The Yunlin Hand Puppet Museum () is a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

about

hand puppet A hand puppet is a type of puppet that is controlled by the hand or hands that occupies the interior of the puppet.Sinclair, A, ''The Puppetry Handbook'', p.15 A glove puppet is a variation of hand puppets. Rod puppets require one of the puppetee ...

s in

Huwei Township Huwei Township () is an urban township in Yunlin County, Taiwan. It has a population of about 70,269. Name In the 17th century, during the Dutch era, '' Favorolang'' was one of the largest and most powerful aboriginal villages in Taiwan. The ...

Yunlin County Yunlin County (Mandarin pinyin: ''Yúnlín Xiàn''; Taigi POJ: ''Hûn-lîm-koān''; Hakka PFS: ''Yùn-lìm-yen'') is a county in western Taiwan. Yunlin County borders the Taiwan Strait to the west, Nantou County to the east, Changhua County t ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

History

The museum building was initially built in 1931 as the Huwei District office. After the handover of Taiwan from Japan to the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

in 1945, the building was converted into a police station. In 1989, the station was relocated to its new place and the building was left idle for years. In 1997, Huwei Township Office hosted the National Festival of Culture and Arts which made people aware of the historical value of the building. During the preparation of the festival, local government officials discussed the historical value and preservation possibility of the building. In the end, they decided to preserve the building and buildings nearby. Afterwards,

Yunlin County Government The Yunlin County Government () is the local government of Yunlin County, Taiwan. Organizations Units * Civil Affairs Department * Finance Department * Economic Affairs Department * Public Works Department * Education Department * Agriculture ...

applied subsidies to

Council for Cultural Affairs The Ministry of Culture (MOC, ) is the ministry of the Republic of China (Taiwan) that promotes cultural and creative industries. The ministry also maintains thNational Repository of Cultural Heritage History Established in 1981 by Executive Y ...

. In 1999, the county government received NT$20 million of subsidy to restore the building, in which the county government also provided additional NT$8 million. In early 2000, the county government commissioned

National Yunlin University of Science and Technology National Yunlin University of Science and Technology (YunTech or simply NYUST, ) is a university of science and technology in Taiwan. Founded in 1991 and located in Yunlin County. It was restructured as a technological university in 1997. It's a ...

to make the planning report. Detailed planning and open tender were completed in October of the same year. The restoration work was completed by December 2004. In January 2005, meeting to discuss the building layout and future operational plan was made. In April 2007, the interior design was completed and the museum was officially opened in November the same year. In April 2009, the Yunlin County Culture Foundation took over the management of the museum.

Architecture

The building is a courtyard house with a 2.5-story wooden structure. It is the oldest of such building in Huwei township.

Exhibitions

The museum showcases various sizes and types of hand puppets as well as their history.

Events

The museum regularly holds the annual exhibition of Yunlin International Puppet Festival with the collaboration with

Yunlin Story House The Yunlin Story House (also Yunlin Storyhouse, ) is a historic building in Huwei Township, Yunlin County, Taiwan. History The museum building was originally constructed in 1920–1923 and opened for the residence of the Huwei County Magistrat ...

, organized by the Cultural Affairs Department of

government. Other events including puppetry master commemoration, international puppet arts festival etc.

References

External links