• 2020-06-30

National Central Library utilized manuscripts and famous works by Lin Lang in its holdings to create a VR production called Impression Sun VR. It was entered in the 1st XR Golden Awards held under the direction of the National Development Council. NCL was awarded the Arts and Culture Application Award in the B2C category! Many entries were received for the XR Golden Awards, yet in the midst of such fierce competition, NCL managed to come out on top. Beating other companies and cultural-educational groups and receiving such high praise from the judges was no small feat.

Director-General Shu-hsien Tseng stated that Impression Sun VR is a work of VR literature for NCL that channels the R&D energy of universities with the aid of secondary schools. The project received support from the Ministry of Education’s Digital Humanities Project to Subsidize Social Educational Institutions. It was a collaboration with Tainan National University of the Arts’ Graduate Institute of Animation and Film Art and the National Experimental High School at Hsinchu Science Park. The text was based off of two classic pieces from Lin Lang’s Little Sun, namely “A One-room House” and “Little Sun.” NCL provided paintings and original manuscripts from its special collections and utilized the newest VR technology to develop a set of immersive modern literature VRs with rich humanities characteristics. The public can visit the virtual scenes from Lin Lang’s works in person as experience the warm sentiments of daily life and raising a family. Impression Sun VR also designed curriculum that go together with the VR. The curriculum invites young students to step into the rich and imaginative world of the author, experience a new face of reading literature, and realize the possibility of flipped education.

The production of the VR piece received the strong support of Lin Lang himself, who provided the production team many verbal explanations of the spatial and temporal background his works. This enabled the VR to show exactly what the one-room house would have looked like those many years ago. It is too bad though that Lin Lang passed away before the VR was finished. That he never got to experience it was the biggest regret of the production team.

As soon as NCL's Impression Sun VR was released it received great reviews. In addition, it was actively promoted during the different events of the Taiwan Reading Festival. It is currently available in full VR form on the fourth floor of NCL in its digital experience area. It was also made into a 360-degree video that can be played on Mobile VR headsets. Social educational institutions are also invited to request a VR installation CD via written letter so that it can be promoted in many other ways.

Link to the Impression Sun VR 360-degree video: https://reurl.cc/20lOev