Journey into the Silk Road’s Golden Past at the China Institute
Four sections: ancient pottery, sprawling murals, brilliant gold ornaments, and equestrian armory ready for battle.
Together, these sections create an artistic and cultural experience that whisks you from the corner of Rector and Washington Streets halfway around the world and 1,600 years into the past, onto the Silk Road in ancient China. This is “Gold from Dragon City,” a new exhibition at the China Institute.
Each artifact tells a story from another time. Greeted by handcrafted pottery and carefully inscribed mirrors, visitors walk through daily life in the Dragon City. Murals of white tigers, battles, and guard towers illuminate the walls. The descriptions focus on the beauty of the brushwork and convey stories of celebration, loss, and survival.
As visitors round the next corner, they are greeted by the exhibition’s centerpiece, a radiant gold hat ornament (photo above) that evokes the grandeur of ancient royalty, its fragile branches and golden leaves symbolizing both the delicacy and strength of an era long past. The room glimmers with dazzling gold jewelry, bells, and intricate ornaments unearthed in an area of China now known as Chaoyang in Liaoning Province. The exhibition also features equestrian armory and the earliest known stirrups in human history, which revolutionized cavalry and warfare.
The exhibition is the intersection of cultural education and artistic beauty, says Willow Weilan Hai, chief curator and director of the China Institute Gallery. “We aim for a diverse audience, not just those with Chinese heritage. Our focus is on globalization through the exhibits,” she explains.
The exhibition opened yesterday and runs through January 5, 2025. Admission is $15, $10 for students and seniors; children under 16 are free. In a lecture tonight beginning at 6:30pm, curators and archaeologists tell inside stories of the discoveries of some of the featured objects in this exhibition, including the mysterious Murong Xianbei nomad.
Since the China Institute opened in Lower Manhattan in 2016, the gallery has hosted more than 100 exhibitions, showcasing 5,000 years of history and rare artifacts, including the Dasheng Bells (above), a stunning set of bells played recently at Carnegie Hall.
Beyond exhibitions, the Institute offers programs to immerse visitors into Chinese culture through art, language, calligraphy, and, soon, cuisine. The China Institute is set to open the U.S. Chinese Culinary Center by the end of 2024, featuring cooking classes, tastings, and awards for Chinese restaurants.