Orchid exhibition on show at the National Museum of History

Orchid exhibition on show at the National Museum of History

2025-08-29

Taiwan is renowned in the world as the “Island of Orchids,” acknowledged for its diverse and beautiful specimens. Today, we take you to an exhibit centered on Taiwan’s orchids. The exhibit is a collaboration between Taiwan’s National Museum of History and the University Museum of the University of Tokyo, showcasing over 200 works. FTV reporter Stephany Yang takes us in for a look!

Orchids hold a deeply symbolic place in Taiwanese art, especially during the post-war era. After 1949, as many artists and intellectuals relocated from mainland China to Taiwan, traditional ink painting flourished. Other styles include western sketching, Japanese gouache paintings, and Western-style watercolors and oil paintings. The National Museum of History houses a wide collection of orchid paintings from post-war Taiwan. Among the standout pieces are works by Taiwanese artist Chen Chin.

Chen Yi-an
Curator
Through the Japanese influence of discovering different kinds of orchids and the publications spread of the cultural land image, the Taiwanese society actually has a very unique understanding of orchids which is demonstrated in the post-war artworks. In our collection, we not only have Literati orchids, we also have orchid expressions that are deeply affected by Japanese education and the Western art education. This work by Chen Chin is a great demonstration of that kind of cultural exchange and mixture and the demonstration of orchid images.

This room showcases rare orchid specimens and glass plate negatives from Taiwan’s Japanese colonial period. The specimens are from the University of Tokyo’s museum, and many are exhibited for the first time. There are also photography and documentaries talking about the Tsou’s sacred orchids that are used during ceremonies.

Chen Yi-an
Curator
This collaboration is actually with the University of Tokyo’s Museum. They have a lot of scientific specimens. They have a lot of materials that brings us to Taiwan’s history before the Japanese colonial period and also how they explored Taiwan on our specialty orchids. Also, the Tsou people have an important ritual called mayasvi. They use a very particular orchid called Fiteu that has been discovered by Japanese scientists but also is deeply involved in their ritual, and we actually produced a documentary to showcase how this plant is deeply integrated in the Tsou culture.

Scientific illustrations on Taiwan’s flowers flourished in the 20th century. The exhibit also showcases delicate scientific paintings of orchids by Japanese botanical illustrators from the Meiji and Taishō period. In addition, Taiwan’s first-generation botanical painter Wang Jen-li are also on display.

Chen Yi-an
Curator
When people do research or publish new species on orchids, apart from the scientific specimens, they also need some illustrations to demonstrate how the plants actually look like. In this room, we have Japanese scientific paintings from the Meiji period to the Taishō to the post-war. Also, we have one scientific painter that is Taiwanese, called Wang Jen-li. He actually had training from the Japanese and worked at the scientific painting from the Japanese period later to post-war period in Taiwan. He had a very delicate series of works that we are exhibiting.

The Formosa Orchids Blossom exhibition is jointly organized by Taiwan’s National Museum of History and the University Museum of the University of Tokyo. Featuring over 200 works, it offers a rich journey through Taiwan’s orchid legacy from the 17th century to now—blending scientific inquiry with artistic expression.

Chen Yi-an
Curator
In Taiwan, we have very specific, special geographical features. We are an island, but we also have very high mountains. We have plants and we have geographic features that is near the sea. Also, we are next to a huge piece of land and also to the southeast, there are oceanic islands that are really close to Taiwan. There is a specialty in orchid seeds so they are very small. They can be carried by the air. In Taiwan, it actually gathers lots of orchid species, not only from the mainland, but also from the sea area and because of our special geography, we have such a variety of orchids so from the Japanese scientists they could actually discover all kinds of orchids that they couldn’t find in Japan. During the 50 years of Japanese rule, the Japanese scientists get to discover all kinds of different orchids and through their scientific painting and specimen collecting, they actually documented all kinds of orchids.

The exhibition showcases groundbreaking research and insights from renowned experts in orchid biology and the arts. The exhibition will be held at the National Museum of History in Taipei until Sept. 7.

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