9/28/10 A Ceramic Lover’s Paradise and the Pork Shaped Stone

Our main destination for the day was Taiwan’s National Palace Museum.  It has been called one of the 10 most significant museums in the world because it houses some of the most important pieces in Chinese history.  During the time of the fighting between the Chinese Nationalist and Communist armies a decision was made by Chiang Kai-Shek to move many of China’s historically significant artifacts from the mainland to Taiwan since the Communists could not be trusted to preserve them.  The National Palace Museum houses the world’s largest collection of such artifacts and is visited by many mainlanders.

I don’t know who compiles the list of the world’s most significant museums, but our group was disappointed.  There is a huge and inexplicable focus on ceramics; so if porcelain and the thought of kilns gets your heart pumping, it might be the place for you.  There were plates, pots and vases as far as the eye could see.  But don’t mistake my disappointment as the dismissive attitude of a foreigner who doesn’t “get it”; Iris was similarly unimpressed.  I mean, it’s nice to see a 12^th century wine vessel, but over a hundred of them?  Complete and total overkill.

It wasn’t all a waste of time though.  One of the most famous pieces was also one of my favourites; a piece of stone carved and dyed to look like a piece of pork… yes, pork!  The crowds gathering around to see it and its companion piece of jade carved to look like cabbage were at least 5 people deep.  So popular is the jade cabbage that there are stuffed toy versions of it available in the gift shop.

Meat-shaped Stone - Mmmmm!

Jadeite Cabbage - The centrepiece of the collection

Space noticed something that I hadn’t, the signs for the exhibits used a lot more adjectives than necessary.  For instance: a North American Museum might have a sign that reads “Ceramics: 1700 – 1800”, but in Asia a similar sign might read “Uncanny Ingenuity and Celestial Feats: The Carvings of the Ming and Qing Dynasties 1300-1900”.  I blindly guessed that this was a bit of propaganda to pump up the history of the Republic to English speaking visitors, but apparently it has more to do with Chinese being a generally flowery language.  “Uncanny ingenuity” is a literal translation.

Space and I agree, museums should be used to present the facts.  You don’t have to tell me about the uncanny ingenuity of something; present the artifacts in context, describe the techniques used to create them and why they are significant, and I’ll decide for myself.

And finally, a piece from the collection that defies explanation.  Yet another WTF moment.