Chinese Soldiers to Invade Ontario?

[Josephus]

This is cool...Terra Cotta warriors coming to the ROM. Languish Field trip, anyone?

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/746544--terra-cotta-warriors-coming-to-rom

What can the Royal Ontario Museum do for an encore after drawing more than 300,000 visitors to its striking and engrossing Dead Sea Scrolls show, which ended its six-month run on Sunday with shivering crowds lined up all the way around the block?

The Star has learned that next summer, in the same calendar slot, the ROM will unveil a huge exhibition that promises to be even more of a crowd-pleasing breakthrough: The Warrior Emperor and China's Terra Cotta Army.

ROM officials are trying to keep this blockbuster secret pending a major media launch at the end of January. But sources say it will be a monumental show featuring hundreds of artifacts.

The stars of the show will be 14 of the life-size terra cotta soldiers (6 feet tall and more than 300 pounds each) discovered in massive underground pits in 1974 by Chinese workers trying to dig a well near the city of Xi'an.

It was one of the greatest archaeological finds of the 20th century, ranking right up there with the 1922 discovery of King Tut's tomb in Egypt.

Like the Tut show currently drawing crowds to the Art Gallery of Ontario, the ROM's terra cotta exhibit will invite visitors to explore the ancient world's fascination with preparations for eternity.

Thousands of these artificial soldiers, as well as horses and other figures, were created by artists more than 2,200 years ago to accompany China's first emperor, Qin Shihuangdi, on his journey into the afterlife.

Before consolidating his empire in 221 BC, he was Ying Zheng, who had become king of the state of Qin at age 13. He changed his name and his title after riding forth with vast armies and conquering immense territories surrounding his state. His unification of many warring states led to the formation of China, an entity that still endures.

Meanwhile, his hope of reaching an afterlife has been fulfilled in a surprising way (just as it has been for King Tut), with the recent outbreak of Terra Cotta mania not just in China but also in North America and Europe.

In 2007, a previous exhibition called Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China's First Emperor caused a sensation when it opened at the British Museum in London. Despite staying open until almost midnight, the museum had to lock its gates and turn overflow crowds away.

By the time the show closed in the spring of 2008, it had drawn a record 850,000 visitors.

Since then, the warriors from that show have crossed the Atlantic and visited U.S. cities, most notably Washington, starting a six-month run at the National Geographic Museum in November just as President Barack Obama was visiting Beijing, underlining the spirit of reconciliation between the U.S. and China.

The exhibit, set to open in Toronto in late June and run six months, will feature different artifacts but is likely to set attendance records for the ROM and Montreal's Museum of Fine Arts, where it will land in February 2011.

Like the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit and the Tut exhibit, this is the kind of blockbuster that our museums need to boost attendance and widen their constituencies in the wake of their splashy expansions and increased operating costs.

Besides the soldiers, the ROM's exhibition will feature life-size horses, bronze birds, lacquered ceramic vessels and burial figures from the tombs of Han emperors Gaozu and Jingdi. And it will boast a number of objects that have only recently been excavated and have not previously been seen on the international museum circuit.

It is expected to offer a glimpse of the Chou dynasty (1045 to 221 BC), the first Chin empire (221 BC to 206 BC) and the Western Han dynasty (206 BC to 23 AD).

The Dead Sea Scrolls: Words That Changed the World opened on June 27, 2009 and pushed the ROM's attendance for the year over the magic million mark. Total attendance at the museum during the festive season was 59,300, or an average of 6,555 visitors per day.

Between its last ancient-world blockbuster and its next, the ROM will have a number of smaller exhibits, including a skill-testing interactive show called Fakes and Forgeries, opening Monday.

[Malthus]

I'd love to see 'em again - I saw the whole army years ago in China itself.

[Grey Fox]

Must be quite a sight.

[Malthus]

Must be quite a sight.

It is - the Chinese have built a stadium type roof over the excavation, and it is awesome to see the whole army lined up, like a life-sized version of a wargamer's basement tabletop minatures set-up.