The National Museum of China holds “Ancient Chinese Bronze Forum”

On September 26-27, 2020, the National Museum of China held the “Ancient Chinese Bronze Forum”. This forum aims to provide the scholars at home and abroad engaging in the study of bronze wares with a platform for the demonstration and exchange of new achievements, viewpoints and ideas in this field to a deeper and wider level. Meanwhile, it is the first academic forum featuring the theme of bronze wares held by NMC based on our long-term accumulation in the new century, which is of great significance.

Ding Pengbo, deputy director of the National Museum of China attended the forum and delivered the opening speech; Chen Yu, director of NMC Institute of Research presided over the forum, and Huo Hongwei, vice-president of NMC Institute of Research and more than 20 honored guests and experts attended the opening ceremony. At the opening ceremony, the deputy director Ding Pengbo and Professor Zhu Fenghan from the History Department of Peking University unveiled the first launch of the new book titled Book Series for Studying Cultural Relics in the Collection of NMC: Volume of Bronze Wares in the West Zhou Dynasty. As the latest findings in the study of bronze wares of NMC, this book was finally completed after seven-years preparation.

Professor Chen Jianli from the School of Archaeology and Museology of Peking University presided over the key-note speeches of the forum. Professor Zhu Fenghan and Professor Li Ling from Peking University, Professor Zhang Changping from Wuhan University, Fang Qin, director of Hubei Museum and president of Hubei Archaeological Research Institute, Su Rongyu, researcher of the Institute for History of Natural Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, made key-note speeches successively.

Researcher Su Rongyu and Professor Zhang Changping presided over two thematic speeches, respectively. NMC research librarian Tian Shuai, Huo Hongwei and Li Gang, NMC deputy research librarian Zhai Shengli, Tian Wei, Chen Pengyu, deputy research librarian of the Palace Museum, Xiong Changyun, librarian of the Palace Museum, Wei Xinying, deputy research librarian of Shanghai Museum, Yan Zhibin and He Yuling, researchers of the Institute of Archaeology CASS, Professor Chen Jianli and Associate Professor Han Wei from Peking University gave reports on their archaeological excavation and research in bronze wares in recent years.

This forum saw the remote interaction with Jay Xu, director of Asian Art Museum of San Francisco in the US, Wang Tao, director of the Asian Art Dept. of the Art Institute of Chicago, Liu Yang, director of the Asia Dept. of Minneapolis Institute of Art, by the way of teleconferencing, discussing the casting technology of ancient bronze wares and their achievements in art.

Ding Pengbo, deputy director of the National Museum of China, summarized the forum.

During this forum, the participating experts conducted a heated discussion on the key issues in the study of bronze wares, demonstrating the new discoveries and findings in this field, strengthening the academic exchanges between NMC scholars and the experts in ancient Chinese bronze wares at home and abroad, tamping the foundation of museum in the study of ancient Chinese bronze wares, and providing solid academic support for the relevant exhibitions of NMC.