Show features rare Chinese works

Many of the pieces have never been seen outside of China.
NEW YORK (AP) -- It was the period between periods, that stretch of centuries after the fall of China's Han empire and before the rise of the Tang.
It was in those hundreds of years between the third and eighth centuries, according to a new exhibition, that many of the influences that would later make the Tang empire such a high point of culture started making their presence felt in China.
"China: Dawn of a Golden Age, 200-750 A.D." opens Tuesday at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and runs through Jan. 23. The show is made up of more than 300 items taken from institutions throughout China. Many of the works have never been seen outside of China.
The items -- from glasses to sculptures to textiles -- are testament to an influx of new immigrants as well as cultures into China following the collapse of the Han empire. There was trade with other parts of the world, as far away as what is now northern Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, and cultural influences from India and the nomadic tribes from the north.
"It is the era that led to one of the most glorious periods of Chinese civilization," James Watt, curator of the show, told The Associated Press.
Xianbei's control
The Xianbei, nomadic tribes, took control of northern China after the Han. They encouraged trade with other places, and allowed for the arrival of Buddhism. The arts of this time reflected the influences coming in, with traditional forms of Chinese sculpture reflecting different realities.
Watt pointed to two sculptures in the show as an example, figurines of a man and a camel. The forms are Chinese, he said, but the man's appearance is clearly Xianbei. And animal statues in the Han empire didn't include camels, which weren't known in China then.
In another example, a gold plaque has pendants of dragons and phoenixes, which are Chinese symbols, yet is done in a style similar to work found in first-century Afghanistan.
There are items that were clearly made elsewhere and brought into China, such as Roman blown-glass vessels and a silver bowl with a Persian inscription on the foot. It was the importing of gold and silver luxury items from other lands that encouraged those in China to use the country's own supply of these metals, which had never been a popular industry before, Watt said.
"It's because these things were introduced," he said.
A large-scale photo of Buddhist sculptures carved into a rock face in China looks similar to those in the Bamiyan Valley in Afghanistan, destroyed by the Taliban in early 2001.
Still used traditions
The mixing of techniques and influences continued over the centuries, but while the Chinese adapted to new influences, they never completely left behind their own traditions, Watt said.
"China was a wonderful, open society for a long time and that contributed to the strength and the durability of its culture," Watt said. "With all these foreign influences, something Chinese remained."
The show wasn't the easiest to put together, since only a handful of objects were already outside of China. The rest had to be found all over China, with the museum staff helped by Chinese colleagues in identifying which small institutions even had something to offer, Watt said. The Chinese government negotiated with the more than 40 institutions that contributed to the final show.
The objects will all return to China when the show is done. Watt said there were discussions under way about whether the show could be staged in its current form somewhere there. The show will not travel elsewhere in the United States.
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