The China Cultural Centre in Malta currently hosting the touring exhibition Aesthetic Lifestyle of Jiangnan.
More than 70 works from the Zhejiang Provincial Museum illustrate the nine pursuits of the Chinese literati − music, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry, wine, flowers, tea and incense − arranged under four sections: fragrance, music, taste and embroidery. Most exhibits are high-grade replicas, preserving accuracy of their original form and workmanship.
At the launch, visitors observed major pieces at close range, including a reconstructed late-Tang incense burner from the Hejiacun cellar, a Han-dynasty censer with a pixiu lid, the ‘Go Manual of Chen Zixian’, a 12-month embroidery cycle, finely worked round fans in needlework predating the folding fan, a celadon plum vase, and a guqin with its tools. A live guqin performance signalled that the exhibition presents a living tradition, not only historical material.
The director of the Zhejiang Provincial Museum, who could not be present, addressed the audience in a recorded message, noting that this exhibition has been “touring globally since 2018, leaving traces of Jiangnan’s elegance and charm in more than 10 cities around the world. Today, the exhibition has travelled across great distances to Malta, renowned as the ‘Heart of the Mediterranean’.”
He praised Malta as “a cultural treasure embedded in the Mediterranean… a melting pot of civilisations” and drew a parallel with Jiangnan, “historically celebrated as a ‘paradise on earth’”, extending an invitation to Maltese visitors to travel to China and the museum to experience more.
Franceen Galea, Heritage Malta curator of the National Museum of Archaeology, remarked that the exhibition makes visible the integration of art and daily life in Jiangnan.
“Through the carefully chosen objects − from vessels and incense burners to fans and instruments − we see how beauty was not separate from use, but embedded in the conduct of everyday life,” she said, noting that China and Malta, though distant, share “a respect for heritage, a love for art, and a belief that beauty enriches the human experience.”
Presented by the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism in collaboration with the Centre and curated by Zhejiang Provincial Museum, the exhibition affirms a strong commitment to cultural exchange.
Aesthetic Lifestyle of Jiangnan is open at the China Cultural Centre, located at 173, Melita Street, Valletta, from 9 to 4pm until October 31.