On March 5, the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), the fifth-largest museum in North America located in downtown Toronto, held the opening ceremony for this major exhibition, co-organized by the Palace Museum in Beijing and the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada.
This exhibition is another major Chinese cultural relic exhibition held in Canada following the Terracotta Warriors exhibition in 2010. The exhibition runs for six months from March 8 to September 1. According to the ROM, the exhibition will feature a total of 250 artifacts, covering textiles, calligraphy and paintings, books, official documents, weaponry, and armor, with more than 80 of these items leaving the Forbidden City for the first time.
Shen Chen, one of the curators and Vice Director of the ROM, stated in an interview that this exhibition is quite spectacular, and even many visitors to the Palace Museum in Beijing may not have had the chance to see all of these exhibits.
The Palace Museum in Beijing has poured its heart into this exhibition. Wang Yamin, Vice Director of the Palace Museum, who led the delegation, introduced that the Palace Museum carefully selected these exhibits from over 1.8 million artifacts and traveled thousands of miles to display them here, aiming to share a cultural heritage feast with the public in Canada and North America. Wang Yamin noted that such a magnificent exhibition, featuring rarely seen treasures and a six-month duration, is very rare in the history of the Palace Museum's North American exhibitions.
"The Forbidden City: Inside the Court of China's Emperors" is presented as the flagship exhibition for the ROM's 100th anniversary. Zheng Wenqian, one of the curators and Senior Curator of East Asian Art at the ROM, mentioned in an interview with China News Service that as the ROM is known for its East Asian collection, particularly its strong Chinese collection, this major exhibition from the Forbidden City is the ideal way to celebrate its centenary.
Chinese Ambassador to Canada Zhang Junsai, Consul General in Toronto Fang Li, Premier of Ontario Kathleen Wynne, and Canadian Senator Victor Oh, among other Chinese and Canadian dignitaries, were invited to attend the opening ceremony.
This exhibition is sponsored by the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation in Hong Kong and is an important part of the 2013-2014 Year of Chinese Culture in Canada series. The Royal Ontario Museum is a top-tier Canadian museum founded in 1914, ranking fifth in North America. In June 2010, the museum co-organized the "Terracotta Warriors: The First Emperor of China" exhibition with the Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau, which caused a sensation across Canada, attracting 355,000 visitors over nearly six months.
