A visitor takes a close-up photo of the gold mask, on display at the Gazing at Sanxingdui: New Archaeological Discoveries in Sichuan exhibition, during a media preview at the Hong Kong Palace Museum on Sept 26, 2023. (CALVIN NG / CHINA DAILY)
Beginning today, the Hong Kong Palace Museum is presenting an awe-inspiring collection of Sanxingdui relics, including artifacts of bronze, jade, gold and pottery, dating back 2,600 to 4,500 years to the ancient Shu civilization.
The exhibition, the largest of its kind, features 120 precious artifacts from the Sanxingdui and other significant sites. Twenty-three items hold the esteemed status of national treasures, with an additional 55 being important discoveries made from 2020 to 2022 at the Sanxingdui site in southwest China’s Sichuan province. The exhibition runs through Jan 8.
The Hong Kong exhibition marks the first time that some of the Sanxingdui artifacts have been showcased outside Sichuan.
During the opening ceremony for the Sanxingdui exhibition in Hong Kong on Tuesday, Chief Secretary for Administration Eric Chan Kwok-ki highlighted the frequent cultural exchanges between Hong Kong and Sichuan.
He said this exhibition aims to narrate the story of the city and encapsulate the essence of Chinese traditional culture, fulfilling a crucial mission in promoting its rich heritage.
Chan emphasized the significance of the Sanxingdui site as a major archaeological find in Chinese and global civilization. He said that with the support of the Sichuan provincial government, the exhibition successfully brought the new archaeological findings to Hong Kong, demonstrating the deepened cultural cooperation between the two regions.
Tang Fei, director of the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, said Hong Kong was chosen for the first external exhibition of the Sanxingdui artifacts because of its status as a prominent cultural gateway and its ability to effectively disseminate the project’s achievements to the international community.
Two head statues are displayed at the “Timeless gazes” section, which focuses on ancient Sanxingdui people’s veneration of eyes at the Hong Kong Palace Museum on Sept 26, 2023. (CALVIN NG / CHINA DAILY)
A commendable platform
Tang praised Hong Kong for its reliable preservation conditions, meticulous planning, and the successful transportation of cultural relics over the past three years. He expressed confidence that the city possesses the necessary resources and expertise to present the captivating story of the Sanxingdui artifacts using multimedia, thereby showcasing the magnificence of Chinese civilization to the world.
Without elaborating, Henry Tang Ying-yen, chairman of the board of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, revealed that the WKCD will plan more exhibitions focusing on the origin and development of Chinese civilization in the future.
Leveraging Hong Kong — an international exchange platform — exhibitions like the Sanxingdui one and other cultural initiatives aim to foster cultural and artistic exchanges between the nation and the wider global community, Tang said.
Louis Ng Chi-wa, Hong Kong Palace Museum director, commended the Chinese mainland’s support for Hong Kong’s cultural and artistic endeavors, underscoring the Hong Kong Palace Museum’s commitment to preserving and promoting the exceptional Chinese heritage.
Ng said the museum has done meticulous planning and made transportation efforts over the past year to ensure that not a single artifact has been damaged.
Additionally, certain restrictions for visitors to guarantee the safety of the artifacts will be introduced for the exhibition in a bid to provide an optimal experience for visitors, Ng said.
The price for adults to see the exhibition is HK$150 ($19.18), with a 50 percent discount for certain groups, including students, children 7 to 11 years old, those who are 60 years old or older, and the disabled and their caretakers.
Interested residents can buy the tickets via online platform or WKCD’s mobile app or tourism agencies.
A two-day symposium on San-xingdui and the Bronze Age, bringing together scholars from the mainland and abroad to engage in academic discussions, will be hosted on Wednesday at the museum.
The symposium aims to facilitate a more international dialogue and foster a deeper understanding of the Sanxingdui site and its significance within the Bronze Age.
