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The National Palace Museum collection includes nearly 700,000 priceless cultural artifacts. Deeply aware of the importance of preservation and conservation, the Museum has established the only independent department of conservation in Taiwan. It includes four divisions for the conservation of calligraphy and painting, rare books and historical documents, objects, and textiles, as well as a science laboratory for the preventive preservation and conservation, the research on the history of crafts, and the collection of cultural relics.

The history of Chinese painting can be compared to a symphony. The styles and traditions in figure, landscape, and bird-and-flower painting have formed themes that continue to blend to this day into a single piece of music. Painters through the ages have made up this "orchestra," composing and performing many movements and variations within this tradition.

In order to make it possible for visitors to enjoy them no matter when they come to the museum, one of the NPM’s galleries has been set aside especially for a series entitled “Spotlight on National Treasures.” For this exhibition series, each season one piece of National Treasure-level painting or calligraphy is put on display in the designated gallery.

Exhibit List

• Everlasting Peace, Great Auspicousness, Lu Zhi, Ming dynasty
• Lion, Liu Jiude, Qing dynasty
• Ten Paintings of Prized Dogs—Frost Flower Hawk, Lang Shining (Giuseppe Castiglioni), Qing dynasty
• Flowers and Plants [Bogu/Assorted Antiques] Painting, Chen Zhaofeng, Qing dynasty
• Handwritten Copy of Fascicle Forty-one of the Mahāyāna, Mahāparinirvāna Sutra, Anonymous, Tang dynasty

To meet the need for recording information and ideas, unique forms of calligraphy (the art of writing) have been part of the Chinese cultural tradition through the ages. Naturally finding applications in daily life, calligraphy still serves as a continuous link between the past and the present. The development of calligraphy, long a subject of interest in Chinese culture, is the theme of this exhibit, which presents to the public selections from the National Palace Museum collection arranged in chronological order for a general overview.

The organization of the dual exhibitions marks the first presentation at the National Palaced Museum of invaluable Western and Chinese antiquarian texts in their respective historical and cultural context. It is intended to help the audiences garner an in-depth understanding of the differences and similarities in the kind of book culture nourished by the Roman Curia and the Chinese imperial courts. 

The average ratio of males to females in the human population of the world today is roughly even, and it goes without saying that the role of women and their contribution to civilization should neither be overlooked nor underestimated. Comparatively speaking, the National Palace Museum collection features not only a wealth of art on the subject of ladies but also a number of exceptional artworks by women themselves. Unfortunately, however, traditional Chinese society was basically developed and dominated by men over thousands of years. Hence, expressions in Chinese emerged such as "men above and women below," "a man’s place is outside and a woman's at home," "a girl's beauty lies in her weakness," and "a girl's virtue is having no talent." They had a profound affect on women and led to many deep-rooted stereotypes, resulting in far too many ladies of talent being stifled and unable to fulfill their potential. Sympathy for and attention to the plight and situation of these women become all the more apparent in the works of art on and by them.

54th WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival, New Media-Websites, Silver Remi　Award Winner

Buddhism started to spread to other parts of Asia in the 3^rd century BC and reached the Han Chinese sphere in the early 1^st century. The religion was introduced into Tibet a few hundred years later in the 7^th century. While Tibetan Buddhism mostly inherited the characteristics of late Mahāyāna Buddhism, which has its origins in India, it also incorporated some elements of Chinese Buddhism and native customs to form a unique belief system.