PREVIEW_ GREAT MUSEUMS_ China_ West Meets East at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

One of the most astonishing things about China is how little most Americans actually know about it, even though China's culture is so present in our Western world. We often see China as a nation casting off tradition in a mad rush to Westernize, but below the hectic surface lies a steadfast culture that has influenced the West in deep and subtle ways. I don't want to downplay the idea that China's culture is very different from our own, but China in the long run, its philosophy, its sense of poetry, its sense of history, and its sense of reverence for the individual really resonate with the deepest values in the West. So that whether we're practicing yoga or meditation or strolling in the landscape and thinking about nature poetry, the Chinese have done that too. The emergence of China as a major political and economic power today causes people to be curious about China, and being curious about China is also being curious about its culture. The most comprehensive collection of Chinese artistic masterpieces outside of Asia is found at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Met is a colossus of culture, a history of the world told through its art. We are the cultural family tree on whose branches all peoples will find their roots. In the Met's Chinese arts wing, these roots reach back more than 5,000 years, a spectacular chronicle of the world's oldest living culture, a culture both ancient and cutting edge. One of the great advantages of learning about any culture from an institution such as a museum is that you really get to do so by looking. Some people come and say, oh, what wonderful archaic bronzes, all these things from the 12th to the 9th century BC. And some people may say, oh, look at the porcelain. Or some people may say, oh, what beautiful sculptures. And some people may fall in love with our paintings. The sheer diversity of Chinese art, you'll see jade and metal and clay and ivory and rhinoceros horn and silk and paper. The Chinese used everything you can think of and they used it so skillfully. I'm hoping that when people come here to see the museum, they will come away not only with memories saying, oh, I've seen so many splendid, spectacular works of art. Yes, they did. But they really will learn about the culture, the people behind all these works of art. They really will learn about China.