It was quite a clever way to create a pun out of the word ‘moving’. I was wondering how possible it was to squeeze enough emotions out of a piece of painting – regardless of how famous a piece it was – to enable such a befitting status. Now I understand.
- Chinese Crossword Puzzles
So, by animating the piece of artwork, the exhibition has managed to – and I must say quite effectively – capture the attention of its audiences. First of all, the whole exhibition depended solely upon one piece of artefact, and a ‘falsely’ – technologically manufactured – one at that. It’s probably the first and only exhibition that I’ve been to which has no real artefacts in it. But I applaud the innovative idea that the organiser has come up with for this authentic exhibit concept.
I asked one of the ushers there if the above were real artefacts from the 12th century, or whether they were mere replicas. Of course, deep down, I already had an answer. But I just wanted to test her. In the end, her answer was a long ‘erm’, and then ‘they are replicas’, and then ‘oh no, they are real’. Haha. Got her.
- A not-so-impressive interactive corner. I’m the one holding on to the camera.
I wonder how much manpower was involved to have created such a lively piece of scenery from an ancient piece of scroll that is still being kept from the public’s eye in Beijing. I am even more puzzled about how much it has taken them, money-wise, to have persuaded the Chinese authority to give them the permission to set this exhibition up, what with the need to gather their nod of approval to authenticate those merchandise, such as the ‘golden scroll replica’ that would set one back by $2888. This diligent salesgirl was wagging her tongue at me, trying to convince me that it would be worth my life getting one of those limited editions of golden scrolls back home, either to be hung on the wall or to be kept in its ‘golden box’, which is limited in edition as well by the way. I wonder how she would have reacted if I’ve told her that I was unemployed at the moment.
The audio guide is worth a mention here. There were options to listen to it in English, Chinese, Malay, Tamil, Teochew, Hokkien or Cantonese. I chose to listen to the guide in Teochew. It required 100% of my attention before I could convince myself that I have understood what was conveyed to me in my dialect. Without that 100% of attention, all of it sounded gibberish. But that was certainly an interesting experience. At least I was able to catch the translator mentioning something about a boy in red trying to run after his pig in the painting, as below.
That’s that for the main hall. The pre- and post-halls were disappointing though. I was anticipating some food to be sampled, as was mentioned in the pamphlet. But I came to realise that the idea of food sampling involved cash. In any case, it’s nothing authentic and particular to the Song Dynasty, just some you tiao, pork bun and stuff. And not all the stalls were set up by the time I’ve reached. So the atmosphere in the post-hall was really a spoiler, especially because the journey through the Song Dynasty had to come to such an unexciting end.
Recommended visit for $11, but perhaps not so if one visits at the full adult price of $18.
I paid $20 for the exhibition….not worth it at all!
For the amount paid to witness such a technology, I will have to applaud the novelty of the experiment. But if it’s the rest of the exhibition you’re referring to (i.e. those exhibits outside the main hall), I’ll second your opinion!