For this session, we talked about the virtual museum exhibit Take Me There China at the Children’s Museum. We each talked about what we liked in the exhibit and Kwan also added his thoughts and details behind each topic. I talked about the Beijing Opera, which said that the opera has been performing for 200 years and performers train for at least 10 years. The performers must be skilled in several performing arts, including acrobatics and other forms of dance. The opera has gestures using hands, feet, legs, and even fingers, which shows how detail-oriented the performance is. The movements must be in time with the music as well. There are four characters in the opera: Sheng (male roles), Jing (painted face roles), Dan (female roles), and Chou (male clowns). The doll displayed in the exhibit is a Dan and is a popular female general. Kwan added that it’s called the Beijing Opera because much of Chinese culture is centered in Beijing.
My other classmates mentioned interesting topics too. Jade has a display and represents purity, virtue, and immortality. The Ruler of Heaven in Daoism is actually the Jade Emperor, which shows how revered jade is in Chinese culture. Kwan explained that jade was meant to symbolize wealth and high social status in ancient China and it can come in many colors. The horned dragon infant hat is also an interesting item in the exhibit. Children’s hats have been worn in China for centuries since the head is a very important part of the body and is well protected in Chinese culture. Children’s hats can have different animals and plants, such as a phoenix, tiger, fish, butterfly, peony, lotus. The hat in the museum is a dragon hat and the dragon is depicted as a beautiful and benevolent creature that brings success and fortune.