan
Strait hundreds of thousands of valuable Chinese artifacts which are now
stored in Taipei’s National Palace Museum. Along with its Palace Museum
counterpart in Beijing – more famous as the Forbidden City – the
museums serve as one of the most poignant reminders of the division of
China.
Beijing’s Palace Museum, which celebrated its 90th anniversary in
October, was established shortly after the last Chinese emperor, Pu Yi,
was forced from his palace, where he had been allowed to stay even
after the Chinese republic was founded in 1911. Intellectuals at the
time wanted to set up a Chinese museum along the lines of the great
museums in Europe.
Today, millions visit both museums each year, crowding around artifacts such as the Jadeite Cabbage
and the Meat-Shaped Stone in Taipei. Among the visitors are huge tour
groups of mainland Chinese tourists, as the Taipei government continues
to liberalize travel policies for its neighbor amid a broader detente.
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