Ancient Chinese masterpieces on display in Washington, D.C.

A motivation for me in doing this show was helping to illustrate to American audiences incredible richness of ancient history in China. Anyang was really the birthplace of Chinese archaeology. It's where the archaeological practice, modern archaeological practice, really began. So it was in a way an archaeological laboratory that prepared the way, trained the archaeologists, that ultimately trained the archaeologists, that trained the archaeologists that worked in the Xi'an project. This gallery is all about royal objects from the early Anyang period, from the first few decades, probably 1250 to about 1200 BCE. So we think that this is probably a particular kind of ceramic that was only made for use by the royals. One thing about Chinese material culture is that it's all primarily functional objects. They're made for use. So containers for wine, containers for food, also objects for cooking or warming those objects. Because it's through tools that we know so much about ancient cultures. But not only to fixate on death, but also imagine what living in Anyang might have been like for the Xi'an people. The roads, the canals, the habitation areas, the neighborhoods, the factories. Imagine the basin full of water. What you would see looking into the basin, beneath the water is this serpent that's wound around the inside of the basin looking up at you. The motif is very similar to what we're seeing on the picture, the spouted object, a kind of semi-human dragon form. Museums as public organizations, public institutions, stand as kind of a pivot between China and the U.S., making sure that we do it right so that it enriches experiences for American visitors and helps Chinese audiences understand that Americans are interested in Chinese culture.