China’s hidden century

The years between 1796 and 1912 in Qing China were marked by imperial decline, civil uprisings and foreign wars, ultimately leading to a revolution that brought an end to nearly four millennia of dynastic rule and brought into being the modern Chinese republic. This period of upheaval was also one of extraordinary cultural transformation and creativity, as this exhibition at the British Museum in London reveals (18 May–8 October). Bringing together more than 200 artefacts, the show offers a glimpse of daily life while also presenting new technologies and art forms such as photography and lithographic printing. Works such as The Defeat of Taiping (1864), which depicts the violence of the Taiping Civil War (1850–64), represent the conflict that characterised the period while luxury items such as an elaborately painted fan (1800–40) from Guangzhou point to the growth of international trade. Find out more on the British Museum’s website.

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