A Moving Masterpiece

Dear All

Feli wanted to visit the exhibition from China, "A Moving Masterpiece" after her Chinese teacher in school told them how nice it was...the characters in the painting "come alive". Her school's HMT class went last Fri, so she wanted to go too. As the exhibition ended today (6 Feb), we tried to get the tix on Sat night at 8pm, but the queue was very long. So as not to disappoint her, I brought her after Sun Mass to catch the early part of the day. Fortunately we were early. The crowd came around 2 - 3pm. We got the tixs, ate lunch, and queued to enter.

The tix for adult was $21 and kids $16, but with Passion card, there was a 15% discount. So adults was $18 and kids $13.50.

When we entered the Hall, we were given audio guides in 8 languages, and we selected English.

The tix for adult (below):

Map of Exhibition (below):

There were 5 elements like Fire, Water, Earth, Gold (Metal) and Wood. This was just the intro to Chinese culture like how the dumpling festival came about, and how society evolved such that the elite were the scholars that studied very hard to pass the imperial exams.

The tools of students taking the imperial exams (below):

This is the Golden Scroll version of Qing Ming Shang He Tu (below):

A wall "mural" showing a roving hawker during Song Dynasty (below):

This section is when blocking printing was invented (below):

The almost valueless copper coin were tied in strings..worth very little then (below):

The games people played during the Song Dynasty (below):

The merchants were rich and very free, so they smoke pipes to pass time (below):

The labourers like the porters were lowly paid in copper coins. Tried being a porter (below):

The highlight : The moving painted scroll called "Qing Ming Shang He Tu" (below):

Example of the changing scene - night (below):

...and day of the same scene as above:

Feli video-taping the changing and moving scenes (below):

Notice the camels have moved (below):

...they have moved more to the right now (below):

The Song Dynasty was at the peak with 1.5million population, equivalent to densely populated cities in the world like NYC. Why this painting was famous was because it was a massive painting made on a scroll about 500cm long. There were at least 1000 characters depicted in the painting, showing what life was like then. There were fortune tellers, story tellers, porters for loading and unloading boats, porters to carry things for the rich, ladies in sedan chairs, the poorer ones in mule-drawn carriages, foreign traders bringing exotic goods on camels from the Silk Road etc.

Another reason why the painting was so famous was because each section of the scene can stand-alone, unlike the usual painting when the whole piece shows just 1 scene. Especially interesting is the Golden Bridge where both the top and underside of the bridge can be seen at the same time. It looks a bit weird but the details of the bustling activities are all captured like a photograph, in the painting. Really fantastic masterpiece.

The 2 posters we bought at $4.5 for 2 (special offer):

The children's version of the story behind this exhibition. Really worth the $8 spent on it (below):

The goodies bag with 10 items going for $20, original price $60. I counted the items were worth only $55. Mostly postcards, but the coaster made of porcelene is good (below):

These are all the souvenir items we bought (below):

All in, we found the exhibition worth going if there was a discount like what we got. Otherwise, I find it quite pricey. The souvenirs were too expensive too.

Love Theresa