UK gallery shedding light on Chinese culture's past and present

The gallery does not seem huge when you first enter through its rounded, arched door but it has offered rich exhibits that present Chinese culture from past to present.

Nestled within the Manchester Museum, on the campus of Manchester University, Lee Kai Hung China Culture Gallery has a collection of more than 300 objects displayed within its 190 square meters.

Paintings, porcelains, jades, textiles and natural history specimens are categorized into five themes: environment, experiment, movement and migration, trading activities, and common interest in healthcare.

"These are all very important themes that we use to help build a sense of empathy with the visitors, so that they will have a better understanding of Chinese culture," says Bryan Sitch, former curator at the gallery, which was named in honor of the sponsor Lee Kai Hung. "And in that way, we will bring about better understanding between people from China and the United Kingdom."

Near the entrance, a long scroll in a glass case shows a parade celebrating the 60th birthday of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). It is part of a 22-meter scroll and, among the details, the viewer can see the streets of Beijing, excited crowds, the emperor and his entourage, stores, some with storekeepers, and the products on sale.

One of his favorite illustrations on the scroll is a homely detail of a woman holding up her small child in one of the homes off the streets, away from the parade. Upon close inspection, the woman has jewelry holding her hairstyle in place at the back of her head. A jade from the museum's collection stands next to a blown-up print of the jewelry to illustrate what was depicted.

"We thought what a wonderful way of showing this domestic detail of a woman with a child," Sitch says. "Which culture around the world does not have a sense of identification for the relationship between a woman and her small child? I think it's a touching detail. It's one of the ways in which we help to generate empathy within the gallery."

Not far from the scroll is a highlight from the environment section, a taxidermied milu deer, which the museum purchased in 2020 from a private owner in Denmark.

"We wanted to show this because we wanted to highlight the fact that Britain and China have worked together in all sorts of ways, for instance, to improve the environment to tackle climate change, but also to rescue species that are threatened by extinction," Sitch says.

Milu deer became extinct in China in the early 1900s, but, before then, some had been taken to the West and were kept in zoos and gardens. During the 20th century, the surviving animals were gathered together to create a herd, and they bred young deer. In the 1980s, it became possible to send deer from that herd in Woburn Abbey in the UK back to China, Sitch explains. "And there are now 10,000 of these milu deer in China again, so it's a great success story."