Dragon exhibition bound to tip scales

Otago Museum design services co-ordinator, Rebecca McMaster examines two ancient Chinese bronze...
Otago Museum design services co-ordinator, Rebecca McMaster examines two ancient Chinese bronze chime bells, which incorporate dragon designs. Both are more than 2400 years old. Photo by Gerard O'Brien.
Visitors to the Otago Museum will soon be able to take a rare glimpse into the hidden world of ancient Chinese emperors.

"The Emperor's Dragons", a major Chinese exhibition from Dunedin's Chinese sister city Shanghai, opens to the public early next week and runs for six months.

The show, involving artefacts from the Shanghai Museum, covers about 6000 years of Chinese history, and focuses on the evolving dragon motif in Chinese art and crafts, including in many artefacts from the households of Chinese emperors.

The show will open to the public about 3.30pm next Tuesday, shortly after an opening ceremony involving Prime Minister Helen Clark, Dunedin Mayor Peter Chin, head of the Shanghai Museum administration committee Hu Jianzhong, and Otago Museum chief executive Shimrath Paul.

"With the hard work and commitment of our esteemed colleagues at the Shanghai Museum, we have been able to bring together a truly magnificent exhibition," Mr Paul said.

The show features 103 artefacts, ranging in age from about 4000BC to early last century.

The heritage treasures take many forms, including elaborately-decorated bronze chime bells, a ceramic stool, and lacquer items, all strikingly well-preserved.

Other artefacts have been made from jade, silk and wood.

Mr Paul said the show was the first in a planned series of exchanges between the two museums, with Otago Museum expected to stage an exhibition in Shanghai in 2011.

Otago Museum officials said the dragon show was one of the finest traditional Chinese museum exhibitions displayed in New Zealand.

Although the dragon motif was acknowledged as a symbol of the emperor's authority, it is also viewed as a sign of auspiciousness and is closely related to traditional customs, the seasons, and folk art.

 

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