◎About National Taiwan Museum◎
The Museum, the oldest in Taiwan, was established in 1908. In 1915, construction of the Museum’s new home was completed in an elegant and classical style, making the Museum one of the most noteworthy public buildings by the Japanese colonial government. In 1999, the Museum underwent a new christening as the “National Taiwan Museum.” Although its name has changed, the Museum is the only museum built in Japanese colonial era that, after wars and changes in government, remains open at its original site. Witnessing the history of Taiwan and withstanding the warfare and time, the building itself is an indispensable piece of urban heritage and was designated as a National Historic Site. The tour will disclose the secret details about the Museum building that bring the story of the modernization in Taiwan. Although the Museum was founded as a natural history museum, it holds some important historical treasures in its collection, for example, the Yellow Tiger Flag (the flag of the Formosan Republic), which will also be introduced in the tour. The Museum is working with the Ministry of Culture to create a museum complex incorporating historic sites and buildings at the core of Taipei City, with “Taiwan” as the unifying theme. And the tour will lead the audience exploring under the theme.
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◎About the multilingual tour service in National Taiwan Museum◎
Staring from April, National Taiwan Museum will provide free English tours every Sunday afternoon and weekend tours in various Asian or European Languages to share the interesting stories behind it with the world. The multilingual tour service started a year ago firstly with Southeast Asian languages as a part of the “New Immigrant Plan”, in which the Museum recruits residents from Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia and Myanmar introducing the Museum to the new immigrants in their languages. Recently, the cooperation between the Museum and the universities has been intensified, and therefore more and more students become interested in the history and development of Taiwan before WWII. This spring, the Museum has recruited a group of enthusiastic local and international students to the “International Docent Program”, and trained them with the knowledge of Taiwanese history and tour techniques. The aim of this program is to provide not only a more friendly visiting environment but also an in-depth travel experience for every visitors.
