To make up for the second half of the October 18 session I visited the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena. Since this wonderful museseum has so many amazing and informative exhibits to experience, I chose to focus only on one exhibit in their permanent collection: The Jade in China.
Chinese have historically called their country “The Middle Kingdom,” percieving itself to be in the middle or the center of the world. This is ironic yet quite appropriate as well when people make the association between China and the precious stone jade. For example, one of the most beautiful artifacts featured in this exhibit is a pair of Crab Claw Earings made of Imperial Jade. They belonged to Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) and were used as adornment. According to the exhibit, ideas and materials from distant countries influenced Chinese art and culture, which often featured jade. Jade tended an imported stone that was then sculpted domestically.
Other beuatiful examples were a piece ritual jade (as opposed to the adornment jade mention above): a pendant with dragons and masks, and a ritual axe head. These are appreciated even more when I read that because jade is so hard, it has to be abrated rather than carved.
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