From naturist museum to naturist concert
Vienna's Leopold Museum organized a special action Friday for its exhibition of erotic art by Austrian masters like Kokoschka or Klimt: visitors in bathing suit or birthday suit were allowed in free. That the action was a success, is clear from the pictures distributed by various media, including news site www.standaard.be. Visitors in bikini or completely nude - apart from shoes or sandals - did appear at the museum. Good promotional idea, as nude visits to shopping malls in London or record stores in Australia have shown, and also a promotion for the normalcy of public nudity in a non-offensive context.
Transposing the idea to Asia and Taiwan, what could we organize here? Nude visits to the vast Chinese art collections at Taipei's National Palace Museum? Or to summer shows at fine arts museums and art centers in the region? All good ideas, but we don't see these happening yet because of legal obstacles.
On another local naturist note, popular Taiwanese singer Bobby Chen - known as Chen Sheng in Chinese - is quoted by the local media today as saying he would like to stage a naturist concert on Green Island, a small island southeast of Taiwan, which, by the way, would also be a perfect spot for a naturist resort. While probably delivered half in jest, the remark again shows that if only laws were changed, naturism would no longer be something for small groups of people hiking in the mountains or desperately looking for a remote beach. If naturism were allowed, all kinds of Taiwanese, from students to more enlightened middle-aged people to celebrities, would have the opportunity to escape the pressure of the high summer temperatures by relaxing naked under the trees, at beachside restaurant tables, in swimming pools, just like their more fortunate counterparts in Europe, North America and Australia-New Zealand.