In 2011, MoNTUE was founded in the centennial National Taipei University of Education in Taiwan. It has always followed the principle of “Museum Continued” in its operations. Continuous public participations generate values in museums and sustain their lives.

As a new form of museum, MoNTUE attempts to shape its functions and significance organically, and to become a space to generate knowledge and innovative values to the public.

As a lab that inspires imagination and creativity, MoNTUE converges visual art, performing art, moving images, sound, and technology.

History and culture in the university engages with avant-garde perspectives in contemporary art into innovative energy in art. It continues to renovate and reinvent the museum, and evolve formats in artistic and cultural exhibitions.

MoNTUE, Museum of National Taipei University of Education

Manuscript of “We Have to State Clearly at the Beginning”

Tokyo Theater Photography: Auditorium

Figure Sketches

Stereoscopic Photography: Street

Portrait of Yang Shui-hsin

Report of the relocation of two lectures

Tokyo Shinko Shashin Work

Antique

Wedding photo of Tân Si̍t-kî (Chen Chih-chi)

Self-portrait

The Tshiah-tó / Sekitō Group (Chidao Group)

Declaration on the Founding of the Chidao Group

Linglang Mountain Hall

Sheet music of “Paddy Field of June” and  “Train Through the Tunnel”

Stereoscopic Photography: Bridge

Tiunn Uî-hiân (Chang Wei-hsien) Photo Album

The Forbidden City

Embroidering the Skirt

Blacksmiths

Art Picture Collection of Tân Tîng-pho (Chen Chengpo)

The Resurrected Rose by Hou Yao

Eternal Rest｜Anping Discrict, Tainan City

Photo of Luā Hô (Lai Ho)

Solitude

Postcard of Posing Woman by N̂g Thóo-tsuí (Huang Tu-shui), which was selected for the fourth Teiten

Photo commemorating the establishment of the Tâi-pak (Taipei) Youth Study Group

The Public and the Modern

Students Movements

The Incident of the Petition Movement for the Establishment of a Taiwanese Parliament

Die Wege: Darkroom and Poetry

Portrait of Ông Pi̍k-ian (Wang Bai-yuan)

Key Shop Sign, Belorussian District｜Shanghai

The Jī-lîm (Erhlin) Sugarcane Incident

Notice of the inauguration ceremony of the headquarters of the Taiwanese People’s Party

The Creation of Landscape

We the Enlightened Youths

Photo of Tân Tîng-pho (Chen Cheng-po) and Tiunn Lí Tikhô (Chang Lee Te-ho)

Chang Tsai (Tiunn Tsâi)’s photography scrapbook

Nude Woman

A Crowd

Bird's Eye View of Cable Car Tracks｜Shanghai

Labor Day Protests

Upward View of a Building

Construction Site

Thus Think Taiwanese People

At Dusk

Boring Memories

Church after Bombing｜Opposite Blessed Imelda's School, Taipei City

The Establishment of the Taiwan Cultural Association（II）

Social activity sponsored by the Bū-hong Itsin-huē (Wufeng Yi-hsin Association)

The New Women in the Period of the Taiwan Cultural Association

A Noodle Stand at Night

Stereoscopic Photography: Sensoji Temple

Stereoscopic Photography: Shinjuku

Poster for Film und Foto

Back Street

On Proletarian Painting

Fabric Market

Self-portrait (1)

The Poet / The Literary Giant, Lu Hsun

Coal Mine Pit

Two postcards commemorating flights piloted by Mr. Tsiā Bûn-ta̍t (Hsieh Wen-ta)

My Family

Deng Nan-guang’s Leitz Leica VOTRA Stereo Viewer

The Petition Movement for the Establishment of a Taiwanese Parliament

Snap-Bus Station

N̂g Thóo-tsuí｜HUANG Tu-shui

Market Entrance

Cover and table of contents of Taipei Archives 3:4

Publications in the Period of the Taiwan Cultural Association

“Born in Taiwan” by N̂ g Thôo-tsuí (Huang Tushui) published in The Orient

The Art Activities in Taiwan

Girl in the Red Dress

Deng Nan-guang's Cameras

Spring in Musashino

The First Translated Script by Taiwanese: The Insect Play by N̂g Thian-hái

The Musha Incident

Post-Taiwan Cultural Association Period

Deathbed portrait of Tân Si̍t-kî (Chen Chih-chi)

Mission Statements of the Bîn-hong Theater Troupe and the Bîn-hong Society for Theater Research

Stereoscopic Photography: Breastfeeding

The Taiwan Cultural Association and the Public

Study of Millet's Sketch

Tokyo

Amusement Park

The Mass Funeral of Chiang Wei-shui

Photo of a touring speech group of the Taiwanese People’s Party in front of the party’s headquarters

Snap-Trolley

Stage photo of theatrical plays performed by Hiō-sing Society for Theater Research

Self-Awakening Modernity

Art Picture Collection of Tân Tîng-pho (Chen Chengpo): Tomoe Yabe, Strike

The 1943 Performance Iam-ke (The Capon)

The First Wave of the Modern Theater Movement in Taiwan

Photo of Taiwanese Students at Tokyo Fine Arts School c. 1927

In October of 1921, Huang Tu-shui was selected for Japan’s Teiten [Imperial Art Exhibition] with his work Water of Immorality. This work portrays a young, confident woman emerging from a clamshell, as though from darkness into the world. Her resolute yet reassuring stance symbolizes the imminent arrival of Taiwan’s cultural renaissance. On the 17th of that October, the Taiwan Cultural Association was established. In publishing his essay "Clinical Notes: A Patient Named Taiwan," charter member Chiang Weishui diagnosed Taiwan as suffering from “intellectual malnutrition,” for which the requisite treatment was a cultural movement, and the very organization to promote cultural movement was the Taiwan Cultural Association.

The ideological trend of national self-determination and civil rights movements during Taisho democracy after the First World War made an impact on the Taiwanese youth in Tokyo and inspired them to reflect on the experiences of discrimination in the colonies and to organize rallies. While Lin Hsien-tang spearheaded Petition Movement for the Establishment of a Taiwanese Parliament and hatched the Tai Oan Chheng Lian [Taiwan Youth] magazine with Tsai Hui-ru in Tokyo; Chiang Wei-shui and others formed the Taiwan Cultural Association on island. These were the momentous beginnings that paved the way for public intellectual enrichment, emancipation of minds, and artistic and cultural enlightenment.

A variety of political movements burgeoned as the cultural movement took root. The splintering of the Taiwan Cultural Association in 1927 gave rise to the formation of a number of organizations, each occupying their position on the spectrum and all working together toward Taiwan’s future. Meanwhile, influenced by global ideological trends, the cultural movement advocated by the Cultural Association germinated in new artistic concepts in paintings, sculptures, novels, plays and films of a new era. Artists persisted in seeking out the relationship between art and society, and the spirit of resistance through art and culture exemplified by the Cultural Association continued until after the Second World War.

In tribute to the centenary of the Taiwan Cultural Association in 2021, the Museum of National Taipei University of Education (MoNTUE) casts the gaze toward the contexts of that era. Firmly anchored in an era that saw the emergence of the first generation of Taiwanese artists, this exhibition attempts to traverse the aesthetic styles of the works and the personal journeys of the artists as it explores the specificities of that era and the ways in which artists gathered strength from within. Their audacious pursuit of art contributed to constructing Taiwan’s cultural countenance.

Supported by the Ministry of Culture and Fu Lu Culture Foundation, MoNTUE, with Lin Mun-lee as its exhibition producer, has invited scholars with extensive and expert knowledge in history, literature, drama, art, indigenous culture, women’s studies, and law to form an interdisciplinary research team, whose members include Chou Wan-yao, Liu Liu Shu Chin, Shih Wan-shun, Chiang Po-shin, Chen Huei-hsien, Chen Yun-yuan, and Wu Chun-ying. The research team looks at the temporal-spatial background of a century ago through movements and developments in Taiwanese society. By juxtaposing artworks and historical documents that mutually complement, this exhibition portrays the society in which the Cultural Association and its relevant figures existed from the 1920s to the 1940s, reflects on the progressive actions and spirit of the Taiwan Cultural Association, while revisiting the enlightenment and self-awakening of Taiwanese culture as it unfolded a century ago.

The four exhibition sections of “Impulse of Life,” “The Creation of Landscape,” “The Public and the Modern,” and “Self-Awakening Modernity” serve as points of departure that guide the viewers to explore from the inside outward, and to contemplate ways in which these artists began from self-observation to burst forth and chronicle society through their works, depicting the integration and resistance between the individual
and society. Meanwhile, the “Contemporary Revisits” segment has been developed in collaboration with the Our Theatre troupe and the directorial team of Lin Chunni and Huang Pang-Chuan. In their commissioned works, the Our Theatre troupe have reinterpreted the cultural plays of that era, while Lin and Huang have produced Kam Lōo Tsuí, a documentary inspired by and named after Water of Immorality, and an interactive video installation that brings the era to life. While showcasing the history of Taiwan through diverse approaches, this exhibition also attempts to incorporate contemporary artistic perspectives in its reaching back to the past.

Official Website

Lumière : The Enlightenment and Self-Awakening of Taiwanese Culture

1930
Courtesy of Chiang Wei-shui Cultural Foundation

Lucid Water