The Number 33 room of the British Museum is a place Chinese visitors won't miss.
Reopening after a major renovation, the new China Room provides the visitor a magnificent experience exploring Chinese culture.
Unlike other rooms, the China Room displays its objects in a sequence of periods, from 5,000BC to the present. From calligraphy to painting, from jade to porcelain and silk, the characteristics of each period and each dynasty seem obvious.
Some objects are especially eye-catching.
A modern ceramic sculpture made by Caroline Yi Cheng is an oversized costume evoking ancient Chinese garments covered in over 1,000 porcelain butterflies. The butterflies are handmade by craftsmen from Jingdezhen, and each butterfly looks a bit different from the other.
A portrayal of insects and plants reveals a struggle for survival in the natural world, painted by Xie Chufang, one of the most famous painters from the Yuan dynasty. And“Fascination of Nature” is one of the first Chinese objects that the British Museum collected.
"Reading in the Autumn Forest" by Xiang Shengmo dates back to around 1623. The painting was turned into an animation, which shows the use of shifting perspectives in Chinese landscape paintings.
(Compiled by Liang Peiyu)
