My comment: During my time in Taiwan, I always thought this was silly. Solo practitioner (in Western or Chinese medicine) of Taiwan frequently has walls covered with 匾额 up to the ceiling. In United States, I saw it only once: a junior doctor, who was also doing research as an investigator at then Beth Israel Hospital has a wall of framed papers in his office -- presumably his diplomas and memberships of various organizations. He was Japanese born in Japan with a Japanese name (as opposed to Americanized first name).