China and Taiwan make a cultural exchange

Beijing’s Forbidden City is lending 37 Qing Dynasty relics to Taiwan for a joint exhibition to be held in October 2009. There will also be two pieces on loan from the Shanghai Museum, as well as one from a private collection to complement Taiwan’s own collection.

The exhibition will run for three months at Taipei’s National Palace Museum. This is the first cultural exchange between the two countries in 60 years.

The exhibition will focus on the life of Emperor Yongzheng, who lived between 1722 and 1735. The ruler was part of the Qing Dynasty that ran from 1616 to 1911. The exhibition will include portraits of Emperor Yongzheng and his concubines. There will be a total of 237 artefacts on display at the exhibition, which has already attracted international attention.

The National Palace Museum is home to 650,000 treasures and is regularly voted as one of the best museums in the world. Many of the museum’s Chinese antiques were originally from China’s Forbidden City and were moved to Taiwan when the Kuomintang lost the civil war to the communists in 1949.

‘Harmony and Integrity: Emperor Yongzheng and His Times’ will open on 8th October 2009 and run until 10th January 2010.

For more information, visit npm.gov.tw/en.