National Cheng Kung University Museum Audio Guide

National Cheng Kung University Museum: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to National Cheng Kung University Museum

   Welcome to the National Cheng Kung University Museum, known in Chinese as 國立成功大學博物館, in the East District of Tainan, Taiwan. It sits on the Chenggong campus of National Cheng Kung University, and its main hall occupies the former main building of the Tainan Higher Technical School. I should say up front that the evidence behind this guide covers the museum's founding, its structure, its building and its collections in general terms. It does not give a room-by-room tour, so I will stick to the story of the institution and its setting. Here is the idea that makes this place unusual. The museum is not just one building. It has three parts: a main museum hall, a campus environmental museum, and a group of specialist museums run by the university's colleges, institutes and departments. The campus's historic monuments and its distinctive ecology together form the environmental museum, which makes the whole university a kind of very large museum. So as you wander toward the main hall, you are already inside the exhibition.

2. 02

   A Building from 1933: The National Cheng Kung University Museum Home

   The main hall of the National Cheng Kung University Museum was completed in 1933. It began life as the administrative center of the Tainan Higher Technical School, which was set up under the Japanese colonial government of Taiwan. Today the same building houses the museum on the Chenggong campus, and it counts as one of the major landmarks along University Road, alongside the campus building known as the K Hall. The university settled on this building for its museum at the end of 2003. That choice meant a working institution of learning gave its old administrative heart a second life as a place where the university's own heritage is kept and shown. When you stand in front of it, you are looking at architecture that has served education for generations, now turned toward looking after the past.

3. 03

   How a University Became a Museum Maker

   The idea took years to ripen. The university began preparing for a museum in the spring of 1999, and in August of that year it formed a promotion group to push the plan forward. A preparatory office followed on the twenty-fifth of March in 2005. Then, on the fifth of July in 2007, the university's administrative meeting approved the regulations for establishing the museum. The official founding date is the eleventh of November in 2007, and the first director was Professor Yan Hongsen of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The result was a first for Taiwan: the first public university museum formally written into a university's organizational rules, with the Ministry of Education approving it in November 2007. It is also described as the first university museum in Taiwan funded by the university itself. Its stated aim is to serve students and staff while reaching out to the general public, moving toward a cultural park for a university town without walls.

4. 04

   Collections, Gifts and Exhibitions

   What fills such a museum? Its beginnings are a story of generosity and gathering. Mr. Xu Boyi of Qishan wished to donate a large body of historical artifacts, and the university's leaders wanted to join that gift with collections already on campus. Those included mechanical and technological objects collected by Professor Yan, fossil and mineral specimens from the earth sciences and resources departments, and animal and plant specimens from the biology department. The museum's collection is described as numbering more than 2,600 pieces, with great variety: pottery, stone tools, woodwork, carvings and weaving. Exhibitions change with different themes each year. Even before the museum officially opened, it held shows such as one on the donated Boyi Villa artifacts, a tour of the campus's historic monuments and buildings, a memorial exhibition for Lin Huiyin, and one retracing the footsteps of Koxinga. It also ran public programs such as Taiwan tea tastings and tours of the campus's nationally designated monuments.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   Before you move on, look at the open space in front of the museum. In 2014 that large plaza was officially named Nanrong Plaza, in memory of Mr. Zheng Nanrong, an important figure in Taiwan's democratic history. It is a reminder that a campus can hold public memory as well as classrooms. And keep your eyes open as you leave. The museum's wider mission includes the campus itself, its historic monuments and its distinctive ecology, and its recent activity has included the university's collection of general library design drawings from the era of American aid architecture, designated as an ancient artifact of Tainan City. Every building and path around you may be part of the exhibition. For current visiting arrangements, the museum's official website is the place to check for the latest announcements.