National Taiwan Museum exhibition tells stories behind donated works

Taipei, May 13 (CNA) An exhibition featuring privately donated artifacts from the public and the personal stories associated with them opened at the National Taiwan Museum (NTM) in Taipei on Tuesday.

NTM Director Chen Teng-chin (陳登欽) said at a press event that the museum decided last year to hold an annual exhibition in May that highlighted private donations, which account for about 20 percent of the 138,000 items in the museum's collection.

Through the exhibition, the museum hopes to express its gratitude to donors while sharing the deeply personal stories attached to each object, Chen said.

Among the exhibits in the current show is a pearl necklace from the 1940s donated by a woman named Chen Hsiu (陳秀).

She said the necklace originally was a part of the dowry of her mother, who built up savings through her dressmaking skills during the Japanese colonial-era, but died after contracting malaria following World War II.

Although her husband's family struggled financially and pawned off many of their possessions, they kept the pearl necklace in memory of his late wife, according to Chen Hsiu.

Also on display are antique folding screens and ceramic works by calligrapher Fu Shen (傅申) donated by Hsieh Pi-lien (謝碧蓮), who has donated more than 300 artifacts to the museum.

Hsieh said the donated Fu Shen ceramics stand out for their square forms and also feature different calligraphy styles, including seal, cursive, and semi-cursive scripts.

Culture Minister Li Yuan (李遠) thanked the museum for enabling visitors to rediscover the past through the exhibits, and said he hoped people would come to find memories and history woven through the objects on display.

The 2026 "The memory of objects: Family heirlooms, donations, and renewal" exhibition runs from Tuesday through May 24 at the NTM's main building.