Dear Friends and Family,

Ok, so you may be back to wondering, where in the world is she? Today's answer: "I am in Kathmandu."


Admittedly, this is a slightly surprising statement considering that according to this blog, I've just barely set foot in Shanghai. But computer access in China... Shanghai and beyond... turned out more limited than the guidebooks would have you believe. In other words, my trip has provided me with plenty to write, but unfortunately it has not afforded me near the number of opportunities to type. So...


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Very soon after arriving at the ultra-modern metropolis of Shanghai, I took myself to the acclaimed Shanghai Museum and began to contemplate China's past.


'Tis a fact, universally acknowledged, that the state that we today call The People's Republic of China has a long, venerable history. But what is not necessarily agreed upon is the notion of history itself. In his book Oracle Bones, Peter Hessler points out that Chinese intellectuals have often felt that the concept of history as a continuous narrative is a Western notion and ends up working to the Western culture's advantage. After all,

. ..Westerners perceived change as natural: pharaohs disappeared; Greece collapsed; Rome fell. Without the weight of a continuous history and [without] the conservatism of Confucianism, Westerners seemed more likely to look ahead... the Western view of the future expected tangible, long-term progress.

While in contrast,

In China, intellectuals looked back and saw nothing but Chinese history. Emperors and dynasties, emperors and dynasties - [an] endless spiral of time.

The Shanghai Museum boasts some 120,000 bronzes, pieces of furniture, paintings, seals, and (naturally) china - one of the finest collections of Chinese artifacts in the world. After waiting in a long line of hot tourists for over an hour, I found myself wandering through exhibits, from artifact and placque to artifact and placque, wracking my brain for enough information to compile a narrative about the country that I was visiting and the pieces that I was viewing. Placques would read, "Hexagonal Vase, Ming Dynasty" or "Statue of Buddha, Qing Dynasty" and frankly, my response would be, "Huh?" After all, words like Ming, Qing, Shang, Song, Tang, mean less to me than Tudor, Stewart, or Windsor. Nonetheless, in visiting China, in visiting the Shanghai Museum, I was seeking understanding - a narrative... progress... I'd find these most useful in establishing understanding. Happily, and rather appropriately I found "progress" and a method of recalling remembering dynasties and emperors - in the museum's china exhibit.

Ancient Chinese china looked something like this:

Painted Pot with Lattice Design
(Note the primitive design and non-shiny glaze)
2600 - 2300 BC

By the Tang Dynasty, some 2000 years later, china had progressed to this:

Glazed Pottery Jar
(Note the shiny glaze, colors and runs are particular to this era)
Tang Dynasty (618 - 907 AD)

During the Ming Dynasty, china became very sophisticated:

Vase
(Note the blue and white glaze + the detailed picture - a detailed look makes the glaze seem slightly smudged)
Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644 AD)

And the Qing Dynasty built its style upon the Ming Dynasty's.

Vase
(Note the multi-colored glaze + sharp, sharp picture)
Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1912 AD)

History... progress... narrative... china.

In fact, the museum explained that the English word "china" likely originated from the 1st imperial dynasty - the "Qin" or "Chin" dynasty (221 - 206 BC) - but that the word "china" became famous in describing the unique, beautiful, quality pottery that came from the country that we now know as China. The museum hammered home its point, as we English speakers love to do, by quoting Shakespeare, who wrote in Measure for Measure, "They are not China-dishes, but very good dishes."

I slightly differ with the bard: the dishes were indeed China dishes... but yes, they were very good and said a lot about China.

Love,

Laura