Page 38 - Jindezhen Porcelain Production of the 19th C. by Ellen Huang, Univ. San Diego 2008

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Chinese government take part. The Executive Branch of the Nationalist Government, in

consultation with Palace Museum director Ma Heng৵ፅ, soon agreed to the proposition.

Following the initial acceptance, the Executive Yuan assigned the task to the staff of two

government units: the Ministry of Education and the Palace Museum. Eventually, a

makeshift Chinese Organizing Committee (choubei weiyuanhui) assumed the overall

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administration of China’s role in the exhibition. Responsibility for the initial selection
of objects from China’s museum institutions fell upon the Technical Committee

(zhuanmen weiyuanhui), a special group appointed by the Organizing Committee.

Members of the Technical Committee included staff experts on artifacts and art at the

Palace Museum. These noted scholars included researchers in such fields as porcelain

and painting, including archaeologist Tang Lanࡥᚆ, etymologist and bronze cataloguer

Rong Gengֲ࢙, former Jingdezhen porcelain kiln supervisor under Yuan Shikai, Guo

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Baochang, and art historian and painting critic, Deng Yizhe቎˸⹅.

Foreign minister Guo Taiqi also specifically initiated the idea of a preliminary

exhibition in Shanghai. According to Wu Hufan吴ಳω, a guohua painter based in

Shanghai, Guo beseeched the Ministry of Education to organize a preliminary exhibit for

the express purposes of publicizing the event and demonstrating to the public such “great

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work” (da gong), thus “accomplishing two things in a single stroke (yi ju liangde).”

Guo’s comments indicate the exhibition’s two-fold purpose. First, the exhibition would

educate the public domestically and internationally - in both China and England - about

the wonders of Chinese art. Secondly, the safe handling of artworks would increase

public trust in the central government’s stewardship over national treasures.