Today it happened. I completely lost my voice. As much as I wanted to be fully involved with Mandarin and repeat everything our loucher said, I wasn’t able to. Everyone was very understanding about how sick I am, which I very much appreciate, but I was still disappointed to feel like I couldn’t fully be involved. The rest of the day, which consisted of quietly looking at relics and artifacts, was right up my alley however!
As a frequent museum goer, both while at home and pretty much everywhere I visit, I was absolutely stoked to get to go to the National Museum yesterday. My first thought, was that it was absolutely huge and it would be near impossible to see much of anything in the hour and a half we were allotted. Emmy and I decided to go off together and realized very quickly that we’d have to plan and prioritize in order to see much of anything. Our first thought was to get a map, so we looked for one, only to realize that the museum didn’t have any! Instead of a map we used signage, which was pretty good and thankfully in English, to decide where to visit. We wanted to move chronologically, so we started with Ancient Chinese artifacts on the bottom floor. Here, we started with the paleolithic period only to find out that what we really liked were pieces from The Ming Dynasty! Interestingly, many of the pieces within the museum were labeled “replica,” or some word synonymous with reproduction. This was shocking to us as all the museums we’ve been to in the US only have authentic pieces or pieces from the time period.
Our favorite exhibition was one centered around diplomacy. All of the pieces exhibited were given to China by other countries in diplomatic situations or understandings. There was a wide variety of objects: bowls, pots, paintings, etc., that came from a variety of different countries. My favorite piece was a metal bowl given to a Chinese ambassador by Hillary Clinton that was placed next to a ceramic pot given to China by Vladimir Putin. I thought it was wild that these objects were placed next to each other! Rumor has it that Putin really dislikes Clinton, and the placement was interesting to begin with what with American-Russian relations post Cold War. The exhibition’s description was all about the five paths to peaceful relations and friendship which seemed like an interesting way to portray international diplomacy. Needless to say, I enjoyed the museum very much.
After the museum we went to The National Center for the Performing Arts which was also quite cool. I thought the most enlightening aspect of the Center were all of the mixed productions and partnerships the Beijing Opera has done with opera houses around the world. Again, this shows how great the arts are at uniting people from all different places. The Center also does a fabulous job making shows affordable to the public, in addition to having lots of events free and open to the public. This is certainly an example many American opera houses and performance centers should follow!
I attached a photo of some huge centers in the performing arts center that I loved!