2026 Goldfish Exhibition opens at Prince Kung's Palace Museum

The 2026 Goldfish Exhibition opened on Aug 11 at the East Sector 2 and Duofu Belvedere courtyards of Prince Kung's Palace Museum. The display, the museum's fifth consecutive goldfish-themed exhibition, brings together more than 20 varieties of traditional ornamental goldfish with demonstrations of traditional folk arts and crafts including woodblock printing, paper-cutting, fish lantern making, kite making, and embroidery.

Drawing on the museum's distinctive garden heritage, the exhibition recreates five themed goldfish appreciation settings. Four displays in the East Sector 2 courtyard feature traditional wooden tubs, each about 1.5 meters in diameter, paired with goldfish-themed folk crafts. Visitors can see varieties such as bubble eye, ranchu, telescope-eye, ryukin, lionhead, egg-phoenix, pompom, and tigerhead goldfish alongside Yangliuqing-style New Year woodblock prints from Tianjin, paper-cuttings from Yuxian county in Hebei province, kites from Weifang, Shandong province, and double-sided embroidered works from Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.

At the heart of the courtyard, a collaborative art installation capturing the most beautiful poses of goldfish created by 30 primary school students encircles the live goldfish swimming in traditional clay basins.

The exhibition's largest setting transforms the Duofu Belvedere courtyard into a garden pond framed by rocks and cypress trees. Goldfish lanterns, hanging beneath a large wisteria trellis, complement displays of lemon goldfish, red-and-white wakin goldfish, calico wakin goldfish, and other varieties.

Lotus and aquatic plants, traditional red-framed displays, and motifs of "fish playing among lotus leaves", integrated into the historical setting, bring together the traditional appreciation and breeding of goldfish with folk arts and garden aesthetics.

A dedicated hands-on area between the two courtyards offers scheduled activities, including goldfish-themed woodblock printing, paper-cutting, fan painting, kite making, and clay modeling.

The exhibition runs through Aug 23, 2026, and is closed on Monday (Aug 17).