Date：2022-01-18 - 2022-02-27
Location：Shanghai Museum Hall & Chinese Painting Gallery
The upcoming Chinese New Year is the Year of the Tiger. Living in mainly forests, tigers are hailed as the king of all beasts owing to their prowess and majesty. As a natural habitat of tigers, China preserves multiple subspecies and has many tiger-themed archaeological relics, historical accounts and mythical folktales, such as the pictograph 虎 (hŭ, "tiger") inscribed on oracle bones as divination records, the bronze wares either bearing tiger-shaped motifs or in the shape of powerful tigers, the image of the White Tiger among the four deified beasts, the supreme goddess Xiwangmu depicted as having "tiger's teeth" and good at roaring in classic texts, and the tiger worship of the Ba and Yi ethnic groups in Southwest China.
The Chinese tiger culture also arrived in Japan. To take the 50th anniversary of the normalization of China-Japan diplomatic relations as an opportunity, Shanghai Museum, together with the Kyushu National Museum from Japan, are jointly hosting this exhibition to celebrate the Year of the Tiger. Japan has long since upheld the custom of revering tigers despite its lack of indigenous ones. As such, the Japanese tiger artworks often reflect exotic tastes, which can be observed from the two large Imari blue-and-white porcelain dishes on display.
Tigers are also represented in folk traditions as guardians that ward off disasters and evil spirits. By highlighting "joyous tiger" in this exhibition, we aim to disseminate the resilience of the Chinese nation: with great optimism and hearty laughs we send away the cold winter and strengthen our faith in a better future, hand in hand with each other. In the remarkable time of fighting against COVID-19, we will once again work in solidarity and ring in the new year. Hereby we genuinely hope that the global immunity barrier can be built immediately, and the pandemic can be ended as soon as possible.
Let us roar and laugh together into the Year of the Tiger and expect the vigorous spring greens to spread!
