Skip to main content

Tokyo exhibition to showcase beauty of Taiwan’s railroads

  • Date:2020-06-10~2020-08-31
Tokyo exhibition to showcase beauty of Taiwan’s railroads

The Taiwan Cultural Center in Tokyo, together with the Taipei-based National Railway Museum launched the "Taiwan Cultural Route – Railroad edition (臺灣文化路徑-鐵道篇)" exhibition in Japan that will be on view from June 10 through Aug. 31. The exhibition will be on display at the Taiwan Cultural Center and Eslite Life mall in Tokyo, showcasing works from eight Taiwanese locomotive photographers and Taiwan's railroad memorabilia.

The Taiwan Cultural Center in Tokyo remarked that the Ministry of Culture has been promoting and creating different "Taiwan Cultural Routes" to showcase Taiwanese historical culture, and the "Railroad edition" will introduced in Japan for this year. The "Railroad edition" aims to present Taiwan's beautiful natural landscapes, railways, and metro scenery to Japanese viewers.

Taiwan's Representative to Japan Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) reminisced that one of his favorite childhood memories was riding on the train, eating a Taiwanese bento, and enjoying the beautiful scenery passing by the window. In addition to being a convenient transportation tool, trains act as a "treasure box" of Taiwanese cultural elements, and he looks forward for exhibition-goers to learn more about the story of Taiwan's railways, he added.

Exhibition curator Chen Wei-chen (陳威臣) mentioned that due to the coronavirus pandemic, the exhibition planning encountered many challenges at the beginning that were overcome owing to the assistance from Taiwan Cultural Center and the Eslite Life mall. He eagerly anticipates sharing Taiwan's railway stories and images with Japanese rail fans.

Also amid the pandemic, Taiwanese photographers were unable to go to Japan for the physical discussion events, therefore documentary director Huang Wei-sheng (黃威勝), Golden Harvest Awards winner and a rail enthusiast himself, was invited to helm a short film showcasing Taiwan's railroad landscapes and relaying testimonials of the participating photographers, titled "Fans of Rail Tracks (迷.鐵道)."

In order to capture all the different locality spots in Taiwan and all the fascinating railroad track scenery, director Huang emphasized that the team traveled through railroad stations of Nuannuan (暖暖), Mudan (牡丹), Shihfen (十分), Wanggu (望古), Dahua (大華), Gongliao (貢寮), Dingpu (頂埔), Kaohsiung Port Station (高雄港), and Kanding (崁頂), and also shot scenes from East Coast Line (花東線), South Link Line (南迴線), Neiwan Line (內灣線), Pingxi Line (平溪線), Coast Line (海線), Xinpingxi Coal Mine Line (新平溪煤礦), and Alishan Forest Railway (阿里山林鐵).

Additionally, "Traditional Art of Railroad Tickets (印票傳藝)" was filmed by the preparatory office of the National Railway Museum to record the process of making a traditional railroad ticket, from printing and cutting the paper to printing the tickets. National Railway Museum's Cheng Min-chang (鄭銘彰) remarked that this traditional card-type ticket printing process is being replaced and they wanted to record the traditional process before it vanishes forever.

The two short films were published online and garnered an extremely enthusiastic response, with viewers commenting that they want to visit Taiwan after watching the clips. This will be the first exhibition to be held at Taiwan Cultural Center in Tokyo since Japan lifted their emergency declaration. Through the exhibition and online clips and images, the Taiwan Cultural Center aims to share Taiwan railroad culture and invite Japanese viewers to fall in love with Taiwan Railway.





Read the Japanese-language press release here: https://jp.taiwan.culture.tw/News_Content.aspx?n=365&s=6299