How many side gigs does bamboo have?

The baskets on Nantou Bamboo Art Museum's new poster have stout handles, strips of different widths and round bellies apparently prepared to bring home the entire market. One has a lid; another lets the daylight through. By the time we've cleared our throats to say “traditional craft,” somebody has already taken the thing out to fetch the vegetables.

The September 12–30 exhibition 《竹．生活的千年智慧》 follows bamboo's sprawling workload. The museum plans to show more than twenty everyday objects: shopping baskets and steamers, wedding baskets, bamboo pillows, even a childbirth chair. We were congratulating bamboo on its useful contribution to chopsticks. It was quietly holding down half the town's jobs. Small fire baskets and ceremonial 謝籃 bring Taiwanese marriage customs into the room. Even a container has to help the grown-ups save face and keep up appearances.

Then there are the bamboo slips bearing old poems: 36 years old. For a show whose title invokes a thousand years of wisdom, these slips might be younger than the people looking at them. No crushing obligation to be a thousand-year-old antique.

The museum is tucked into the Cultural Affairs Bureau's ground floor in Nantou city. Its permanent displays range through weaving and carving to farm and fishing tools, buildings and household objects. The historical entrance photograph, with its row of tall bamboo stems, helps you recognise the doorway. For this particular show, look for September's fresh-off-the-press poster.

Walk over; mind the closing days

September 12–30, 2026, with the opening ceremony September 12 at 11:00. Regular hours are Tuesday–Sunday 09:00–17:00; closed Mondays and September 25 for Mid-Autumn Festival.

135 Jianguo Road, 1F, Nantou city. From Nantou City's bus terminal, allow 20 minutes for the roughly 1.2km walk. Exhibition enquiries: 049-2231191 ext 512.

Poster and historical entrance photograph: Cultural Affairs Bureau of Nantou County.