--Cross-Straits Cultural Communion

THE exhibition that reunites famous collections is co-sponsored by the Palace Museums in Beijing and Taipei. It runs from October 7, 2009, to January 10, 2010, and were it not an historic event for these reasons, would be important merely for displaying 240 belongings of Emperor Yongzheng (1678-1735) of the Qing Dynasty. More significant for China’s history and her future, 203 of these items hail from the collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei and 37 from the Palace Museum, its counterpart on the mainland. The event marks the first reunion of cultural relics from the two museums since 1949. In this context, and intrigued by anecdotes about the ruler himself, visitors are swarming into the showrooms by the thousands everyday.

The Peking Palace Museum, founded in 1925, housed the priceless treasures of the royal family of Qing. With the end of the civil war approaching, the Chiang Kai-shek regime scooped up hundreds of thousands of items, mostly the best of the best, and hastened to Taiwan with them in 3,824 trunks. This split of the treasure trove ended with two Palace Museums, one on either side the Taiwan Straits, each holding a section of the royal patrimony coveted by the other.

The two museums that have custody of much of China’s valuable heritage are complementary. For instance, the imperial library Wenyuange still stands in the Forbidden City, while the Complete Library in Four Branches of Literature, the largest series in ancient China (79,337 volumes) for which the library was built, is in Taipei. The collection of the Taipei museum numbers at 650,000 items, less than half of that in its Beijing counterpart, but contains the cream of some categories. Among these are 943 paintings from the Song Dynasty (960-1279), whose number is estimated at merely 1,000 to 2,000 worldwide. Some 90 percent of extant porcelains from the Ru Kiln (in today’s Henan Province) of the Song Dynasty also lie across the Strait, whose verified pieces stand below 70 around the world. And 90 percent of the Guyuexuan porcelains of the Qing Dynasty accompany them, vessels of finely painted enamels on glass roughcast that were preserved exclusively for the royalty.

The Palace Museum in Beijing has its strengths, unmistakably. The size of its collection alone – well above one million items – is an insuperable advantage. This magnitude means a full spectrum of the royal treasures are represented. Transferring of palace objects to Taiwan occurred under much pressure – a shortage of time and limited means of transport, which means a good many of the very best items were left behind, particularly the bulky and heavy ones. Besides, the Forbidden City, which houses the Beijing Palace Museum, 600 years old and home to both the Ming and Qing rulers, is itself the most valuable cultural artifact of all.

The Yongzheng show is just the first step. It has been a shared desire of the two Palace Museums to bring some of their exhibits together and substantial advances were eventually made in 2009 after an exchange of visits by the Taipei curator Chou Kung-shin and his mainland counterpart Zheng Xinmiao. In their talks the two agreed to launch exchanges and cooperation in nine areas, including exhibitions and academic research, to be followed by more in the coming years, of which one on the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) in 2010 and one about the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) in 2011 are presently under discussion. The embrace of the two museums is widely viewed as a prelude for broader exchanges in culture and other realms across the Taiwan Straits.

The museums are not the only aspects of painful separation showing signs of healing. In January the mainland added 12 more provinces/autonomous regions to its list of regions open to Taiwan tours, increasing the total number to 25. Three months later Taiwan relaxed limitations on the sizes of the tour groups from the mainland to Taiwan and durations of stay on the island. In April Chen Yunlin, chairman of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), and Chiang Pin-kun, chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), held their third meeting in Nanjing. Their talks led to the signing of three agreements on financial cooperation, mutual aid on judicial matters, and the opening of regular passenger and cargo flights between the two sides. The two chairmen also discussed mainland investment entering Taiwan, and reached consent on cardinal principles. By May the mainland had revealed eight measures to boost its economic ties with Taiwan, including facilitating businesses to invest in the island, increasing purchases of Taiwan goods, stepping up agricultural cooperation, supporting Taiwan companies to expand their presence in mainland markets, and stimulating tourism to the island.

All the practical advances have brought their cultural stresses. In June, Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou expressed the hope that a reconciliation of the use of the two writing systems (The more complex old-style Chinese characters are used in Taiwan) might begin with the two sides jointly composing a dictionary in which both the simplified characters and their progenitors in the older system are juxtaposed. This kind of preservation and promotion of Chinese culture appears to be viewed as necessary in view of the inevitable rise of China in the world that is fueling a demand for an accessible Chinese written language. Taiwan-based United Daily News commented: “The ascendance of simplified characters among Chinese communities and the rise of Chinese language in the world are primarily propelled by the growing political and economic strength of the mainland.”

In July the mainland drafted further policies concerning Taiwan that are designed to reach into the future. Schools of both sides are encouraged to start student exchange programs and refine terms to equate and accept scholastic credits. Cross-Straits partnerships in publishing ventures are allowed on science and technology periodicals through copyright agreements. Hong Kong newspaper Wen Wei Po said in an article “Easing Restrictions on Mainlanders Studying in Taiwan, Erecting a Bridge of Peace across the Straits” that “Allowing mainland students in Taiwan is one of the promises Ma Ying-jeou made in his election campaign. He feels youth with experience on the other side of the Straits will, in 20 years, grow into well-rounded leaders of their respective societies. Education is the best method to bring the two sides together.”

On November 13, 2009 the two-day seminar "Sixty Years Across the Taiwan Straits" opened i n Taipei. Its participants exceeded 110, many weighty members of think tanks for leaders of both sides, such as Zheng Bijian, former deputy president of the Party School of the Central Committee of the CPC, and Chen Changwen, former secretary general of SEF. Their discussions covered topics ranging across politics, diplomacy and the military, and didn’t shy away from sensitive issues.

The growth of cross-Straits amity has not been totally smooth however. A major setback came in August, when the visit of Dalai Lama to the island brought a chill into the relationship and drew strong protest from the mainland. As a consequence, the number of mainland sightseers to Taiwan plummeted, and Wang Yi, head of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, cancelled his scheduled participation in Taiwan Week mounted by Dandong, Liaoning Province. The wound reopened in September, when the municipal government of Kaohsiung decided to screen a documentary on Rabiye Qadir, mastermind behind Xinjiang’s separatists.

But these appear to be eddies in an unstoppable tide. Public opinion is overwhelmingly optimistic about the trend of the mainland-Taiwan relationship. As an article in the Singapore newspaper Zaobao said: “In merely 20 years the two sides have ascended out of hostility and into dialogue. The Communist Party of China and the Kuomintang, formerly bitter foes, are exchanging toasts. Their people have dropped their suspicions, and are comfortably getting along. This progress has been hard fought for. Though the cross-Straits situation is short of what Mr. Sun Yat-sen envisioned when he set the goal of “rejuvenating China” a century ago, in general both sides are converging on the shared horizon.”