• 2019-01-04

The National Central Library (NCL) and the Mexican Trade Services Documentation and Cultural Office co-sponsored a special exhibition on the theme of “Celebrating Life: The Day of the Dead in Mexico,” held in the Exhibition Hall on the first floor of the NCL from November 26 to December 16, 2018. The exhibition opening ceremony took place at 2:00 p.m on November 26, jointly led by NCL director-general, Ms. Shu-hsien Tseng, and head of the Mexican Trade Services Documentation and Cultural Office, Mr. Martin Torres. Over 100 guests attended the occasion, including Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs José María Liu and representatives from many countries’ Taiwan offices.

The Day of the Dead is not only an important festival through which the Mexican people express their remembrance of deceased relatives, as of 2008 it has also been designated as an Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO. This three-week exhibition displayed the important aspects of the culture and customs related to the Day of the Dead, including the highly decorated altars, related videos, and mask making. It made the Taiwan public can better understand the spirit and customs of this festival that has been going on for several centuries.

The audio guide for this exhibition was delivered in two different ways. Visitors could either scan a QR code to link access the audio guide web page in the cloud or choose to have the guide actively pushed out to them according to their detected location. The library has pioneered this location-based service, which offered visitors to this exhibition the chance to be the first to try out this completely new audio guide experience.