July 21, 2022 1:52 pm
Tainan Art Museum opened its exhibition on Asian occult covering the ghastly oriental underworld myths such as Thai ghouls, Japanese Spirits, and Chinese reanimated corpses.
The exhibition was criticized by Bread of Life Christian Church in Hsinchu as an ignorant show that offends God. “It defiles the country and people,” the organization stated on its website.
The exhibition attracted a much larger crowd than expected, ticket sales were suspended twice on the opening day, according to Taipei Times.
The exhibition itself was originally planned to contain a maximum of 200 people with 50 in each of the 4 exhibition rooms. However, within the first hour of opening more than 1000 visitors entered the show, while at noon more than 3000 physical and virtual tickets had been sold.
In total, 6,861 people visited on the first day of the exhibition.
Meanwhile, Tainan Art Museum reminded visitors not to bring glutinous rice or a wooden sword to the venue. These items are supposed to be a ghoul’s worst nightmare.
A time limit was imposed for Exhibition Room H which showcases three reanimated corpses of Jiangsi (殭屍), the vampire-zombie of the Chinese Qing Dynasty. It was greatly popularised after its portrayal in 80s Kung Fu-Fantasy-Comedy Hong Kong films by Sammo Hung (洪金寶).
Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-the announced on Facebook that the museum was giving away 1,000 protective charms from the Tiantan Tiangong Temple to visitors who required them.
The exhibition ‘Ghosts and Hells: The underworld in Asian art’ was originally put up in Paris, France in the Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, by curator Julien Rousseau. The Taiwan version runs until 16th October in Tainan.
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Categorised in: Ghosts
This post was written by Nadia Vella