Robin Ruizendaal, a Dutchman, is the unlikely Director of the Lin Liu-hsin Puppet Theatre Museum*.

The Mandarin speaking, betel nut chewing Dutchman is a genuine doctor of puppetry, whose graduate thesis focused on Chinese marionette theatre.

Opened in 2000 with the generous support of several private donors, the museum is located in Taipei’s historic Da Daocheng neighbourhood, where puppet troupes once thrived, and is housed in a well preserved 4-story manor house built in 1946.

Today, the museum boasts a collection of some 7,000 puppetry artifacts from across Asia and is home to an internationally renowned troupe of theatrical puppeteers.

The troupe features Taiwanese puppet master Chen Xi-huang (陳錫煌), son of legendary puppeteer Li Tien-lu (李天祿), Chen’s protege, Massimo Godoli Peli of Italy, and a crew of narrators, light and stage designers, and a puppet maker.

In a recent interview with the Taipei Times, Ruizendaal lamented local indifference to this aspect of Taiwan’s rich cultural heritage.

…not unlike other Asian countries heavily influenced by Western pop culture, Taiwan is facing a lack of interest among young people in traditional puppetry.

“There are people coming from France and Spain to study Taiwanese puppetry at our museum, but local youth think it’s more sexy to become film makers, video artists or disc jockeys,” he said. “It seems crazy to them to study the obsolete puppetry. There is a crisis to pass on the craft if nobody wants to learn it.”

Ruizendaal hopes the puppet museum can attract new blood by offering free puppeteer apprenticeships.

Hand glove puppet shows are a regular event across Taiwan. They are generally sponsored by local temples and everyone is welcome to watch for free.

[youtube=http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=kvj-O4QWnFc]

*The museum was previously known as Toa-Thiun-Thian Puppet Centre

Sources

Department of Information, Taipei City Government. (2001). Taipei’s Museums: The Doors are Open.

Taipei Times report: Dutch man attempting to revive a dying art

www.taipeipuppet.com

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“Adventures in the NPM” won the prize of “Animation of the Year”, Tokyo International Animation Fair 2008.

To demonstrate the results of digitization at the National Palace Museum (NPM), computer animation technology has been use to personify treasures inthe NPM collection as its “superstars”, in the hope of bridging the gap between modern audiences and ancient artworks. In collaboration with Digimax Corporation, NPM has produced a 3D animated film short entitled “Adventures in the NPM“”, which will premier to audiences on April 13, 2007 on the B1 level of the Main Building at the NPM.

Characters Child Pillow, Jade Duck and Pi-hsieh Beast search for an insect missing from the Jadeite Cabbage. The Jadeite Cabbage, as the name suggests, is a cabbage made of jade. It’s one the NPM’s most prized artifacts.

The filming of this 3D animated short took more than a year to complete and runs for a total of 13 minutes. You can watch the 2 minute promotional video below.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmCP3Aep5XI]

For more information click here.

Currently Mandarin scholarship students must be enrolled for 12 contact hours per week (This will increase to 15 hours after August 31 2008). I have 8 hours of one-on-one classes, 2 hours language exchange and I complete a cultural activity once a week, such as visiting a museum. Below is an example of my homework for a cultural activity.

On Thursday I went to Ju Ming Museum.

The sculpture park is located in beautiful Jin Shan (金山), Taipei County.

Ju Ming is a very famous artist. He is best known for his sculptures, created in bronze, clay and wood, but he is also a painter.

He started working on the 11 hectare museum/gallery/park almost twenty years ago. It finally opened in 1999.

Ju was born in a small Miaoli County town in central Taiwan. When he was young he worked as a temple artist specializing in woodcarving. He was taught by some very famous Taiwanese artists and has since been internationally recognized. His work has been displayed in France, Japan, Hong Kong, Canada, Germany, U.S.A., Singapore etc.

You can view a slideshow of photos I took here.

朱銘博物館

我二零零八年四月星期四去了朱銘博物館。

朱銘博物館的地址是台北縣金山鄉西勢湖2號。

我覺得金山很美麗。

朱銘是藝術家。 他會創作雕刻品，也會畫畫。他很有名。

我很喜歡朱銘博物館， 我帶來了我的照相機，所以我拍很多照片。

我覺得朱銘博物館很特別。

他的作品去了加拿大，法國，香港， 日本，德國，美國， 新加坡 etc。

更多照片