Unearthing emotions

The book is his first collaboration with his daughter, Zheng Qinyu. She says she was initially not interested in art history, because her father has always spent more time on the subject than with her.

"I had to ask him questions in the process, and I learned a lot from him while working on the book," she adds.

Zheng Qinyu is known for her illustrations for Liu Xinwu's introduction to the classic novel, A Dream of Red Mansions. The illustrations of the relics are different. They're more factual, the 25-year-old says. She used only color pencils and watercolors for the new book.

She spent hours in museums studying the objects and followed her father's advice: "Going to a museum and taking pictures and sharing them on social media is not really visiting a museum. Once the pictures are taken, you start to forget about the ancient relics you saw. Just stay there, look at them and appreciate them with your own eyes."