China syndrome ("China! 7,000 Years of Innovation")

Jan 6th, 2002

By THOMAS B. HARRISON
Arts & Entertainment Editor
Mobile Register

As Mobile prepares to celebrate its 300th birthday, downtown will become a showplace for a much older culture.


Much, much older.

A culture that gave us the compass in the fourth century B.C., paper in the first century A.D., a seismograph, circa 132 A.D., and gunpowder in the 10th century.

Those are a few of the ingenious inventions featured in an ambitious new exhibit, "China! 7000 Years of Innovation," the largest, most ambitious exhibition in the three-year history of the Gulf Coast Exploreum Science Center.

Exploreum director W. Michael Sullivan has projected more than 100,000 visitors for the $1 million exhibition, which opens to the public on Saturday for a five-month run through June 9.

Mobile officials hope "China!" will generate $11.5 million for the local economy.

The official opening will be preceded by a splashy gala Friday for which Mayor Michael C. Dow will be master of ceremonies.

The gala was to have featured an appearance by Yang Jiechi, ambassador to the United States from the People's Republic of China.

However, the ambassador will not be able to attend for health reasons, according to an Exploreum news release. In his place will be representatives of the Chinese consulate in Houston.

Organized by the China Museum of Science and Technology in Beijing, the reconfigured, multifaceted "China!" exhibition makes its U.S. debut in Mobile.

"Obviously, this means a lot to the museum in Beijing, who helped us on our campaign to get the ambassador here," Sullivan said. "I think it all comes down to science and technology. ... He's a dignitary and a VIP with trade, and trade with China will be an enormous part of the next century."

China has been on the leading edge of technology, and the Chinese built a $50 million "Smithsonian-scale" complex dedicated to science technology and innovation, according to Sullivan.

"China!" is a significant step in establishing a relationship between Mobile, the Exploreum and their counterparts in Beijing, he said. This exhibition is a showcase for China's extensive scientific heritage and features an impressive range of inventions that dramatically affect the way we live in 2002.

"It's what museums are all about," Sullivan said. "Where we've been and where we're going, and our advancements."

"China! 7,000 Years of Innovation" will showcase more than 600 items, including historical relics and reproductions of cultural antiquities, in two large galleries. A dozen of China's leading artists will provide live demonstrations of the arts and crafts that evolved from many of the technological breakthroughs.

They include brocade weavers, a Hunan embroiderer, a porcelain painter, a clay potter, a paper maker, a paper cutter, a woodblock watercolor printer, a brush painter, a stone rubber, a kite maker and a seal engraver.

In conjunction with the exhibition, the Exploreum will show two large-format films, "China: the Panda Adventure" and "The First Emperor" in the 177-seat J.L. Bedsole IMAX Dome.

On display will be 600 valuable historical relics and exquisite working replicas of China's national treasures, including a two-story-high loom invented to weave silk brocade, porcelain from the 14th to 17th centuries, an ancient water clock, and a south-pointing compass from the 3rd century B.C.

Some of the artifacts are dazzling, and the exhibition includes richly detailed reproductions, such as models of the terra-cotta warriors buried along with the Emperor Qin Shi Huang in 210 B.C.

The seismograph is the work of a visionary. During an earthquake, a pendulum would strike a lever and release a ball from the mouth of a dragon into the mouth of a frog, which indicated the quake's epicenter.

Visitors also will see an astrolab that documented the appearance of Halley's comet and other events over several millennia. Displays include examples of Chinese herbal medicines and acupuncture.

What sets this exhibition apart is the presence of 12 artisans, imported from the China Science and Technology Museum in Beijing, to showcase ancient arts such as calligraphy, carving, weaving, two-sided embroidery, paper making and bronze casting.

Weavers will fashion silk brocade on a two-story working loom; artisans will work with threads finer than human hair to make exquisite double-sided embroidery; potters will demonstrate the skill that creates amazing Chinese ceramics.

The artisans will live in Mobile for the five-month run of the exhibition. They will be accompanied by a team of managers, including an interpreter. Visitors will be able to purchase the items they see created at the Exploreum. The museum store will carry a range of exhibit-related items, from books to fabrics.

Perhaps the most visible symbol of the show is the two-story-high loom used to weave intricate brocade. The loom is so enormous that it requires two skilled people to work it -- a two-person, four-hands, two-feet operation. The woman at the top lifts some of the thread so that woman at the bottom can weave. She also controls some of the threads with foot pedals. The two artisans produce about five centimeters of weaving in a day.

Visitors are encouraged to take a hands-on approach to many of the attractions. Among the most popular are a brass bowl filled with water. A visitor rubs the handles and it "sings" in many tones.

A display of Chinese medicine from a 300-year-old pharmacy in Beijing features several rows of tongues painted to simulate symptoms a patient would display if he or she had any one of a number of diseases.

"China!" comes to Mobile from Science World British Columbia in Vancouver, where it closed in September after a highly successful run that attracted more than 350,000 visitors.

The exhibition originated in 1982 as "China: 7,000 Years of Discovery," when it opened at the science center in Ontario and toured several American cities through 1986. More than 6 million visitors saw that exhibition in Toronto, Chicago, Seattle, Atlanta, Boston and Dallas.

Admission for "China!" is slightly higher than the usual Exploreum event, but visitors will be able to view the exhibition and catch an IMAX movie for a lower combined admission than tickets to the "Nicholas & Alexandra" show that ran for seven months at the Mobile Civic Center Expo Hall.

"China!" represents a substantial risk for the Exploreum, which drew more than 80,000 to its show of King Tut replicas and the companion film, "Mysteries of Egypt."

Sullivan said the $350,000-plus cost of the China show doesn't include housing for the artists and incidental costs. But the exhibition is a marketable, high-profile touring event that excites the Tricentennial Commission, the Mobile Convention and Visitors Corp. and other organizations.

Marketing manager Eleanor Kulin said the Exploreum will direct advertising for "China!" along the I-10 and I-65 corridors to draw visitors from throughout the Southeast.

Kulin said the exhibition should appeal to the affluent "snowbird" market, the arts-and-crafts crowd and could bring in 35,000 school-age children from Mobile, Baldwin and surrounding counties.

The Exploreum printed about 4,000 copies of a slick red brochure that will go out to tour operators encouraged to make Mobile a destination city. Kulin also mentioned possible tie-ins with local restaurants, supermarkets and other businesses who may want to seize the opportunity to ride a five-month ad campaign.

This exhibition represents the opening chapter in an extraordinary year for the Exploreum, which in July will open a prestigious show of artwork by American masters. The "American Accents" (Rockefeller) collection will be presented by the Exploreum for the Mobile Tricentennial Commission.

Sullivan is quick to point out that the museum's mission remains science and technology, not fine art.

"We haven't really expanded our mission," he said. "The Rockefeller show is a one-time-only thing, our first and last arts show."

Ann Bedsole, president of the Mobile Tricentennial Commission, said the "China!" exhibition "will emphasize that we are a port city with global connections."

"I wouldn't be looking at doing 'China!' without the tricentennial," Sullivan said. "It's an excuse to get (financial) support ... so we can put our best foot forward for the tricentennial."

Information from the Vancouver Sun was used in this report.