The Taiwan Bowl and Dish Museum opened in Yilan County’s Yuanshan Township this past Saturday, housing an art collection of over 20,000 bowls, plates and other eating utensils. Chien Yang-tong, the museum’s founder, says that regardless of whether a person is poor or rich, bowls and plates are still used when a person eats their three daily meals. During the 30 years following World War II, it was popular to paint bowls and plates by hand, which feature a lot of local characteristics, for example, auspicious designs consisting of fish and shrimp, coconuts and the ocean, plum blossoms and orchids, bamboo and chrysanthemums, or even Fukurokuju, the god of happiness, wealth, and longevity in Japanese mythology, all representing the contemporary culture at the time they were made.
Chien says that since the 1970s, plastic eating utensils and machine-made ceramics have become common, causing people to feel a sense of nostalgia for the hand-painted eating utensils of our grandparents’ generation, back when every plate and bowl’s design was slightly different. Although the craftsmanship of ceramics at the time was far from perfect, they still give people a sense of ancient simplicity and refined familiarity, speaking volumes to the arduous enterprise craftsmen undertook to make them.
The museum is located inside Surewell’s headquarters next to Yuanshan’s Leikung Lake. It opens daily from 9am to 5pm. Tickets are NT$120, but there is a 50 percent discount for the first three months they are open, and children less than 120cm tall and disabled people can visit the museum free of admission. For more information visit the museum’s Web site at http://www.facebook.com/Taiwan.Bowl.Dish.Museum.
(Liberty Times, Translated by Kyle Jeffcoat)
Photo: Yang Yi-min, Liberty Times
照片：自由時報記者楊宜敏
蒐集二萬多件碗盤藝術品的台灣碗盤博物館，上週六在宜蘭縣員山鄉開幕，博物館創辦人簡陽同說，吃飯的碗盤，不論是市井小民或家財萬貫的富翁，每天三餐都會使用到，尤其是二次世界大戰後三十年，台灣的手工彩繪碗盤興盛，極具台灣在地特色，像是魚蝦、椰風海景，或是梅蘭竹菊、甚至日本神話中的「福祿壽」等吉祥圖案，都反映當時的社會文化。
他說，七十年代以後，塑膠餐具製品興起、機械生產的陶瓷，更讓人懷念阿公阿嬤時代手繪、每個圖案都不盡相同的碗盤，雖然當時的陶瓷作工較為粗糙，卻給人一種古樸素雅的親切感，更道盡先民篳路藍縷的辛勞。
台灣陶瓷博物館開設在員山鄉雷公埤旁的喜互惠總部內，每天開館時間為上午九時到下午五時，門票原價一百二十元，開幕前三個月五折優待，身心障礙者憑證或一百二十公分以下兒童免費入館。更多資訊可洽官方網站：http://www.facebook.com/Taiwan.Bowl.Dish.Museum。
（自由時報記者楊宜敏）
Photo: Yang Yi-min, Liberty Times
照片：自由時報記者楊宜敏
Photo: Yang Yi-min, Liberty Times
照片：自由時報記者楊宜敏
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