7,000 Years Ahead of Civilization

THROUGHOUT MOST of history, China remained isolated from the rest of civilization. But this does not mean that China has been uncivilized during these years. On the contrary, we owe many of the world's greatest discoveries to the Chinese. The Chinese Association of Science and Technology (CAST) has organized an exhibit which bolsters China's civilization advancing discoveries, including magnetism, gunpowder, papermaking, printing, the compass, and the seismograph. China: 7,000 Years of Discovery is a unique exhibition displaying science, technology and artistry of China's past seven milleniums.

Hundreds of artifacts provide standard museum fare: ceramic vases, platters and flowers, bronze pieces, and terra cotta soldiers, to name a few. The barest factual background traces China's vast history, emphasizing the enormity of both China's past as well as the subject of this exhibit.

The Museum of Science's 20,000 sq. ft. multi-level floor area allows spacious presentation of participatory displays interspersed among the many artifacts. Visitors have the opportunity to smell an array of herbal medicines, test their ability to read Chinese pictographs, pump water with a dragon-bone irrigation pump, and try the famous Tai Ji Quan exercises.

Most unique in this exhibit, however, are the ten or so artisans featured demonstrating ancient and traditional skills and trades. These artisans from the People's Republic of China show how many of the items on display are created: a woodblock printer patiently applies each separate layer of a complicated flower design; a dough-figure craftsman fashions subjects too small to be seen without a magnifying glass; and two men effortlessly manipulate a seemingly undecipherable loom to produce a spectacular piece of silk--which requires hundreds of movements for every inch of design.

An artisan mixing a bath of bamboo pulp magically raises a net-like sheet and suddenly has produced a single sheet of fresh white paper. An architect carves, without pattern, small pieces of wood which lock together without adhesive to form the outline of a model of elaborate Chinese architecture. A kite-maker chats animatedly with a Chinese friend about the strange American visitors she has experienced that day; all the while her hands file meticulously at the thin strips of wood which will flow in symmetric perfection as the body of vividly colored kites.

Though an electrically heated wall simulates the limestone on which bamboo paper dries in China, for the most part, this is the real thing. The painter swears that his paintings are only of real places--places he has seen with his own eyes, and the "double-sided embroiderer" (a woman who stitches onto a screen extremely fine silk which miracuously becomes a double-sided work of art) is one of only four artisans in all of China capable of doing such work.

THE ARTISANS RANGE from being shy to extremely outgoing. Since none of them speak or understand English, it often seems that they are frustrated by their inability to communicate with their captive audiences. Since the museum relies on volunteers to staff the floors, a chronic shortage of Mandarin-speaking interpreters seems unavoidable.

Not all artisans are present at the exhibit at all times. And because this mammoth display is too much to take in all at once anyway, a second visit would be equally enjoyable, if not more so.

CAST has cleverly designed this exhibit to expand on or dispel much of the common knowledge and stereotypes assigned to the Chinese country and people. Acupuncture is explained and portrayed in the medical context in which it originated, rather than in the witch-doctor reputation it has outside China. A display featuring the artistry and dress of the Miso tribe, a minority group living in southwest China, reveals to visitors that contrary to popular belief, the Chinese are not one uniform race.

Boston is the only East Coast city which will enjoy a run of the exhibit, and only the fifth U.S. city to host the visitors from the East. The delegation leaves Boston to return to China December 1, which should leave you plenty of time to go see the exhibit now and to go back again--and again.