Tunnel in Time

Twentieth-century sunlight

Shining on a familiar-looking aluminum door

The thin strip silently wordlessly intercrossed

Blocking out the months and the years

A time tunnel

Opening past Han or T'ang dynasty bosses

The great door swinging open hurrying in to look

Always startled at the infinite eternity

Pictured is one of the underground storerooms of the National Palace Museum, the "bedrooms" of most of the museum's artifacts since they were brought to Taiwan. Mai Chih-ch'eng accompanied the artifacts from Nanking and later, on their removal to Waishuanghsi outside Taipei, began caring for the national treasures resting here "backstage." Twenty years have quickly passed. His chubby figure, earnestly and energetically shuttling through this "time tunnel" between the present and the ancient past, has become a museum tableau.

(Peter Eberly)

Shining on a familiar-looking aluminum door 　The thin strip silently wordlessly intercrossed 　Blocking out the months and the years 　A time tunnel.

Shining on a familiar-looking aluminum door 　The thin strip silently wordlessly intercrossed 　Blocking out the months and the years 　A time tunnel.

A time tunnel 　Opening past Han or T'ang dynasty bosses 　The great door swinging open hurrying in to look 　Always startled at the infinite eternity.

A time tunnel 　Opening past Han or T'ang dynasty bosses 　The great door swinging open hurrying in to look 　Always startled at the infinite eternity.

A time tunnel 　Opening past Han or T'ang dynasty bosses 　The great door swinging open hurrying in to look 　Always startled at the infinite eternity.