Today I went to Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall [中正紀念堂] for the first time, and it was very impressive in the same way that nationally significant sites in most nations are. It evokes the feel of the National Mall in Washington, or Tiananmen Square in Beijing, or Buckingham Palace in London. It is a very patriotic place for Taiwan.
The Hall itself is the blue-roofed building pictured above, with the stairs leading into a room that contains a statue of Chiang Kai-shek, an early leader of the Nationalist Kuomintang Party in China [國民黨]. The KMT fought with the Chinese Communist Party for decades, eventually being expelled from mainland China and settling in Taiwan.
The surrounding area is also very beautiful, as it contains two orange-roofed buildings (used as theatres) facing eachother and a large gate.
However, as much as I am fascinated with politics and the political history of Taiwan and China, I did not visit just to see the patriotic sights. I was actually there to see an exhibit on da Vinci, which has been running for months but concluded today. Unfortunately, due to museum rules, there are no pictures of the museum itself.
It was a very interesting exhibit. Interestingly, it didn't focus on da Vinci as the painter everyone knows him as, though there was a section which showed high-resolution photographs of the Mona Lisa and it had reproductions of such famous paintings as The Last Supper and Virgin of the Rocks. The main focus of the exhibit was da Vinci as the inventor. The exhibit showed pictures of his sketches and had built models based on these sketches. Unfortunately, there were far too many people there...but as I'm in East Asia I really should expect that by now!
After the exhibit I returned to campus to bake cookies for the international food sale that's been going on this week. While I had to make the cookies in a toaster oven (again), I think they turned out fairly well and judging by their previous popularity I expect that this batch will also sell out.
No comments:
Post a Comment