Osaka: Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo 2025 in Osaka due to its diplomatic situation, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is attracting attention with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists.
According to Focus Taiwan, the pavilion features an AI-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin, Lin Yu-shan, and Kuo Hsueh-hu, who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927.
Gouache is a water-based opaque paint that offers brighter and heavier pigment coverage than watercolors, and the “Eastern gouache” technique involves colors mixed with gelatin, clay, or metal. One of the featured paintings, a 1968 work called Orchid by pioneering female artist Chen Chin, portrays a woman in formal attire seated on a chair.
Another notable piece is Lin’s 1930 masterpiece Lotus Pond, which depicts a field of lotus flowers and an egret in the lower left. A display combining Kuo’s 1930 work Festival on South Street, depicting a festive Taipei’s Dihua Street during the colonial period, with the modern Taipei 101 landscape, is a favorite of the pavilion’s organizer head.
James Huang, the honorary chairman of Tamayama Digital Tech Co., Ltd., expressed his desire to introduce Kuo’s work, reinterpreted through technological innovation, to foreign visitors. The gallery also includes recreations of works by other famous Taiwanese artists, such as Huang Tu-shui, Chen Cheng-po, Lee Shih-chiao, and Li Mei-shu.
Taiwan’s government invested NT$2 billion (US$60.21 million) to build the Tech World pavilion, participating as a private sector pavilion. Beyond the AI-based art gallery, it showcases smart technologies and products developed by Taiwanese companies like Asustek Computer Inc, AUO Corp., and Hiwin Technologies Corp, as noted by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council, headed by James Huang.
The pavilion is equipped with three multimedia theaters offering visitors an interactive and immersive experience through display technologies. A Japanese visitor, Takashi Kubota, shared that he had visited Taiwan 30 years ago but Tech World’s displays introduced him to scenic spots he had not seen, with the Taiwanese temple architecture images being particularly impressive.
The World Expo 2025 opened on April 13 and continues until Oct. 13.