NLA to host major Chinese exhibition in 2016

15 April 2015 Books+Publishing

The National Library of Australia (NLA) in Canberra will host a major new exhibition on Chinese life, culture and tradition in the first half of 2016, reports ABC News.

The exhibition, Qing: Life in China, 1644-1911, focuses on China’s last imperial dynasty and will feature artefacts from the National Library of China.

The announcement was made by ACT chief minister Andrew Barr during a visit to the National Library of China. Barr told the ABC that the exhibition ‘would play an important role in expanding Canberra’s cultural ties with China, and specifically with Beijing, which has been Canberra’s sister city for 15 years’.

‘The exhibition includes architectural drawings produced for the Imperial Court for iconic locations such as the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace, ancient manuscripts, and rare books and illustrated maps, most of which will be new to Australian audiences’, said Barr.

NLA director-general Anne-Marie Schwirtlich told the ABC: ‘This is the first time the National Library of Australia and the National Library of China have collaborated on an exhibition of such breadth and depth. Visitors will see works on Chinese opera, art, calligraphy, religion, astronomy, government, Anglo-Chinese relations, travel and popular fiction. More significantly, visitors will experience China as it entered the modern age, with all the diversity of lived experience and cultural attainment brought vividly to life.’

Category: Library news