At the Cabinet's weekly meeting Thursday, Premier Su Tseng-chang received a Ministry of Culture briefing on efforts to reconstruct Taiwan's art history. Since President Tsai Ing-wen came to office, the administration has endeavored to strengthen Taiwan's cultural power by promoting the reconstruction of Taiwan's art history. The government has worked with the private sector to procure, collect and restore important works of art to showcase more of Taiwan's rich stories and works for the world to see. These efforts are expected to create a force that will continue strengthening the country.
Due to historical factors in Taiwan's past—whether colonial rule or indifference to local art by those in power—many Taiwanese have little knowledge of their own artistic development and works. Fortunately, under President Tsai's leadership, the government sought to strengthen Taiwan's cultural power by devoting NT$2.7 billion (US$97.1 million) to reconstructing Taiwan's art history, employing for the first time a special budget from the "spheres of culture" project of the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program. Under this reconstruction effort, public and private sectors came together to procure, collect and restore important works including art, crafts, literature and audiovisual works, all with the aim of reintroducing Taiwan's cherished artistic assets to the people of this country, Premier Su said.
The premier went on to say that over the past few years, the government has devoted resources to promoting a national cultural memory bank, restoring historic sites, reconstructing Taiwan's art history, establishing the Taiwan Creative Content Agency and Taiwan Film & Audiovisual Institute, as well as upgrading the status of the National Museum of Taiwan Literature and National Museum of Taiwan History. Our cumulative efforts show that the government is sincere and dedicated to preserving and developing Taiwan's culture, so that people around the world can get to know Taiwan's stories and works of art. These works will also help more members of the public understand the spirit of the age the creators lived in, and be inspired and fortified to become a force for continuing to build a stronger Taiwan.