November 20, 2019

UOW celebrates Chinese culture with exhibition

'Splendid traditions' from Australian Museum at Wollongong

The University of Wollongong (UOW) is paying homage to its Chinese community with the ‘Splendid Traditions: Highlights of the Australian Museum’s Chinese collections’ exhibition on display at the Panizzi Gallery.

The cultural exhibition displays precious objects that illustrate Chinese craftsmanship at its finest and the longevity of Chinese culture.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Global Strategy Alex Frino said the exhibition is right at home, a welcoming sign for more than 2600 Chinese students who are studying in Wollongong at UOW.

“The University of Wollongong is proud to be working directly with the Australian Museum to bring you this exhibition of significant historical Chinese artefacts – some of which have never been exhibited in Australia before,” Professor Frino said. 

“Chinese students and alumni also represent the largest cohort of international students, and the Chinese community represents the third largest community in the Illawarra region.  It is fitting, therefore, that together with our partners, we are able to give something back to them and promote an understanding of this significant culture with an enormous history.”

Created by the Australian Museum in Sydney, UOW has partnered with Illawarra Credit Union to deliver the exhibition to Wollongong.

“The Australian Museum has an international collection which includes significant pieces from China from the Qing dynasty as well as some more recent items,” Australian Museum Director and CEO Kim McKay AO said.

“This exhibition provides a snapshot into the importance of the collection and we hope that it will tour to other venues around the nation.

“We are thrilled to work with UOW and Professor Frino on this exhibition and hope that students studying at UOW make the time to view it and gain knowledge of the objects.”

There is contemporary Chinese calligraphy on display and a film of a contemporary calligrapher in action. There is also a touch screen display of a 5m scroll from the AM collection.

Visitors can also learn and play a 2500 year-old board game, Go, which has the greatest number of moves of any board game in the world and is more complex than chess.

The exhibition opened earlier in November and will continue through the month, closing on 1 December.