Just accept that all of my blog posts happen well-after-the-fact, and your life will be much easier (though I’m sure the Overseas department and my professors are ridiculously frustrated with me for this, oops).
In late October we visited a few of Jinan’s museums. On the 21st, Half the group went to the Shandong Art Museum, and the other half went to what I believe is the Natural History Museum – but of course, I’ve lost my ticket like the forgetful dingus that I am, and can’t remember the exact name.
That museum is full of exhibits about Chinese history, more specifically the development of Chinese culture as witnessed in the area that is now Shandong province – and honestly, there is a lot to cover.
What impressed me the most was the museum’s large collection of Buddhist art, which spans approximately ten dynasties and two thousand years of development. I hadn’t realized until then the degree to which Shandong has been a major cultural epicenter throughout Chinese history. The exhibits discuss – in both Chinese and English – the development of Buddhist art not only in China, but the role of Shandong Buddhists in developing a unique Shandong Buddhist art style, as well as the Shandong influence in the overall Chinese style of Buddhist art. It was fascinating, and made me regret not having taken any of the religions classes at LC so I could have had a stronger informational background.
The museum also boasts a small collection of ancient bronzes and oracle bones from the pre-Qin dynasties, which are of personal interest to me (arguably the Shang and Zhou bronzes are my favorite art history subjects). It’s not as large as the one at the National Museum in Beijing, but I was incredibly satisfied.
One of the strangest things to me about museum culture in China is that people are allowed to take pictures of the displays. Unlike my professor – who is a terrifyingly good photographer – I didn’t participate during the formal art exhibits, as I was too shocked and nervous to do so (mostly due to flashbacks of a class trip to Washington, D.C. wherein I was threatened with forcible removal from a museum for unwittingly snapping a picture of a display card). However, there’s an interactive exhibit at this museum… and it’s some kind of African safari. I did take pictures, because animals!
Cute! Baby! LIONS~
Look at these sassy freaking antelope. CASTING SO MUCH SHADE for a being only two feet tall. <_<
On the 27th, we went to the cultural museum that is part of Shandong Normal University. The exhibits drew largely from one man’s private collection of cultural artifacts, though there was some beautiful digital reproductions of local Buddhist cave art. I also took pictures there, even though it made me incredibly nervous.
Have some local Shandong Buddhist cave art!
And the introduction to the cultural artifacts section of the museum:
This part of the museum spanned multiple floors and showed everything from fashion to household items. I’m gonna leave this here, though, because this is… a pretty interesting place to leave it, I think.