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Continuity with Tradition & the Past

A Cultural Value

The past is a guide for the present, not something to be replaced.

Exist

The calligraphy characters, symbolic imagery of flowers and birds, and the red background associated with luck, celebration, and prosperity are not just decorative—they carry cultural meaning passed down over generations.

Traditions continue through the repeated rituals and shared celebrations that shape community life across generations.

These puppets embody a living artistic tradition that connects contemporary audiences to historical narratives, rituals, and community memory.

Tradition survives through stories, symbols, and artistic practices.

Perception of “what looks right” is inherited through tradition.

Tradition continues through the small acts people repeat together across generations.

These engraved wishing tiles reflect the continuation of cultural practices that connect personal hopes with collective memory and shared tradition. Messages wishing for health, peace, and well-being are permanently embedded into the public walkway, transforming everyday space into a record of human connection across time

From the children’s book by Zhang Xiuyu, this illustration of a procession celebrating Mazu—the protector of Taiwan—reflects the continuity of cultural tradition across generations. Through storytelling, ritual, and visual imagery, traditions connected to Mazu remain active within contemporary life, allowing historical beliefs, communal practices, and shared cultural memory to be carried forward from the past into the present.

The past continues to shape the present through the ways cultural traditions are preserved, taught, and visually remembered. In this painting by National Treasure Artist Hung Tien-Yu, inherited ways of seeing the landscape and understanding the natural world are carried forward through artistic practice, connecting contemporary viewers to Taiwan’s cultural memory and artistic heritage across generations.

Tradition survives because people continue to make, teach, and care for it.

Displayed alongside living plants, these baskets emphasize the close relationship between culture, environment, and inherited knowledge passed across generations.

Through the hands of contemporary artists and makers, cultural knowledge moves across generations into the present.

Artist and Art Teacher, Yi-Jung Yang: "The use of natural materials is also a practice of environmental sustainability. Through the hands-on process of learning traditional craftsmanship, we are reminded to slow down the pace of life, cultivate inner calmness, and open a deeper dialogue with ourselves."

These woven baskets reflect the continuation of traditional craft practices through natural materials, skilled handwork, and forms shaped by everyday use

The past survives through those who continue to practice it in the present.

CREATED BY
Susan Trimingham