Ancient terracotta soldiers from China were more popular than
paintings by Dutch masters and other artifacts on their first day
on show Saturday in the Drents Museum in northern Netherlands.
More than 1,000 people flocked to the museum in Assen within the
first four hours of the opening of the exhibition. It was the
biggest number of visitors the museum had ever received for the
first day of any exhibition.
"It's the first time that terracotta warriors set their foot on
Dutch soil. There has been enormous media coverage recently and we
have received hundreds of calls asking for information," Ellenter
Hofstede, communication manager of the Drents Museum, told
Xinhua.
"We are prepared for a large crowd," she said with a smile.
Among the exhibits were 14 life-sized terracotta figures,
including 10 warriors, three servants and one horse, as well as
more than 200 other splendid burial gifts of gold, jade and bronze
from the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) and the Western Han Dynasty (202
BC-9 AD).
Zhao Rong, director of the Shaanxi Provincial Administration of
Cultural Heritage, said that the artifacts on show were among the
best of the findings from the Qin and Han Dynasties.
At the exhibition "The Terracotta Army of Xi'an: The Treasures
of the First Emperors of China," visitors could see not only
terracotta warriors from the Qin Dynasty, but 96 miniature
terracotta statues from the Western Han Dynasty, including
warriors, servants and animals.
They could also enjoy the sight of dozens of recently unearthed
objects, including life-sized bronze birds and stone-made
armor.
Wu Yongqi, director of the Qin Shi Huang Terracotta Warriors
Museum, said the pieces on show were comparable in quality and
artistic value to the current terracotta army exhibition in the
British Museum in London, although they were less in number.
The objects, all discovered near Xi'an of the Shaanxi Province,
provided a glance of the magnificent Qin and Han civilization, he
said, adding that the exhibition would hopefully help Dutch people
to get acquainted with traditional Chinese culture and promote
mutual understanding between the two peoples.
At the exhibition, many Dutch visitors were visibly struck by
the images of the clay artifacts and the stories behind them.
"I'm surprised at the immense power of the ancient Chinese
emperors and the way they try to maintain their kingdom in the
afterworld," said M. Bakker, who had just watched a 3-D film about
the genesis of the terracotta army at the museum.
He was also fascinated by the statues. "They are so beautiful,
even more beautiful than I thought," Bakker said.
"Even nowadays, artists seldom make horses as beautiful as
this," he said pointing to a life-sized horse from the Qin
Dynasty.
Others were also impressed. "The height and the posture of the
terracotta statues are very impressive," a 60-old Dutch woman
said.
"Look at their faces, the expressions are so lifelike and each
one is distinct from another," said the woman, who drove two hours
from the southern part of the country to see the exhibition.
The exhibition, which runs through Aug. 31, was expected to draw
150,000 to 200,000 visitors, Hofstede said.
"This would be an unprecedented number considering that we
usually have 90,000 visitors a year in the museum," she said.
The exhibition of the terracotta army was part of the "Go
China!" project, jointly organized by the Drents Museum and the
Groninger Museum, which comprises a total of five exhibitions on
Chinese archaeology, Chinese Realists, avant-garde art and
Chinesecon temporary art.
In Groningen, 30 kilometers in the north of Assen, the
exhibition of archaeological bronze objects from China opened
Saturday. The vats and cloches, cast 2,000 to 3,800 years ago, were
masterpieces from the Shanghai Museum of China.
From March to November, three exhibitions on present-day Chinese
art, including work by Ai Weiwei, and Chinese Realists and
Avant-garde art from the 1980s and 1990s, would go on show in
stages in the Groninger Museum.
"For a big part of the year, all the rooms in our museum will be
occupied by exhibitions from China and its artists," said Josee
Selbach, communication chief of the Groninger Museum.
"This would be the first time that our museum is solely devoted
to exhibitions about one country," she said, adding that the museum
expects a large number of visitors.
To show the versatile and rich culture of China, the museums
also planned many other activities, including music nights, open
classes of Tai Chi, and a educational program for school kids.
The "Go China!" project, designed to coincide with the Olympic
Games in Beijing, would make the northern Netherlands "completely
immersed in Chinese culture in 2008", according to the press
releases of the museums.
(Xinhua News Agency February 3, 2008)
