Danshui in 1936, Chiayi Park in 1943, the Guguan hot springs in 1956, Taroko National Park in 1960, Kinmen old buildings in 1977, to once again see Danshui town in 1980; many painters are allowing us to travel in time to different eras, to see Taiwan’s scenery through their eyes, allowing us to enjoy a most relaxing, money saving and comfortable trip.

These paintings have recorded the comings and goings of local development and bare testament to the development of Taiwanese fine art. If we take the Japanese Colonial Period as a starting point, beginning with Guohara Kotou (1887-1965), a famous Japanese artist from Nagano.   As an example of providing  genuine still life drawings, during this period Taiwanese painters moved away from the traditional symbolic style from the Qing dynasty of depicting images, they gradually fostered their own style of still life drawing and thoroughly perceived every blade of grass, every piece of wood, clearly presenting a unique image of Taiwan. From one of Kotou’s pieces of work entitled ‘ The Governor-general’s Office at Night’ we can see a detailed, genuine record of school girls wearing their new school uniform, the governmental house and steel bridge, as well as other scenery.

Artists such as Li Shiqiao and Li Zefan followed these artists from Japan with a mixture of different painting styles. Li Shiqiao focused on realism and after cubism was revealed in the 50s, he emphasised simple models and used inverse perspective skills and techniques and the stark contrast between light and dark in the picture. In the 70s Li Shiqiao migrated to America and used images of people and scenery as themes then mixed these refined shapes with bright colours. Yet Li Zefan ‘observed nature even more closely, drawing inspiration, making bold attempts at art and using all kinds of methods to finally show his ‘realist style’. This style became the main trend for pictures depicting the ‘real Taiwan’. The pictures take us on a journey to the Guguan hot springs in central Taiwan, to the Taroko gorge national park, to the Taian Township, to Yeliu, a cape on Taiwan’s north coast, as well as Lukang town and other areas. From the vivid colours you can sense the mood of the local culture.

In the past, summarising the themes whilst searching for so many works of art and putting them in order at the same time was quite difficult. However, the Knowledge Web of Taiwan‵s Diversity’ conforms to several important national art institutions such as the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, The National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art, the Hwa Kang Museum, the Shunyi Taiwan Aboriginal Museum, etc. These institutions collect and organise works of art into a master catalogue of chosen pieces of the best of Taiwanese art in order to distinguish between the decades. The catalogue also includes a grand total of 3033 collector’s items and follows a universal cataloguing method, allowing us to compare, search and sort out resources more easily.

This website also allows the user to combine collection pieces  and a timeline as well as creating using google maps, and share the results online. The knowledge sharing map consists of things related to Taiwanese landscapes: Formosa Mambo 20-80 ,places, painters once passed maps of Taiwanese scenery, Li  Shiqiao’s travel notes from the places in his pictures, etc. If you want to integrate, you can also merge two different maps online and watch two stories unfold at the same time.

The painters found the most beautiful angles to record the scenery and eternalised it in an instant, immediately capturing the image, allowing future generations to be able to see the past local customs of the place in the picture. Many (artists) overcame barriers and boundaries so that the story has a livelier narrative. Hurry to Knowledge Web of Taiwan‵s Diversity to create your own record of the scenery, a splendid map for everyone to enjoy!