President Tsai Ing-wen on May 11 received Honorary Chairman of Sun Ten Pharmaceutical Co. (順天堂藥廠) Charles Hsu (許照信) and his wife, Hsu's younger sister Melissa See (許純真), as well as Chen Fei-long (陳飛龍), former director of Sun Ten Museum in Irvine, CA, USA. The president expressed her deepest gratitude to the founder of Sun Ten Pharmaceutical Co. and Sun Ten Museum Dr. Hsu Hong-yen (許鴻源) and his family for preserving the paintings of pioneers of Taiwanese modern painting and for donating artworks to Taiwan.
Acclaimed as "father of scientific Chinese medicine," Dr. Hsu Hong-yen (1917-1991) had purposefully supported and collected artworks by Taiwanese artists since 1979, and he made a wish then to donate his collections to Taiwan at a better time. In 2019, Sun Ten Museum signed an agreement with the Ministry of Culture to donate Hsu's collections, and the more than 600 artworks have all been shipped to Taiwan.
President Tsai said that she personally visited the warehouse of the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (NTMoFA) in Taichung in 2019 to view the homecoming collections from Sun Ten Museum, and she was deeply impressed by the collections that span a century.
In order to implement arts-related policies and concepts, the MOC and the NTMoFA have consistently promoted research of artworks and promotional activities in various art-related fields in recent years. President Tsai noted that the "Reconstruction of Taiwan's Art History (重建臺灣藝術史計畫)" initiative is an important part of the government's "Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program (前瞻基礎建設計畫)," and the homecoming of Sun Ten Museum’s collection signifies a crucial step in the process of rebuilding Taiwan’s art history. It is hoped that the launching of Taiwan’s cultural renaissance will help people at home and abroad better understand the history and creativity of Taiwan, she added.
"Taiwanese Art Treasures Preserved Overseas – The Homecoming Exhibition of the Sun Ten Collection (海外存珍-順天美術館藏品歸鄉展)," which opened at the NTMoFA on March 20, will last until June 27. Displaying 232 pieces of art by 195 Taiwanese artists born between 1871 and 1989, the exhibition features many masterpieces of Taiwan’s art history. The NTMoFA will continue to use the donated artworks from Sun Ten Museum for the promotion of fine arts in the future.