Cultural Exchanges in February

1、Year of Spain in China Kicks Off

To provide the friendly relationship between Spain and China with deeper content and to make Spain better known to the Chinese people, the 2007 Year of Spain in China kicks off in Beijing in Feburary, as the two governments agreed during the state visit of President Hu Jintao to Spain in November 2005.

The activities planned for the Year of Spain in China will present all sectors of Spanish life to the Chinese. Besides sports and business, there will be cultural events featuring sculpture, ballet, flamenco dance, modern theater and film festivals (with the participation of the Spanish Institute Cervantes in Beijing). 

Through the wide array of programs, Spain is introduced to Chinese as a modern and developed country with an impressive tradition of welfare policies that reach the entire population, as well as a serious and reliable commercial partner in possession of cutting-edge technology, and as a democratic, free and open society.

2、“Treasures from Shanghai” on show in California

The show “Treasures from Shanghai: 5,000 Years of Chinese Art and Culture”, which opened on Feb. 18th, traces 5,000 years of culture and marks the first time in 20 years that the Chinese museum has opened its collection for use by a U.S. institution.

Seventy-seven objects guide visitors through China's history, from the simple pottery of the Neolithic cultures to the colourful scrolls of the Qing Dynasty, which ended less than a century ago. "This is a very comprehensive exhibit from one of the most famous Chinese institutions in the world," said Peter C. Keller, president of the Bowers.

The first thing guests see as they enter the hall is a 5,000-year-old earthenware pot from Neolithic cultures, followed by one of the oldest bronze bowls yet discovered in China and a tall, narrow cup with perforated legs that date to 1,800 B.C. Next up in the chronological display are the opulent bronze food and wine vessels that were used only by the very powerful in ceremonies and feasts beginning in the Shang Dynasty, around 1,700 B.C.

The gallery finishes off with a flourish: a Ming Dynasty scroll painting of courtly ladies playing what appears to be a prototype of modern-day golf and a series of bamboo-root carvings dotted with engravings of bats and miniature scenes depicting a Daoist legend.

Chen Kelun, deputy director and curator at the Shanghai Museum, said visitors to the Bowers can see how art preferences played out over thousands of years, and how technological advances often dictated those tastes. "Each kind of art has its most prosperous time, and then it will come down," he said. "That is the rule for all art."