It is Lunar New Yr. Carrying their most interesting festive garments, an 18th century household sits right down to feast on a lavish banquet in a room adorned with auspicious signage.
This scene will sound acquainted to lots of the households, throughout China and the globe, having fun with their very own festivities, traditions and symbolic meals over the vacation interval, which started Sunday. However there are some important variations: This hotpot dish is ornately embellished in cloisonné enamel, the indicators are encrusted with turquoise, jade, and rubies, and the patriarch’s vogue alternative is a silk gown with dragon motifs hand-stitched in gold thread. It is a Lunar New Yr match for an emperor.
“It is a symphony of the senses,” mentioned Daisy Wang, deputy director of the Hong Kong Palace Museum, the place these Qing dynasty-era treasures are displayed in a second-floor gallery centered on every day life in Beijing’s imperial palace.
“It’s important to think about what the Emperor and his household would hear, what they’d style, what they’d contact, what aromas they’d odor,” Wang added. “We have now to make use of all our senses to think about what occurred 300 years in the past, contained in the Forbidden Metropolis.”
The $450-million constructing opened final summer season and has a rotating assortment of greater than 900 treasures on mortgage from Beijing’s Forbidden Metropolis, from uncommon ceramics to delicate scroll work. The museum is marking its first Lunar New Yr by inviting guests to see how one in all China’s longest-ruling emperors celebrated the event, via the auspicious objects on show.
Decoding the previous
The Qing dynasty’s fourth emperor, the Qianlong Emperor, was “probably the most highly effective rulers on Earth within the 18th century,” mentioned Wang. “He dominated over an enormous territory, with a inhabitants of most likely over 300 million.”
His reign, from 1735 to 1796, was additionally marked by flourishing arts and creativity within the nation. Recognized to be erudite and cultured, he printed over 40,000 poems throughout his lifetime, and amassed an unlimited assortment of vintage and commissioned imperial artworks throughout his six-decade rule.
All over the place you have a look at the Palace Museum exhibition, the emperor’s penchant for luxurious is on present, from hanging panels that includes jade floral motifs to a pair of golden gourd decorations. The latter, that are embedded with semi-precious stones and that includes the Chinese language characters for “nice fortune,” are amongst greater than 60 gourd-shaped decorations commissioned by the Qianlong Emperor to adorn the Forbidden Metropolis throughout the Spring Pageant in 1746 alone.
Some highlighted Lunar New Yr-related objects on present embrace a pair of golden gourd-shaped decorations. Credit score: CNN
As with many artworks, they include “hidden meanings,” mentioned Wang. A logo of fertility, bottle gourds, or “hulu,” have a reputation that sounds just like the Chinese language phrases for “auspicious” and “wealth,” she added.
The emperor wasn’t simply commissioning artworks, although: His extravagant style prolonged to his wardrobe. “(He) by no means commissioned (solely) a single piece of clothes,” mentioned Wang. “It at all times needed to be two, 4, six.”
Recognized to alter his outfit as much as seven instances a day, one standout garment featured within the exhibition is a gown adorned with intricately hand-stitched dragons flying amongst wispy, clouds in gold-wrapped thread.
This regal dragon gown was one of many Qianlong Emperor’s most interesting festive clothes. Credit score: CNN
Acquainted traditions
With a style for huge banquets, which regularly comprised hotpot, dumplings and roast duck, the Emperor’s eating habits — and the serving dishes and utensils used — will probably be acquainted to many. In line with Wang, Qianlong cherished hotpot a lot that he ate 200 such meals in a single 12 months, which some folks imagine contributed to his longevity (he died in his late eighties).
Lunar New Yr feasts had been notably particular for the Emperor as a result of it will be one of many only a few events he was allowed to eat in the identical room as household and associates. “Due to security considerations, he normally ate alone,” mentioned Wang.
An extravagant hotpot utilized by the Qianlong emperor. Whereas superbly embellished utilizing the cloisonné method, its copper inside makes it fully purposeful. Credit score: CNN
The imperial objects he used, past being gilded and jewel-encrusted, additionally reveal what number of traditions have remained the identical.
“One of many issues that stunned me is how related the way in which he celebrated the Lunar New Yr is to our follow in the present day.
“I hope that guests will come and join these historic objects with their very own lives.”
Watch the video above for an inside have a look at the Lunar New Yr objects on show on the Hong Kong Palace Museum.
