The China Cultural Centre in Malta, together with the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism, and the Zhejiang Library, is holding an exhibition and lecture dedicated to the rich legacy of Chinese woodblock printing and the cultural heritage of West Lake in Hangzhou, Zhejiang.
Prints and Engravings of West Lake, a special curated exhibition dedicated to China-Malta cultural exchange, will launch on November 24 at 6.30pm. The exhibition will run from November 25 to 27 at the China Cultural Centre premises in Valletta.
The exhibition presents key works and visual panels that trace the development of Zhejiang’s woodblock printing, highlighting masterpieces from the Wuyue period through the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties.
It explores five main themes: the origins of Zhe-imprints from Wuyue to the Northern and Southern Song, the peak of block-cutting in Hangzhou during the Song and Yuan, the achievements in illustrated woodcuts from the Song to the Qing, West Lake-related classics that show enduring humanistic depth, and the encounter between Zhejiang printing and Malta through early global works such as Zhifang waiji (Record of Foreign Lands).
The public lecture, titled ‘Prints and engravings of West Lake: The Inheritance and Development of Zhejiang’s Printing Culture’, will be held at the National Library in Valletta on November 25 at 6.30pm.
The lecture will introduce the thousand-year history of Zhejiang’s printing culture, from early Buddhist sutra printing to refined literary and scholarly editions produced around West Lake.
By placing West Lake’s prints and engravings in dialogue with Malta’s Mediterranean heritage, the programme underlines the historical role of Malta as a hub on the ancient Silk Roads and Zhejiang as a “land of documents” renowned for its documentary and printing traditions.
The events form part of broader China-Europe cultural exchange under the ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ and aim to deepen mutual understanding between China and Malta.
Both the exhibition opening and the lecture are free of charge but reservation is required. One can book their seats by e-mailing events2024ccc@gmail.com.
