Just two decades ago, Taiwan had a bigger share of the global art market than mainland China, which was only just beginning to emerge on the world stage. In 2000, according to the art economics specialist Clare McAndrew, the Hong Kong and Taiwanese markets were roughly the same size.

How things have changed! Today mainland China is the art market’s Asian powerhouse, and Taiwan more like a Sleeping Beauty — but one that the new Taipei Dangdai fair, which opens to the public next week, hopes to reawaken.

And it is not as if the Taiwanese have been absent from the art market. Indeed, art collecting has a long tradition on the island, with a number of important and deep-pocketed collectors who generally prefer to stay under the radar. While mainland China was undergoing the upheavals of the 20th century, the Taiwanese were building their economy and travelling. And they were buying art — mainly domestic and Chinese artists, with an emphasis on their classical Chinese cultural heritage.