Taiwan through the Lens of Its Museums

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COURSE INFORMATION
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Basic Information
Course Name
Semester

Taiwan through the Lens of Its Museums

104-2

Designated for
Course No.

ASIAN ART PROGRAM

ART AND DESIGN

PROGRAM

LibEdu1064

Class

Language:

(English)

2016-02-24
129

Updated

Time
Classroom
Note

Visitors

URL

Table of Core
Capabilities and
Curriculum
Planning

Wednesdays 7,8,9

103
A12:

https://ceiba.ntu.edu.tw/1042LibEdu1064_

At once a Taiwan studies and a museum studies course, this course analyzes a variety of museums
in Taiwantheir history, location, architecture, contents, and their constructed narrativeswith critical
readings in museum studies. The museums featured range from archaeology to contemporary art,
from natural history to ethnography, and from concrete artifacts to intangible cultural heritage and
digitized material in virtual reality. All are conveniently located in the greater Taipei area for
visitations.

Description

Each class will consist of a 2-hour lecture by the instructor, followed by a 1-hour group discussion on
key readings or video clips led by the TA. There will be a few museum trips to give students first-hand
experiences of institutions introduced in class. Seasoned curators and museum professionals will be
invited to give students perspectives from behind-the-scenes.
The courses goal is threefold: (1) it introduces students to the unique arts, cultures, peoples, and
histories of Taiwan as represented through its museums, (2) it brings attention to the historical
context that engendered these institutions, (3) and it draws awareness to the theory and practice of
collecting, display, and interpretation at work behind the museums narratives.
Readings will be mostly in English and occasionally in Chinese. International and local students are
strongly encouraged to partner with each other to complete readings and exchange ideas. We will
focus on one museum each week and read the museums official publications, second-hand
scholarship, and studies on similar types of museums abroad.

Objective

(1) Students will be interested in and have a basic understanding of the art, history, culture, and
peoples of Taiwan, as well as the history of its museums.
(2) Students will have a basic grasp of key scholarship and topics in museum studies.
(3) Students will develop a critical approach in future museum visitations, being aware of the
institutions ideologies at play behind seeming neutral and objective displays.

Background

(N/A)

Keyword

(N/A)

)
Textbooks ()
I. Assigned Readings (

Preziosi, Donald, and Claire Farago, eds., Grasping the World: The Idea of the Museum. Burlington,
VT: Ashgate Publishing Co., 2004. [hereafter GW]
Carbonell, Bettina M. ed. Museum Studies: An Anthology of Contexts. Oxford, UK: Blackwell
Publishing, 2004. [hereafter MSAC]
Knell, Simon J. [et al.], eds. National Museums: New Studies From Around the World.
London; New York: Routledge, 2011. [hereafter NM]

Weekly Readings (

Week 1: Introduction: Approach, Topics, and Goals

General Introduction: What Are Museums For? in Preziosi and Farago, eds., Grasping the World: The
Idea of the Museum (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2003), pp.1-10.
Week 2: The Birth of Museums: Critical Issues in Museology
Pick one:
Bennet, Tony. The Formation of the Museum, In The Birth of the Museum: History, Theory, Politics
(London & New York, Routledge, 1995), pp.17-47.
Bal, Mieke. The Discourse of the Museum, in Greenberg et al. ed., Thinking about Exhibitions,
London: Routledge, 1996), pp.201-220.
Week 3: Taiwans Museums: A General History

Week 3: Taiwans Museums: A General History

Pick one:
Knell, Simon. National Museums and the National Imagination, in NM, pp.3-28.
Chu, Chi-Jung. Political change and the national museum in Taiwan, in NM, pp.180-192.
Further reading:
Culture Museums: An introduction to the specialized museums of Taiwan's Counties and Cities
(Taipei, Taiwan: The Council for Culture Affairs, 2001). [**skim to get a sense of local government
exhibition centers featuring aspects of regional culture]

Week 4 (03/16): Museums on NTU Campus (

)
Chinese readers:
Hi! NTU
82
(=National Taiwan University Culture Tour) (
2010)
45-80 [**read chapters related to NTU museums]
English readers:
Skim NTU Museums website: http://www.museums.ntu.edu.tw/

Week 5 (03/23): Taiwans Native Peoples: NTU Museum of Anthropology (

Varutti, Marzia V, Taiwanese memory revisited, ICOM News Magazine 64.3 (2011).

Varutti, Marzia V, Miniatures of the nation: ethnic minority figurines, mannequins and dioramas in
Chinese museums, Museum and Society 9.1 (2011).
2003-2008