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Treasure from China's architecture legend family unveiled in exhibition in Canberra

Xinhua, December 8, 2015 Adjust font size:

A color drawing by China's legendary architecture family, the Lei Family, was unveiled Tuesday at the National Library of Australia in Canberra as part of the Celestial Empire: Life in China 1644-1911 exhibition which opens for media preview.

The scroll of 6 meters long and 60 centimeters wide shows the prominent palaces and buildings in the Forbidden City and all the decoration details of a royal wedding.

It is one of the masterpieces of the Lei Family, whose members had been responsible for imperial building for over 200 years during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

It is the first time that this scroll, part of the Lei Family Archives which were listed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 2007, has been brought out of China for an exhibition.

Together with this piece of treasure are 87 items from the National Library of China and 82 items from the National Library of Australia.

The two institutions have been working for three years to jointly stage the exhibition in order to show the Australians a kaleidoscope of Chinese society in the last imperial dynasty.

Curator Dr. Nathan Wolley said the Australian audience will be impressed by the rich varieties of lives, both imperial and ordinary, shown by the items on display in the last dynasty which laid the foundation of modern China.

"The exhibition provides a rare window into nearly 300 years of life at court, in the fields and in the cities of Beijing and Shanghai - the Qing Dynasty," said Ryan Stokes, chair of the National Library of Australia Council.

"It is also a first for these two leading cultural institutions," he said, "Many of these treasures have not been out of the country before."

National Library of Australia Director-General Anne-Marie Schwirtlich said the two national libraries have been in good working relationship for about 60 years.

When the two institutions signed a memorandum of understanding in 2012, both sides wished to push the bilateral cooperation to a higher level and a fresh area, which led to the exhibition.

Officially opening on January 2, 2016, the exhibition will last till May 22 and will only be shown in the National Library in Canberra. Enditem