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The vast majority of artifacts held by the Taipei Palace Museum originated on the Chinese mainland, serving as irrefutable evidence of cross-Strait unity, experts said recently as they criticized attempts by Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party authorities to use the collection to promote secession.

A recent exhibition in Beijing, commemorating the extraordinary evacuation of the Palace Museum's century-old collection during the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45) more than 80 years ago, highlighted the integral nature of Chinese culture and the inseparable link between collections across the Taiwan Strait.

Running through Dec 31, the exhibition features more than 100 archival documents and precious cultural relics, offering a three-dimensional look at the artifacts' arduous journey south and underscoring the overall unity of Chinese culture.

However, Hsiao Tsung-huang, director of the Taipei Palace Museum, recently argued that the artifacts arrived in Taiwan under "Republic of China rule" and are therefore "Republic of China property". He said that after 75 years on the island, the collection has "formed many connections with the land" and become "part of the nourishment of Taiwan's culture".

On Nov 12, Chen Binhua, spokesman for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, denounced the remarks as a "blatant distortion of historical facts and basic common sense" and as being "absurd".

Chen said the root of Taiwan culture is Chinese culture, and its regional characteristics are the enrichment and development of Chinese culture within a specific geographical and historical context, not a "different culture" independent of it.

He reiterated that the Taipei Palace Museum's collection is an important part of the Chinese nation's historical and cultural heritage, providing solid evidence that both sides of the Strait belong to one China and offering a vivid example of the transmission of Chinese culture in Taiwan.

This year, the DPP authorities have pushed "treasure diplomacy". In September, about 130 treasures from the Taipei Palace Museum, including the Jadeite Cabbage, were exhibited in the Czech Republic. In November, the museum opened an exhibition in France featuring paintings, calligraphy and artifacts themed on the "Dragon".

Chen called the DPP's approach "highly ironic and hypocritical", saying they are attempting to reshape the Chinese cultural identity of the Palace Museum's treasures for separatist purposes.

"Historical facts cannot be altered, cultural roots cannot be severed, and any attempt to use the treasures of Chinese culture to promote secession is doomed to fail," he said.

Shared roots

In 1933, after Japanese forces broke through Shanhai Pass, a strategic gateway connecting North and Northeast China to the east of Beijing, batches of Palace Museum artifacts were urgently evacuated from the capital to protect national treasures.

The relics began a difficult southward journey. Several consignments were first shipped separately to Shanghai for storage. In August 1936, after a warehouse at Nanjing's Chaotian Palace was completed, the artifacts were moved there.

But after the July 7th Incident and the Aug 13 Incident in 1937, Nanjing also became threatened, forcing another relocation. The artifacts were divided into routes heading southwest, continually evading Japanese bombings before finding temporary refuge in Leshan, Emei and Baxian in Sichuan province.

After the Chinese victory over the Japanese in 1945, the final batch returned to Nanjing in 1947. But as the civil war intensified, the Nanjing government ordered the Palace Museum to select cultural artifacts for transfer to Taiwan. Between December 1948 and February 1949, about 2,900 crates were carried to Taiwan in three batches. These became the core collection of the Taipei Palace Museum, established in 1965 and today holding nearly 700,000 items.

Many Palace Museum staff members who accompanied the artifacts to Taiwan were unable to return to the mainland because of the ensuing political divide.

Among them was Chuang Yan, a Peking University graduate who participated in the entire evacuation and later helped found the museum in Taipei, eventually becoming its vice-curator. He dedicated his life to protecting and promoting Chinese culture.

Chuang died in 1980 at age 82. On his deathbed, he reportedly repeated a single word — "Beiping", the former name of Beijing. He found comfort in the safe return of the heavy ancient stone drums he had carefully packed for Beijing after the war, but he died with lasting regret over the continued separation of the remaining collection across the Strait.

Peng Haijun, director of the Leshan Institute for Research on the Palace Museum Collection's Evacuation to the South, said those who traveled with the artifacts to Taiwan regarded themselves as their guardians.

"Wherever the artifacts went, that was where they stayed. They deeply missed the mainland, their homeland," Peng said.

Almost all of them left memoirs that reveal their attachment to the motherland and their unfulfilled hope for reunion, he said.

In 2009, curators from the two Palace Museums exchanged visits for the first time. In 2011, Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains, a classic landscape painting long divided into two halves and housed on opposite sides of the Strait, was reunited for a special exhibition at the Taipei museum.

Guo Yi-chen, a distinguished professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, said the reunion caused a sensation and was "very rare and hard-won".

At the time, both sides were discussing how to organize a major exhibition, and the painting — itself a symbol of separation and reunion — was considered especially appropriate.

Guo said the preservation of the Palace Museum's treasures for future generations owes much to the relocations and the protections afforded during those turbulent years.