The National Museum of Taiwan Literature (Chinese: 國立臺灣文學館; pinyin: Guólì Táiwān Wénxuéguǎn; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Kok-ka Tâi-oân Bûn-ha̍k-koán) is a museum located in Tainan City, Taiwan. It opened in 2003. The museum researches, catalogs, preserves, and exhibits literary artifacts. As part of its multilingual, multi-ethnic focus, it holds a large collection of local works in Taiwanese, Japanese, Mandarin, and Classical Chinese.
It was planned as a national-level organization to fill in a long-perceived gap in how the Republic of China's institutions had handled the island's literature as a field of academic inquiry and popular discourse. The Council for Cultural Affairs under the Executive Yuan set up the initial planning office.
Tainan was chosen for its historical significance as a cultural center. The museum is housed in the former Tainan City Hall, itself a national historical monument.
During Japanese rule the building was a government building of the former Tainan Prefecture.
Famous quotes containing the words national, museum and/or literature:
“You are, or you are not the President of The National University Law School. If you are its President I wish to say to you that I have been passed through the curriculum of study of that school, and am entitled to, and demand my Diploma. If you are not its President then I ask you to take your name from its papers, and not hold out to the world to be what you are not.”
—Belva Lockwood (1830–1917)
“A Museum of fetishes would give special attention to the history of underwear.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“...I have come to make distinctions between what I call the academy and literature, the moral equivalents of church and God. The academy may lie, but literature tries to tell the truth.”
—Dorothy Allison (b. 1949)