Spotlight on Taiwan (聚焦臺灣)

1.        【Cultural】Fort San Domingo 文化之旅-淡水紅毛城-周逸

Referral Website(s)

l           Fort Santo Domingo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

l           Tamsui Historian Museum, New Taipei City

2.        【Cultural】Beitou Hot Springs Museum文化之旅-北投溫泉博物館-陳慧慈

Referral Website(s)

l           One-day Tour of Beitou Hot Springs

[Suggested Itinerary]

l           Beitou Hot Springs

North Taiwan 2-day itinerary

l           Beitou Hot Spring Park

Source: Taiwan City Government

l           The entrance of Taipei Hot Spring Musuem

3.        【Cultural】Lin Liu-Hsin Puppet Theatre Museum文化之旅-林柳新偶戲館-羅斌

Referral Website(s)

l           Lin Liu-Hsin Puppet Theatre Museum

The Museum is located on Xi-Ning North Road, Dadaocheng, one of the oldest districts of Taipei and just a few steps from the Danshui Pier off historical Dihua Street.

The Museum consists of two historical buildings, the Museum itself and the Nadou Theatre. The Museum includes a workshop and four floors of exhibitions. The Nadou Theatre designed so that it is suitable for all small-scale performances, including puppets, music, dance and theatre. In addition to eye-opening puppet shows, the Museum also offers workshops such as puppet carving, puppet-master demonstrations, children’s puppet theatre and training in traditional puppet techniques. The Museum also provides in-depth tour and state-of-the-art performance for local schools in order to elevate the appreciation for the art and pass on the feeling for such performances to new audiences. The Museum has officially been designated as a “Cultural Hall” by the Ministry of Culture.

The aims of the Museum is dedication to preserve and promote traditional Asian puppet culture, to become a puppet educational center, as well as provide a stage for puppetry from all of the Asia-Pacific area and promote interactions between local and international puppet troupes.

(Photo and the briefing are adopted from Lin Liu-Hsin Puppet Theatre Musuem English website)

4.        【Cultural】The Bunun's eight-part polyphony－Pasibutbut

 文化之旅-偶然與意圖-臺灣布農族的八部合音Pasibutbut –吳榮順

Special English Speech

l           Speaker(主講人)：Rung-Shun Wu, Taipei National University of the Arts 國立臺北藝術大學 吳榮順教授 

l           Date/Time(日期/時間)：2011/12/05 Mon. 19:00~21:00 P.M.

l           Location(地點)：3F Conference Room, Life Science Building, National Taiwan University 

l           國立臺灣大學生命科學館3樓演講廳

l           Organizer (主辦單位) ：General Education TW (GET)　 

l           教育部臺灣通識網
http://get.nccu.edu.tw:8080/getcdb/
http://get.nccu.edu.tw:8080/getcdb/handle/getcdb/287506　　　　　　　　　 

l           Co Organizer (協辦單位)：Taipei National University of the Arts
國立臺北藝術大學
Taiwan Indigenous Peoples Resource 
Center, Council of Indigenous Peoples, 
Executive Yuan
行政院原住民族委員會

5.        【Cultural】New Taipei City Yingge Ceramics Museum 文化之旅-鶯歌陶瓷博物館

Referral Website(s)

l           New Taipei City Yingge Ceramics Museum

Over a hundred years ago, the Yingge ceramic industry was born out of this fertile land. It enhanced the local Taiwanese culture with boundless vitality.

The pioneers, with their bursting creativity and strenuous determination, Worked hard to make this town a prosperous center of ceramics.

The first modern ceramics museum in the nation.

Combines the essence of the wisdom of the industries, government, and scholars.
It raises the signal that the fire in Yingge's kilns will never be extinguished.

It displays the masterpieces created with wind stoves, clay, and glazes, with the hope that the beauty of Taiwanese ceramics will be renowned worldwide.

The constructed of the New Taipei City Yingge Ceramics Museum was first proposed in 1988 and opened to the public on November 26, 2000. In twelve years, it has become the leading county museum in Taiwan and the first professional museum wholly dedicated to ceramics. In addition to exhibiting the Taiwanese ceramic culture, it also stimulates the public's interest and attention in ceramics. While promoting the Yingge ceramic enterprises and local image, the museum also encourages international culture exchange. Furthermore, we survey, gather, preserve, and maintain Taiwanese ceramic culture for the purposes of research, collection, exhibitions, and education.

( The briefing are adopted from official website of New Taipei City Yingge Ceramics Museum)

l           Architecture

The museum's exposed concrete and steel supports give it a grey exterior. Tall and pure in color, the museum has big glass curtains that allow sunlight to shine through and radiate the spacious interior with countless visual effects. The simple hues of the museum result in the indoor ceramic exhibits changing their texture and appearance with different sunlight. The museum is an arena where the artworks have limitless potentials. This is a character of the museum.

Behind the museum, the Ceramics Park demonstrates the diversity of ceramics. In addition to providing an outdoor exhibition space for the artworks, it also combines the earth, water, and plants to show the balance between human creations and nature. Different aspects of clay are integrated with the natural environment. The visitors can appreciate the boundless possibilities of ceramics while relaxing.

The main plan of the museum and the park incorporates Western building materials and technology. The elements are combined like cells. The space freely extends like a pursue of the Taoist and Buddhist realization of emptiness and truth. In addition, the simple design does not interfere with the art and visitors. This is a kind of “background architecture” that creates a sense of intimacy between the viewers and the artworks. As a result, the Yingge Ceramics Museum is an exhibition and activity space for ceramic art that has a beautiful architecture to accompany it.

(Content excerpt from New Taipei City Yingge Cermamics Museum website)

6.       【Cultural】Museum of Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica

文化之旅-中研院民族學研究所博物館-蔣斌

Referral Website(s)

l           Official Website of Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica

In 1928, Professor Tsai Yuan-pei, a major exponent of ethnology in China and then President of Academia Sinica, established the Ethnology Section in the Institute of Social Sciences. In 1934 the Ethnology Section was transferred to the Institute of History and Philology. In 1955, after Academia Sinica had been moved to Taiwan, a preparatory office was established to conduct ethnographic research on the Han Chinese and the nearly 200,000 indigenous Austronesian people in Taiwan. This preparatory office finally led to the establishment of the Institute of Ethnology in 1965, with Professor Ling Shun-sheng as its first director.

There are currently 30 full-time research fellows at the Institute, including 10 research fellows, 14 associate research fellows, 4 assistant research fellows, one research assistant and one assistant research technician. Aside from individual research projects, the Institute also develops integrated team projects in cooperation with other institutes at Academia Sinica as well as various colleges and universities. We hope to use teamwork to explore forward-looking research topics and conduct in-depth research. Cooperative research projects currently underway include：

1. Popular Religions of the Han Chinese

2. Shamans and Ritual Performances in Contemporary Contexts

3. Taiwanese Families and Intergenerational Relationships: Changes and Continuities in a Globalizing Era

4. The Medical and Body Experience

5. Indigenous Mental Healing

6. Medical Anthropology Research Group

7. Starting from Voice Research Team

8. Society and Culture in the Early 21th Century Research Group

7.       【Natural】Rediscover Our Ocean 自然之旅-重新看見海洋)(荒野保護協會-林愛龍

English Special Talk

Topic：Rediscover Our Ocean

Speaker：Ms. Platinasoka, Marine Specialist, The Society of Wildness (SOW)　
            荒野保護協會 海洋保育專員 林愛龍

Date/Time：2011/10/26(W) PM.19:00~21:00

Venue： 3F Conference Room, Life Science Building, National Taiwan University

8.       【Natural】Terrestrial Small Mammals of Taiwan - Life Rolls On

自然之旅-生生不息-特有生物研究保育中心

Referral Website(s)

l           Endemic Species Research Institute

9.       【Natural】National Parks of TAIWAN自然之旅-臺灣國家公園之美-內政部營建署

Referral Website(s)

l           Construction and Planning Agency, Ministry of the Interior

National parks are natural areas or historic sites representing the beauty and history of a country. Since the world’s first national park, Yellowstone National Park, was established in the USA in 1872, nearly 3800 national parks have been established throughout different parts of the world. The movement for national parks and nature conservation in Taiwan began in 1961 and has since led to the establishment of eight national parks on the island, including Kenting, Yushan, Yangmingshan, Taroko, Shei-pa, Kinmen, Donsha Atoll and Taijiang National Parks. 

10.    【Natural】NTU Zoological museums自然之旅-臺灣大學動物館藏博物館-林雨德

Referral Website(s)

l           Museum of Zoology

The Museum of Zoology was established in 1928 during the Japanese colonial period and many valuable animal specimens have been collected since the beginning. In the early days, recording the fauna of Taiwan and its neighboring areas, such as southeastern Asia and Hainan Island, was the major purpose of the collection. Later on, due to the economic development, rodents and fishes became the main collection targets. In recent years, the collection expands, for example, earthworms, bats, shrews, larval fishes, etc., contingent on the research interests of individual faculty members.

11.    【Natural】Herbarium of National Taiwan University

自然之旅-臺灣大學植物標本博物館-胡哲明

Referral Website(s)

l           Herbarium of National Taiwan University

The Herbarium of National Taiwan University (abbreviation TAI) is located between Building. No.1 and 5th Girl’s Dormitory which comprises the main Herbarium building, an oven house, a garden of Japanese ruling period, a small wetland , a fern garden and a historical greenhouse.

Founded in 1929, TAI has been a frontier not only for continuously investigating and collecting materials from Taiwan and adjacent areas, such as Southeast Asia, Pacific Islands, etc., but also for actively exchanging specimens with 150 foreign institutions which enriching the collection holdings. TAI’s rich and diversified collection has exceeded 260,000 items, including over 1000 type specimens, upon which a unique plant name is based. More than that TAI’s collection is highlighted by over 60,000 precious specimens that were gathered more than 50 years ago, which is a vivid and historical document of Taiwan’s indigenous flora.

12.    【Natural】TFRI Insect Museum 自然之旅-林業試驗所

Referral Website(s)

l           Taiwan Forestry Research Institute

13.    【Natural】Jung-Tai Chao Visit TFRI Insect Museum

林業試驗所昆蟲標本館導覽-陸聲山、趙榮台

Referral Website(s)

l           Taiwan Forestry Research Institute

14.    【Natural】National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium tour guided

自然之旅-海洋生物博物館-樊同雲

Referral Website(s)

l           National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium

The NMMBA is located in Checheng of Pingtung County, facing the Taiwan strait in the west and standing beside the Tortoise Mt. in the east. The whole area of the district is 96.81 hectares, the construction of the museum division alone occupies 35.81 hectares, whereas the surrounding grasslands and public facility divisions (like the parking lot, tourist information service) occupy more than 60 hectares. The building allocation can be divided into: the museum (the three theme exhibit halls of Waters of Taiwan, Coral Kingdom Pavilion and  Waters of the World and administration and teaching centers), several major building divisions like the husbandry center, public facilities, research building, maintenance facilities, international conference center and academic research center.

Locating among the mountain and river, the overall scheming concept of the museum focuses on presenting the spirit and characteristic of water. It is developed with low building density, buildings with different functions are dispersed and connected with footpaths to maintain the harmonious relation with the original natural environment.

15.    【Technology】National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering

科技之旅-國家地震工程研究中心

Referral Website(s)

l           National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering

16.    【Technology】Hsinchu Science Park 科技之旅-新竹科學園區

Referral Website(s)

l           Hsinchu Science Park

The first establishment of its kind in Taiwan, the Hsinchu Science Park was set up on December 15, 1980. The Science Park Administration (SPA) is charged with the duty of developing, operating and managing the park. By ushering in technologies and talent from abroad, bringing about the transformation of domestic conventional industry, and fostering the upgrade of industrial technology across the board, the park is intended to help high-tech industry take off in Taiwan.

Placed under the National Science Council, Executive Yuan, the SPA is a government agency designed mainly to serve, providing HSP companies with convenient services and all the amenities they need. In addition to comprehensive one-stop and online services, the SPA makes available a full range of facilities at the park that will fulfill every aspect of their daily needs: food, clothing, housing, transportation, education, and recreation. In their turn, tenant companies are thus able to concentrate in their production and R&D, creating even greater economic benefits for Taiwan and its people.

17.    【Technology】National Nano Device Laboratories 科技之旅-國家奈米元件實驗室

Referral Website(s)

l           National Nano Device Laboratories

The National Nano Device Laboratories (NDL) is located in the Hsinchu Science Park and under the administration of the National Applied Research Laboratories. Since its establishment in 1988, the NDL has been dedicated to supporting the academia for its research to develop advanced semiconductor processing technologies and cultivating semiconductor talents needed by the industries. As the semiconductor process is continually progressing from sub-micron to nanometer technology, in accordance with national science and technology policies and industrial developments, the NDL has been exploring in superior processing technologies and applications such as functional materials, energy optoelectronics, and bio-MEMS. By adding functional nanotechnologies, NDL will keep providing advanced solid service required by the industries, academia and research institutes.