Dated: 29/03/2010

China: Journey to the East

Press Release

A British Museum exhibition

22 May to 8 September 2010

A major exhibition exploring three thousand years of Chinese culture is taking place at York Art Gallery this summer.
More than 100 remarkable objects from the British Museum will be included in the touring exhibition entitled: China: Journey to the East.
These will be complemented by artefacts from the York Museums Trust collections and York’s Chinese communities.
The exhibition is part of a national tour, supported by BP, a CHINA NOW legacy project, and it has been organised through the British Museum’s Partnership UK scheme.
Helen Walsh, assistant curator of decorative arts at York Art Gallery, said: “This exhibition offers visitors the chance to experience one of the world's most important and influential civilisations. We are delighted to be involved in this tour, which is the largest UK loan of Chinese material the British Museum has yet undertaken.”

A total of six venues were chosen to host this unique tour, with York being the penultimate venue. It opens in York on May 22 and is free.
China has always played a central part in the British Museum’s collection. The exhibition will feature objects from Sir Hans Sloane’s founding collection as well as objects which have never been seen outside the Museum. Five themes will be used to explore the three thousand years of Chinese history and culture – Technology, Leisure, Food, Festivals and Language and Writing (Full details in notes)

The exhibition presents key enduring Chinese inventions such as the abacus (the world’s first calculator) the compass, and silk and porcelain manufacture. Objects will provide insight into the three main Chinese belief systems: Daoism, Buddhism and Confucianism and will shed light on the colourful Spring Festival (Chinese New Year), and the important Mid-Autumn Festival.
The exhibition will also investigate the development of China's writing system and its development as an art form through objects that range from a writing brush and ink box from the Ming Dynasty to a jade seal with a dragon carved in the top from 1764.
Along with loan material from the British Museum, handling collections will allow visitors to experience the displays through sights and sounds, touch and smell. Visitors will have fun learning about 2,000 years of play in China, from Han Dynasty (206 BC–AD 221) models of figures playing board games to shadow puppets from the 20th century.
A full series of events will also be planned around the exhibition.

ENDS

The themes of China: Journey to the East

1. Technology

This section focuses on inventions which include : porcelain, cast iron, lacquer (the first plastic), paper, paper money, printing, the crossbow, the umbrella, acupuncture, gunpowder, the compass, the decimal system (abacus), large tuned bell, the rudder and the wheelbarrow. It also looks at mass-production through porcelain manufacture, jade carving, silk weaving and bronze casting.

2. Leisure

Exhibits in this section include objects and illustrations which shed light on Chinese physical sports such as polo playing, kite-flying, hobby-horse riding, puppet play, card games and board games (chess and wei qi).

3. Food

This section looks at food and its importance in this world and the next. In China food and drink traditionally play a vital role in ritual, belief and superstition. The influence of Chinese cuisine brought spaghetti to Italy and tea to India. Exhibits include ritual wine and food vessels, Ming model funerary foods, rice cultivation and tea cultivation images, chopsticks, rice bowls, jam tarts from a cemetery in the desert, a decanter for wine, drunken figures of famous people such as the poet Li Bo, picnic scenes associated with poems and drinking games.

4. Festivals

Material relating to Chinese New Year including Lantern Festival and the Mid-Autumn (or Moon Festival) is displayed in this section. Chinese beliefs in the present and in the afterlife are explored through ancestors and tombs. Links to Chinese Religions are explored through myths, gods and goddesses from the popular, Buddhist and Daoist pantheon which relate to these festivals. Exhibits include lanterns, moon cakes, shrines, New Year prints and red envelopes.

5. Language and writing

Perhaps most importantly, this section explains how Chinese language and writing works through a range of artefacts. It looks at some of its applications for unifying the government, for poetry and art. It looks at where and when it was used and how it changes over time – from oracle bones to Hell money. Some characters can be read today as they were nearly 4,000 years ago whilst others need special training to interpret. Exhibits include oracle bones, inscribed jades, bronzes, ceramics, a pillow wishing peace and a tile with instructions on how to behave.

ENDS

Notes

York Art Gallery opens from 10am until 5pm daily and admission is free. For more information, members of the public can telephone 01904 687687 or visit http://www.yorkartgallery.org.uk/

BP is the British Museum’s most longstanding corporate sponsor, supporting the Museum on an annual basis since 1998. BP has recently supported ‘Hadrian: Empire and Conflict’ and the special ‘Day of the Dead’ event, which formed part of the Museum’s Mexican season.

For further information, images or interviews, contact Lee Clark, Media Co-ordinator, York Museums Trust, telephone 01904 687673, or e-mail lee.clark@ymt.org.uk