WHERE AESTHETICS KNOWS NO BOUNDARIES

Last weekend, I had planned to visit the Aurora Art Museum, only to observe upon arrival that no exhibitions were on. Glancing across the street, I noticed the Aurora Museum was open, with several permanent collections covering ancient Chinese ceramics, jade, porcelain, and Buddhist sculptures. Since I was already there, I bought a ticket and wandered in. In the jade research gallery, one display case stopped me in my tracks. It held an array of both natural and man-made ston

I had originally planned to visit the Aurora Art Museum today, only to find upon arrival that there were no exhibitions on. Across the street, however, the Aurora Museum was running several permanent exhibitions covering ancient Chinese ceramic sculpture, jade, porcelain, and Buddhist statuary. As it happened, I had visited a few galleries at the Shanghai Museum East Bund just the previous week—covering much the same ground—so it seemed intriguing to see how this institution,

Have you ever felt puzzled while wandering through a museum? The jade artifacts in the display cases—warm, lustrous, and archaic in form—look nothing like the vivid, dripping-green jadeite bracelets in the jewelry shops outside, yet both are called "jade" ( yù ). Were the jade pendants worn at the waist by ancient scholars truly the same thing as the jadeite bracelet on your grandmother's wrist today? The answer is no. The question sounds simple, but behind it lies thousands

On the third floor of the Shanghai Museum's East Building, there is an exhibition hall worth a special visit—the Ancient Chinese Ceramics Gallery. The exhibition unfolds along a timeline, from the first lump of clay shaped by prehistoric hands to the gossamer-thin glazed wares crafted by Qing Dynasty artisans. Each of these objects encapsulates thousands of years of civilizational warmth. After walking through the gallery, many visitors find a quiet question forming in their