Taipei taps imperial Chinese treasures in cultural diplomacy

National museum celebrates its Chinese roots while charting a distinct Taiwanese narrative.

- Yip Wai Yee

Former Ode On The Red Cliff, the 1082 scroll penned by famed poet and scholar Su Shi, widely known as Su Dongpo.

(PHOTO: NATIONAL PALACE MUSEUM)

"Where did the Jadeite Cabbage go?

I heard the question over and over during a recent visit to Taiwan's National Palace Museum, when disappointed tourists discovered that the beloved Qing Dynasty artefact was not in its usual display case.

Instead, two other jade carvings of the same leafy vegetable - “cabbage sisters”, as the museum calls them — were shown in its place, as if to assuage disgruntled visitors for the time being.

Turns out, the museum’s most famous treasure — a delicate 19th-century carving of a Chinese cabbage with a locust lurking in its leaves — had been sent halfway across the world to Prague, to be shown in a special three-month exhibition alongside 130 other imperial Chinese artefacts.

Titled 100 Treasures, 100 Stories, the event is a key part of the museum's centennial celebrations, as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Taiwan Culture in Europe 2025 campaign.

It marks the first time that the Jadeite Cabbage, which is to the museum what the Mona Lisa is to the Louvre in Paris, is being exhibited in Europe, where it will be on show until Dec 31. It is also the first time the treasure has travelled abroad in Il years, following its last appearance in Tokyo in 2014.

The rare tour reflects Taipei's expanded cultural diplomacy as it seeks warmer relations with like-minded international partners, such as the Czech Republic, whose ties with Taiwan have significantly deepened in recent years.

Closer to home, cross-strait relations have deteriorated, with Beijing, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, stepping up its political pressure to isolate Taipei internationally.