〈Art history group started〉

2016年03月26日 Taipei Times 台北時報

PRC BULLYING:The new association aims to show that Taiwanese art history will not be subjugated by Chinese art history, director Liao Hsin-tien said at the launch

The Taiwan Art History Association was launched yesterday in Taipei to increase the nation’s research on art history and promote exchanges with the international community in the field.

Art Education Contribution Prize Lifetime Achievement Award winner Wang Hsiu-hsiung (王秀雄) said that as Taiwanese art history is not an established discipline, there have been few dissertations in the field.
Wang said he hopes the association will be a driving force behind research on Taiwanese art history.

He recommended that association members compile a biennial collection of their essays and then submit them to the Ministry of Science and Technology to be considered for publication in the Taiwan Social Sciences Citation Index (TSSCI), a database that contains the nation’s finest academic writings on art history.

Association director Liao Hsin-tien (廖新田) said interest in Taiwanese art history began soon after the end of World War II and peaked in the 1990s. However, interest has subsided in the 21st century and Liao said he hopes that the association will help generate renewed interest in the field.

Liao said he experienced a setback when he helped organize a panel discussion, Politics of Identity: Tradition and Origin, for this year’s World Congress of Art History, to be held in Beijing in September.

Liao said he and Australian art lecturer Sophie McIntyre were chosen as the panel’s hosts by French event organizer Comite International d’Histoire de l’Art, but that he was later replaced by two staff members of China’s Palace Museum.

The event organizer decided to move forward with his title and proposal, even though he would no longer be allowed to host the discussion, he said.

“That is my intellectual property. Beijing simply ransacked it,” he said.

He said the committee told him that the decision was made due to pressure from Beijing.

The congress’ chapter stipulates that a host must be paired with at least one Chinese co-host and the committee wanted a “genuine Chinese” rather than a Taiwanese, Liao said.

“I do not resent anyone, and Sophie and I are still on friendly terms,” he said. “If we do not unite and show the Comite International d’Histoire de l’Art the quintessence of Taiwanese art history, we will only continue to be marginalized and feel sorry for ourselves.”

“If we do not take action against the bully tactics and correct the misconception that Taiwan does not have an art history, or that Taiwanese art history is part of China’s, we will only have ourselves to blame,” he said.

Liao said the timing of the founding of the association has historic significance — to symbolize the death and resurrection of Taiwanese art history.

“I did not want to mention this in my speech, because this is a joyous occasion, but on this day in 1947, [Taiwanese painter] Chen Cheng-po (陳澄波) was gunned down,” he said.

Chen was killed by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) forces for trying to mediate the public uprising stirred by the 228 Incident.

“By founding the association, we hope to show that ‘Taiwanese art’ and ‘Taiwanese art history’ will not be subjugated by ‘Chinese art’ and ‘Chinese art history,’” Liao said.