Visitors enjoyed the opening of the Ancient Huizhou Wooden & Stone Sculptures Exhibition in Yuanquan Hui Culture & Folk Customs Museum, the first private museum opened in China, in Hefei, capital city of Anhui province.
The exhibition will be underway in Anhui through October 30 and it exhibited more than 500 wooden and stone carving works, among which quite a few were the first-ever showing. All the pieces are historical relics and collections found in southern and northern Anhui. The sculptures date from the Qin and Han dynasties (221 BC AD 220) to the period of the Republic of China.
Xuan Fanqiu, director of the museum, said that the works displayed include Huizhou wooden carving, stone carving, tile carving and inscribed tablets of historic celebrities in Anhui.
Among the tablets, the red-painted one with golden inscriptions was the most striking, Xuan said. It was written by Duan Qirui when he was the interim president of the Republic of China. Meanwhile, the lion-like granite statues from the Han Dynasty (202 BC AD 220) reflecting the sex worship during this period were also displayed for the first time.
A notable figure sculpture wore a long gown with a kerchief around the head and foreign rifle in hand. A museum representative said it was a figure of the Taiping army, the peasant army during the late Qing period (1840-1911), and it is the only stone statue of the Taiping army in Anhui.
This exhibition displayed more stone carvings than any other exhibition has ever before. It provided a good chance for visitor to learn about the Anhui culture and appreciate the charm of ancient stone carving culture.
