An exhibition of Chinese bronze will make its grand South American debut this week in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The exhibition will help create a historical and cultural backdrop for Chinese President Hu Jintao's State visit to Argentina, Brazil and Chile. Hu will also attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Chile on November 19-20.

"This is the first time that the Shanghai Museum will hold a show in Argentina or anywhere in South America," said Li Chaoyuan, vice-president of the Shanghai Museum, which is widely regarded as having the best collection of Chinese bronze in Asia.

The museum regularly arranges overseas exhibitions of some of its collections, Li said. It has held exhibitions in over 10 countries and regions. But the pieces in those shows numbered no more than 50.

But unlike the regular overseas displays, Li pointed out, the size of the bronzeware show in Buenos Aires is "unprecedented" in the 52-year history of the Shanghai Museum. The Buenos Aires exhibition features 100 pieces, topping all of its previous overseas shows.

Zhou Ya, the curator of the Bronze Department of Shanghai Museum noted that the items are the best ever.

"All the items on display are genuine ones. Moreover, this exhibition includes some items which the Shanghai Museum collected recently and have not yet been shown to the public," Zhou said, such as food containers and a plate.

The exhibition fully showcases the complete evolutionary history of Chinese bronze, which represents one of the greatest achievements of ancient Chinese civilization, Zhou said.

China's Bronze Age started in the 21st century BC and lasted about 1,400 years through the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties.

Li said the bronze, as precious metalware, was mainly used for ceremonial purposes by the upper class of the time.

"The variety and quantity of the bronze that was used at an occasion could be a reflection of the owner's social status and power," Li added.

Experts both from home and abroad believe the bronze casting techniques -- featuring great varieties of categories, sophisticated shapes and beautiful designs -- were highly developed.

Li Chaoyuan noted that the significance of bronze in Chinese civilization lies in the following aspects.

First of all, bronze was not only used for daily necessities, but also for rituals to mourn ancestors, which were inseparably connected with the ancient Chinese people's religious beliefs. The rituals were ways for the living to communicate with nature, god and their ancestors.

Ancient Chinese bronzeware had a variety of functions, mainly used as drinking vessels, plates, water vessels, armour and musical instruments.

Li said: "Though the Bronze Age originated in the drainage area of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia and was over 1,000 years earlier than that in China, their bronzeware did not have as many functions as ours."

Ma Jinhong, a senior researcher at the museum's Bronze Department, said that the drinking vessels alone feature at least 13 major shapes.

The decorative designs are always very exquisite and some are unique when compared with the bronzeware produced in the same period in any other civilization.

"One thing worth mentioning is that the evolution of the designs also indicates the difference in the ways of thinking between ancient Chinese people and other civilizations during the same period," Li said.

The designs on Chinese bronzes started with abstract patterns, then changed into concrete ones, and finally evolved to be abstract once again. On the other hand, the decorative designs of Western cultures began with concrete patterns and ended in abstract ones.

The bronze making techniques of those ancient works were also very unique. The major technique is the clay piece-mould technique, which became obscure with the passage of time.

Above all, the inscriptions on Chinese bronze have played a crucial part in preserving and continuing Chinese traditions.

"We have a continuous civilization of 5,000 years, and that is all attributable to Chinese characters which pass on the civilization from generation to generation," Li said.

Bronzeware is an irreplaceable vehicle for Chinese civilization as the inscriptions on it are early Chinese characters recording the history of that period.

The exhibition not only embraces all the excellent works of China's Bronze Age, but also includes high quality bronze works made in later periods, from the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24) to the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907).

"Although the Han Dynasty to Tang didn't belong to the Bronze Age, many foreign friends showed a greater interest in our civilization especially during these two dynasties and the works made during the period are also very advanced, beautiful and inventive," Li said.

(China Daily November 2, 2004)