The British Museum has the most comprehensive range of artefacts in the world – tracking the story of humanity from its beginnings to the present day. It is no wonder then, that the Museum’s collection has an object or two from Taiwan!
If you search Taiwan on the British Museum’s website, it comes up with over 1,700 items. In the search results, you find a rather large number of old Taiwanese banknotes – for example, this 1954 one-yuan bank note with the portrait of Sun Yat-Sen on it.
© The Trustees of the British Museum.
However, upon a deeper dive, there is much more to found in terms of Taiwanese artefacts. For example, these woven textile leggings were provided to the Museum by the Formosan Government in 1910. It is more than likely of Atayal origin – one of Taiwan’s various indigenous tribes, who saw their cultures heavily repressed during the colonial period.
© The Trustees of the British Museum.
Other insights into Taiwan’s history can also be found the Museum’s collection. The print below, entitled “Conscription after the great defeat of the dwarf rebels of Formosa” depicts Taiwan – although, it was probably made around 1900 in the Qing Dynasty. It was acquired by the Museum in 1948.
© The Trustees of the British Museum.
Whilst these are just a couple of items from the Museum’s massive collection – with large portions of the Museum’s collection only just being digitized, it is likely that we will see even more objects crop up that are related to Taiwan. And with the Museum constantly rotating items on display, it may not be long before you’re looking at one of the objects above in the Museum itself!