Taipei City Government

     In January, Taipei’s most famous traditional residence, the Lin An Tai Historical House, will open an exhibition titled The Beauty of Traditional Painting, featuring auspicious symbols such as dragons, phoenixes, lions, and kirins (unicorns). From January 19 on, the museum will give away 3,000 limited-edition red-and-gold spring couplets bearing a wish for peace in characters that draw on the house’s name. They are free to visitors, and the museum wishes everyone a peaceful and happy new year.
     According to the Taipei City Government’s Department of Civil Affairs (DCA), the Lin An Tai Historical House and Museum is Taipei’s only Qing Dynasty-era (1644-1911) Fujian-style residential building open to the public at no charge. Its traditional spaces and ambiance are used regularly for events that bring Taiwan’s olden days back to life. This year, in keeping with the guidance of the 24 solar terms of the traditional calendar, the event “Peace and Health Come with Luck” was held and 3,000 red-and-gold spring couplets carrying designs inspired by the window grilles of the Lin An Tai Historical House were printed before the Greater Cold solar term. These delicate couplets symbolize the departure of winter and the arrival of spring, a great time of year to visit the museum.
     In addition, the Lin An Tai Historical House and Museum will hold an exhibition titled The Beauty of Traditional Painting beginning in January. Most works on display are from the well-known architectural painter Hsu Lien-cheng. The most stunning piece among them is a painting of the Tzuyun Temple door gods. The color palette is simple, but their ferocious faces, attire, and armor are painted in great detail. This is one of this temple’s finest paintings. 
     The exhibition also features many paintings by Hsu Chin-lung, a grandson of Master Hsu. These works, spanning roof top ridges, roof tiles, wall-mounted reliefs to decorated walls, were made especially for this exhibition and took several months to complete. To demonstrate the intricacies of various traditional painting techniques, Master Hsu has produced two paintings of dragons and two of phoenixes to allow people to observe the differences up close and discover the “beauty of Taiwanese traditional painting,” the theme of the exhibition. The DCA is especially grateful to the Hsu family and Lin An Tai Historical House and Museum volunteer guide Mr. Lai Chun-nan. Besides the wonderful pieces on display, the exhibition also features tools, materials, and painting demonstrations. As traditional art revolves around auspicious symbols, it is very suitable to bring out these works around the time of the Spring Festival for everyone to enjoy. The exhibition will run until March 17. 
     Especially, but not only, for foreign visitors, the Lin An Tai Historical House and Museum has since 2018 offered the “Peace to Your Home” postcard service, whereby visitors can do a treasure hunt style tour around the mansion and museum to collect a set of four full-color postcards. This is a fun way to explore the grounds and the buildings and appreciate their beauty. After writing a wish or a memory on them, visitors can mail their postcards to themselves or their loved ones by dropping them in the mailbox at the exit. Lin An Tai Historical House will make sure the postcards are mailed! From its very beginning, this service has been hugely popular with domestic and foreign tourists alike. Spring couplets, a nostalgic exhibition, a postcard treasure hunt/mailing service, and a garden with pavilion and pond await visitors at the Lin An Tai House and Museum.