Advanced technology has affected the arts and humanities perhaps in more ways than most other fields. The current availability of digitized images, audio files, as well as film clips from CD‐ROMs and the Internet has caused an evolution in the sharing of works of art only available in often poor reproductions via books, magazines, or slides. The creation of CD‐ROM technology such as this demonstrates how useful and beneficial this new technology is. It was based on the exhibition catalogue published for the Metropolitan exhibition, “Splendors of Imperial China: Treasures from the National Palace Museum, Taipei.” Its purpose is to educate the public as to this particular collection of Chinese works of art. A pro‐active education department is a new trend in many museums; and to see CD‐ROM technology outpour from such a venture is noteworthy.
This CD‐ROM was published by two prestigious museums, thereby helping guarantee its positive acceptance. However, in many ways, it seems to be a prototype for what they could consider to be a final product for future exhibitions. Although it is a fine product, it does not seem to use all of the capabilities of CD‐ROM technology, for instance. Its target audience could be seen as the general public and undergraduate researchers. This particular software would also work beautifully for class instruction instead of using traditional slides.
A host computer for this software has minimal requirements for today’s computer technology. For PC/Windows: Pentium or 486 processor 8 megabytes installed RAM (16 recommended) Windows 3.1 or higher SVGA Video Card 640 × 480 × 256 color monitor,double‐speed CD‐ROM drive.
For Macintosh: Power PC or 68040 processor 8 megabytes installed RAM (16 recommended) 640 × 480 × 256 color monitor, double‐speed CD‐ROM drive, System 7 or later.
The software is quite nice. It is almost exclusively visual in format, however, and it would have been nice to hear introductory background. One moves from scene to scene by following the arrows. The program begins with a series of introductory Chinese painting screens. It then goes to the main menu which offers an introduction, index, glossary, maps, chronology, help, and credits.
The introduction, by Philippe de Montebello, director of the Metropolitan, states that the collection of 475 works of art come from the National Palace Museum and were the collection of the Emperor Ch’ien‐lung (reigned 1736‐1795). One can browse the index of terms, each providing links to the images associated with each term. Clicking on a link goes to the image and its description.
There is a glossary of terms and names. Those with Chinese translations or pronunciations are accompanied by an audio file which teaches you how to pronounce the name or term properly. This is an excellent teaching instrument. However, the English transliteration used in this software is that of the older, traditional Wade‐Giles. For some, this might be a critical point, as current scholarship lends itself more toward Hanyu Pinyin (the difference, for instance, between Ch’ing in Wade‐Giles and Qing in Hanyu Pinyin).
There is also a chronology of the timeline of the dynasties and six maps of China under different dynasties. The help screens are very useful in guiding you through the software, particularly since there is no instructional guide to using the software.
The main menu also provides a table of contents that allows you to choose the historical time period you wish to focus on. The first part condenses art works from the pre‐Shang Dynasty through the Tang Dynasty, and thereafter the Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing Dynasties. The condensing of nearly five early dynasties ‐ including the Han, one of the greatest ‐ into one clump seems disturbing. There are also other smaller dynasties between the Tang and Song which should have been included.
Each time period then is broken down into subsections, all of which begin with a chapter essay highlighting the historical period and aspects of it with regard to the art work from that time. The main menu for each section also has thumbnail images of the art in that section, thus allowing you the option of choosing either a particular object, or moving through the larger images consecutively. These larger images themselves are exquisite in their clarity of reproduction. Almost all allow for details by clicking on the object. One click allows a full‐screen rendition. Some, by clicking on them, can then be broken into sections, and each section can be viewed as a detail ‐ while maintaining excellent clarity of the image.
In works of art that are scrolls, the digitized images are such that, by clicking on arrows to the right or left, you can actually “unroll” the scroll and view sections of it one at a time. Some of the best reproductions are of the Chinese landscape paintings from the Song Dynasty, such as those by Ma Yuan and Fan Kuan, where perceptions of humans are often minute in comparison to the landscape. By clicking on detail shots, you can get a better look at the beautiful painting of these individuals often passed over because of the larger landscape.
The descriptive captions read much like a museum plate might read, providing enough background information on the art. There are also hyperlinks to details providing more information, such as definitions of technical points, biographies of artists, and, in the cases of poems and texts, translations.
The combination of the multimedia format with its digitized images and audio clips make the CD‐ROM a wonderful product. There is no search engine per se; but the index mentioned above may be helpful for prospective users. The one problem I have with the CD‐ROM is that nothing can be printed. Many CD‐ROM products allow printing of text, but here it is not possible. This may reinforce the idea that the disc is to be used as an interactive teaching tool, but not necessarily a research tool.
There is little doubt in my mind that this CD‐ROM should be purchased for libraries with any research interest/practice in Chinese art, particularly for libraries affiliated with research institutes and colleges/universities. The inception of the CD‐ROM and laserdisk as replacements for traditional slides is a noteworthy idea and perhaps will eventually be the interactive teaching tool in the arts. However, since we are still in a technological state of flux, such a use seems limited only to those professors knowledgeable in the use of CD‐ROM technology or those institutions with enough money to support a CD‐ROM art resource section. It is a wonderful purchase and will be used by professors and students; but one shouldn’t hasten to discard the slides yet.
