Taichung cuisine

The Taichung City Chinese
Orchestra performs

Chairman of the Okinawa
Prefectural Assembly (left)
admires the artwork.

Art and cultural diplomacy
The Da Dun Fine Arts Exhibition visits Okinawa, Japan

Words and photos by Taichung City Government
Translated by Naomi Lai

A total of 116 works of art drawn from the famous Da Dun Fine Arts Exhibition of Taichung City visited the Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum in Okinawa, Japan for an exchange exhibition in August. The event was welcomed by local residents and Taiwanese expatriates but also attracted tourists from all over Japan. On the day of the exhibition opening, the Taichung City Department of Information prepared a variety of Taichung snacks, including sun cakes, pineapple cakes, nougat candies and fish chips, for visitors to experience. Pamphlets introducing tourism in Taichung were also distributed, using this chance to invite Japanese tourists to visit Taichung.

This is the fourth year that the Da Dun Fine Arts Exhibition has been taken overseas. This year's exhibition in Okinawa was warmly received attracted great attention. Among those invited to participate in the official opening of the 2010 Da Dun Fine Arts Culture Exchange Exhibition were Aiko Shimajiri, Member of the House of Councillors; Jenshin Takamine, Speaker of Okinawa Prefectural Assembly; Hirotaka Makino, Director of Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum; Hiroshi Shimoji, Director General of Cultural and Environmental Affairs Department, Okinawa Prefectural Government; Tomoji Hirayoshi, Okinawabunnkanomori; Lee Ming-Tsung, Director General of Naha Branch, Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Japan; and Mark K. Huang, Director General of Taichung City Cultural Affairs Bureau.

Director-General Huang said that to promote this cultural exchange between Taichung and Okinawa, the Taichung City Cultural Affairs Bureau had successfully transported the 116 winning artworks--crafts, sculpture, digital art, photography, printmaking, watercolor painting, oil painting, glue color painting, seal engraving, calligraphy and ink wash painting--to the Okinawan museum with the help of the Naha Branch of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Japan. The government hopes to increase the friendship between Taiwan and Japan via the art exhibition, and to help Okinawa's people better understand current art development in Taiwan.

In conjunction with this exhibition, the Taichung City Cultural Affairs Bureau also invited Lin Yueh-li and the Taichung City Chinese Orchestra to give a small concert of various delightful works of Chinese traditional music during the opening ceremony. Also invited were previous Da Dun Fine Arts Exhibition judges Chen Husan-ming and Lin Chin-jing, plus Cultural Affairs Bureau employees and calligraphers Sheen Jian-long and Zeng Shi-quan. Works by these four masters of calligraphy and ink painting were created at the ceremony and gifted to several happy VIPs and members of the audience on that day.

In addition to the opening festivities, the Taichung City Cultural Delegation also performed at the Plaza House recreation center, Okinawa Shogaku Junior & Senior High Schools, and Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts. These events shared Chinese tradition-influenced Taiwanese art and music with Okinawan students and residents. Promoting Taichung as a city of art and culture, the performances also served to encourage Taichung to organize more international cultural exchanges.

Taichung City Government has been holding the Da Dun Fine Arts Exhibition since 1996. In 2002, the government pushed for a more international exhibition, increasing exhibition categories and inviting artists from around the world to showcase their works. To date, there have been 15 successful exhibitions, attracting over 16,000 artists from five continents. In order to stretch further into the international art community and to share the wonderful exhibition results with the world, the Taichung City Cultural Affairs Bureau started holding overseas exhibitions in 2007. The first of these successful exhibitions was in Xiamen, China, followed by others at Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art in 2008 and the Institute of Texan Culture of San Antonio, Texas in January, 2010. This August, the government brought the winning works from this year's Da Dun Fine Arts Exhibition, together with chosen works from the 14 past exhibitions, to the famous Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum for exhibition.