Dream of the Red Chamber Exhibition

Dream of the Red Chamber is, at its core, a work of remembrance, reflecting on the rise and decline of an aristocratic family during the High Qing, the height of the Qing dynasty in the late 17th to 18th centuries, according to the National Palace Museum.

Written by Cao Xueqin (c. 1716–1763), the novel traces a world of wealth, intimacy, and gradual loss.

This exhibition draws on collections from the National Palace Museum, the National Central Library, and the National Taiwan University Library to reconstruct that world through objects, texts, and visual culture.

Through this approach, Dream of the Red Chamber emerges not just as a piece of literature but as a lived environment.