Ming at the museum

British Museum exhibition Ming: 50 Years that Changed China was the largest Chinese cultural heritage show in the museum's history and a successful example of the growing cooperation between museums in China and the United Kingdom. [Photo/Agencies]

A British Museum exhibition focusing on the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) attracted 121,000 visitors, making it the museum's biggest Chinese cultural heritage show ever in terms of numbers.

Ming: 50 Years that Changed China ran from September to January. A survey by the London museum found 94 percent of visitors felt positive about the display.

"It was the most detailed exhibition on Chinese cultural heritage (in the British Museum)," says Jessica Harrison-Hall, the curator of the exhibition and an expert on Chinese ceramics with the British Museum.

"We used to have a general exhibition on a whole dynasty," Harrison-Hall says. "But at the current stage of Chinese studies, we can really look at a shorter period in detail like this one (the Ming show)."

Harrison-Hall was recently in Beijing to attend a museum curators' workshop, as part of the UK-China Year of Cultural Exchange.

The Ming exhibition featured 108 cultural relics from 10 museums in China, plus items from the British Museum and collections in Japan, the United States and Europe. The pieces on display told the story of the rapid changes that occurred in Chinese society between 1400 and 1450, the early years of Ming Dynasty.

"Thirty years ago, when you put on an exhibition about China, people would think it's the exotic East. But nowadays most people you talk to in Britain have (made) personal journeys to China, or have friends working and studying in the country. Maybe we can have an exhibition to focus on an even shorter period of history and go even greater in-depth."