National Palace Museum & Ballroom Dancing!

Saturday March 16^th, 2013

From 8:40AM to roughly 5:00PM, a Rotary event was held in two locations. First was meeting at the District office, which was a bugger to find! There wasn’t any big sign and I was staring holes through at the map e-mailed because I couldn’t find it. Until some other exchange students came along did we find it thankfully. At this place we had about three hours of lecture over a museum with Chinese artifacts (Btw, that’s s big hint to what the second location was. Can you guess what it is? ;P). Things discussed were why museums are important, as well as some actual content like jade, bronze, calligraphy, painting and porcelain. Each of the three lectures had their own individual speaker, two guys and one lady All were just as interesting as the other and I enjoyed every single one.

Not every exchange student did, as was made clearly apparent by many. During each of our guest speakers presentations, the back of the room would just chit-chat loudly and annoyingly away. Andrea had to stay her fists of fury through gritted teeth. Both Rotarians and exchange students would kindly ask the non-polite ones to please be quiet or just go outside. Not effective in the slightest. The worst part is this isn’t the first time this has happened. I remember back when learning calligraphy and couldn’t hear the teacher, I nicely asked some to be quieter. (Also wasn’t effective) That is just so incredibly rude of them.

I noticed the speakers’ feelings of being unappreciated, which just broke my heart because I did truly like their talk. So afterwards I went up privately, thanked them for coming, expressed my enjoyment and talked a bit with one over some surrounding paintings. Oh my gosh when I did that, their faces lit up with smiles and was so cute. I’m glad that they know at least one foreigner really liked their efforts.

Two of the speakers on the right and a Rotarian on the left. They were such good presenters being kind enough to do it in English as well.

Posted throughout the room on the walls and the desk were several famous paintings to correlate with the guy speaker in a black coat’s talk.

This pretty one has a secret. Or at least something that is quite a challenge to find. The artist’s name is incredibly difficult to locate because there is no set area for them to write it. Shown on a PowerPoint, the artist’s name is extremely petite and blended in the art somewhere around the bottom right area. Even though I saw it on the zoomed in PowerPoint picture, I couldn’t find it with my own eyes when in front of this copy. Dang that’s insane! XD

Yet another famous work of art, this calligraphy needs to be read from right to left. At the beginning the characters are nicely and carefully written by a man who had to leave his beloved homeland. As he is writing about this, feelings of grief swell up inside him to the point where he has an emotional breakdown. This can be seen as you continue to read leftwards, about a third of the way through, when the characters change and their appearance state their artist’s exploding emotions. Cool huh? Also take notice of the many red stamps throughout the script. As described by the speaker, it is the ancient equivalent of the Facebook ‘Like’ button. Owners and admirers would stamp their seal right onto the art to show their appreciation for the work. Big square stamps like on the right end were those of emperors with smaller stamps being of lesser status. Some people would even write on art like the section of small calligraphy sandwiched in between here. It is a very strange and even scandalous act to Westerners because the thought of changing art by your own hand shows disrespect to the artist. To us it’s like spray-painting graffiti on Michael Angelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling. But in ancient China, it’s a compliment to get such things done since it shows people’s enjoyment in your work. Interesting different between cultures there, huh?

My favorite of the art shown, a horsey! Yet another famous painting, it was explained that Chinese very much prized their horses. When I talked with one of the speakers (the blue shirt one if you must know) I mentioned how one of the pictures shown on his PowerPoint had a Mongolian Przewalski horse (I’VE LOVED THESE SINCE 5^TH GRADE!) and asked why Chinese painted a different country’s horse. He then explained that when China conquered Mongolia they brought over the Przewalski’s back to China, hence introducing them and enticing painter’s to paint away. And a beautiful job they indeed accomplished!

After a Rotary provided lunch of McDonald’s, we headed out to take the subway and a bus for our next location. Btw, I was reminded why I don’t like McDonald’s between taste, non-satisfaction and stomachache. That’s all I need to say about that.

We are Group 1 of awesomeness! To make mass transportation easier, we spilt up into Rotary groups to successfully take the subway. Waiting for the others, we had fun showing each other self defense moves or being practice victims. KUNG FU POWER! >:D

So have you figured out which museum we went to see yet? It’s the fifth most visited museum in the world, if that helps at all. Shall I wait for you to Google it? XD Nah, I’ll give it to you straight. It’s the renowned National Palace Museum of Taiwan! :D Now if you don’t know, this museum even though sited in Taiwan is full of Chinese artifacts. “In 1931, shorty after the Mukden Incident Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek’s National Government ordered the museum to make preparations to evacuate its most valuable pieces out of the city to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Imperial Japanese Army.” They have so many artifacts that not all are displayed at once and are rotated every year or so. It’s intense, that’s what it is. :P

Arriving to the location, we were first greeted by a beautiful white gate standing proudly.

A tad further in you come across two lions guarding the entrance to a stretched pathway leading up to the museum with striking architecture.

Rawr! One of the lions! Is it just me or does the lion look as if he’s standing on a flowery Harry Potter snitch? XD

An upper and back view of the pathway with the museum behind the photo’s perspective.

Our group picture! Have fun finding me because it’s not too obvious. XD I just love the roof’s exterior and the extra decoration of a Taiwanese flag waving proudly in front. ^_^

Amelia and me! In case I haven’t touched on this yet, Amelia indeed has her exchange in Taiwan but lives on a small island that takes a 30-60 minute airplane ride to Taipei. She flies over now and then for culture classes such as today’s. From Oregon (I believe), she’s quite a sweet friend and we must enjoy our short time together when she’s in Taipei.

Another photo of the museum’s outside.

Why not have an additional picture, but with a better look at the roof? ;)

Before we went inside, we presented Zach (red shirt) with two muffins declaring his newly achieved age for his birthday today. Happy B-day Zach!

No pictures are in my possession of the inside content because photography was forbidden. Therefore I can only tell you with words about the experience. Here we go!

The exchange students were spilt into three groups, each being assigned to two sections of the museum. We had to choose between these:

A: Calligraphy/Books and Painting

B: Bronze and Ceramics

C: Jade and Ch’ing Imperial Art

At first I wanted to see the Jade exhibit because it’s such a famous stone in Asia and I haven’t yet viewed such art. But when the sign in sheets came around to me, I noticed how the Jade group was heavily favored the most, all the spots nearly filled. Many of those taken spots were students who…how do I put this nicely…who really really like to talk away (like this morning). So I chose group B instead since bronze is an equally important material for China I haven’t learned about.

Group B was refreshingly small giving us the ability to move around faster and see more. Something really cool was that we were given headsets that could tune into your tour guide’s channel so you could hear his every word. That was awesome! And yes, we were assigned tour guides. Group B’s was an older man with a humorous personality and fascinating information.

He first led us through the bronze exhibit, the metal having five main usages in Chinese culture: cooking food, being a water vessel, a wine vessel, for music and for weapons. The once golden objects were now gray from tarnish and age but nonetheless appealing. Many contained animal features as part of their decoration. A favored animal was the bird since it could act as a messenger for the gods and communicating with ancestors.

Next up was the ceramics display. Want to know why blue and white china is called “china?” The art originated from, you guessed it, China. When it was exported to European countries, European workers would holler down to the Chinese when working at the port, “What do you have there?” The Chinese who didn't speak their foreign language well, thought they were asked where they came from to which they replied, “China!” Hence the blue and white porcelain is commonly referred as china. Cool huh?

Even though that was supposed to be the conclusion of our tour, the guide was up and ready for yet another exhibit. He asked, “Which would you like to see next?” I excitedly replied, “Jade!” But someone pointed out how we only had five minutes until we needed to start heading out. Therefore the tour guide kindly offered to take us through the jade quickly so we could at least see a little. That was so nice of him and I really appreciate being able to see even a small portion of the jade even if our original plan didn’t include it.

Speeding through the jade section, a few fascinating stories were squeezed in. First he showed us a familiar Chinese character of  “王.” We learned at University that it was “Wang,” a common Chinese family name. He expanded that it also meant ‘king’ in Chinese. Next he showed us the character “玉.” See the difference? There’s a little dot added on the bottom right side. The dot means ‘stone.’ So combining those meanings you have ‘king’s stone.’ 玉 is the character for jade, hence jade being the king’s stone. That’s a pretty awesome breakdown of jade’s character history! :D

Some artifacts viewed included a jade necklace and pair of earrings, the oldest article in the museum. There were also small pieces of jade thread together as a mask to place on deceased people’s faces as a method of preservation. One of the most prized objects in the museum is a jade carving of a cabbage (type ‘National Palace Museum Jade Cabbage’ for reference). The amazing thing about it is that absolutely no coloring was added to it. The stone is naturally that color of brilliant green and white jade carved down into a yummy looking vegetable. It also contains a story behind it. A young lady gave this jade carving as a dowry to the family she was being wedded into. The coloring (I think) meant she was pure virgin and the two grasshoppers on top symbolized the ability to produce many offspring. Ironically, she didn’t birth any children. But at least it was a beautiful gift, right? XD

You know what’s funny. We spent roughly three ours in the morning for presentations over the National Palace museum yet only two hours at the actual museum. Pfft, what? XD The time there was very short and fast paced, only touching upon a few of the many exhibits they had. Therefore host father kindly offered to take me again for a more thorough browse through the contents another day saying the family also enjoyed the wonderful museum. That’s so sweet of him. ^_^ So hopefully that’ll happen!

A trip to the gift shop for purchasing souvenirs concluded our visit of the National Palace Museum. With five other exchange students, we went as a small group back to the subway. Before that we had fun picture time!

First off, normal standing photo with Akiko as the photographer. From left to right we have: Abbey, Erin, yours truly, Maxime and Garrett.

Now JUMP EVERYONE!

GIRL POWER JUMP TIME! :D

With Erin and Akiko, the three of us headed over to meet my host parents for a dancing show of some sort. The details weren’t very clear so I didn’t know what we were getting into. I thought it was some school performance or something. Before that we had to guzzle down a quick convenient store dinner so we could enter the large dome building, the same one I skated at a while ago. The building itself automatically swiped away the thought of it being some small show, thus provoking my curiosity.

For me I had a ‘100% Juice, Raspberry Mix Juice’ beverage and some sort of heated rice sandwich. Surrounding the rice was either a thin egg or tofu, couldn’t tell which it was because of chowing it down rapidly. Other things inside were chicken and I think a bit of cheese. It was pretty tasty from what I did taste. XD

This dance show actually was a professional international ballroom competition lasting the whole day. We only saw the end of it but oh my Lordie it was gorgeous! Not only was the different styles of dancing captivating anywhere between waltzing to quick step to cha cha but the dresses were MAGNIFICENT BEYOND BELIEF! OH MY GOODNESS THEY WERE COMPLETELY OUTSTANDING! Flowing poofy dresses to slim artistically cut ones were all enchanting! I took videos but if you would like to see the four most famous dancers, check out these names on YouTube:

-Michael & Joanna

-Arunas & Katusha

-Victor & Anastasia

-Riccardo & Yulia

My favorite pair were Michael and Joanna by far because they had so much fire and passion in their dancing. Their expressions throughout were priceless too, emphasizing their fiery feelings. All of those pairs were fantastic dancers, being famous international professionals. I would link some videos but I seriously wouldn’t be able to decide which dance is each pair’s best. For me at least, I most enjoy the fast paced, energy explosive Latin style. That’s probably why I like Michael and Joanna the most. ;P

Once the show was over, a quick photo opportunity was taken before we parted ways. (Akiko and Erin left early because they had to make their curfews on time)

I encouraged host father and mother to have a ballroom dancing pose. In my head I imagined the classical holding hands with the lady’s arm resting on the man’s shoulder and his free hand on the woman’s hip. Even so, their little pose was still so cute! ^_^

Then a picture with host mother’s sister and another Rotarian as well as muah. Can you tell I was channeling Spanish flare? :P

Back at home I ate a curiously packaged food new to me. It turned out to be a pineapple cake but in a form I hadn’t encountered yet. A round pineapple cake. Woah, it can be round? It felt like I was eating a biscuit. XD Its flavor was pleasantly sweet and a nice treat to have.

And with that the night ended! Hope y’all enjoyed your day! Night now! ^_^