China's Hidden Century

Unidentified artists, Portrait of Lady Li (Lu Xifu’s Wife) and Portrait of Lu Xifu, ca. 1876, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto. Photo copyright ROM.

Between 1796 and 1912 Qing China endured numerous civil uprisings and foreign wars, with revolution ultimately bringing an end to some 2,000 years of dynastic rule and giving way to a modern Chinese republic. This period of violence and turmoil was also one of extraordinary creativity, driven by political, cultural and technological change. In the shadow of these events lie stories of remarkable individuals – at court, in armies, in booming cosmopolitan cities and on the global stage. 

The exhibition brings together a number of exquisite objects her for the first time including cloisonné vases given by the Last Emperor's court to King George and Queen Mary for their coronation in 1911, and a silk robe commissioned by the Empress Dowager Cixi. The show illuminates the lives of individuals – an empress, a dancer, a soldier, an artist, a housewife, a merchant and a diplomat.