The Poetic Mandarin
Chinese calligraphy from the James Hayes Collection

23 September - 27 November 2005
Asian gallery, Ground Level

An exhibition focusing on the cultural life of the imperial Chinese Mandarins, this exhibition reveals the important role of calligraphy in official life, and as a leisure activity.

This collection of 45 sets of calligraphy dating from the late Ming to the early 20th century was brought together by James Hayes during his tenure in Hong Kong as a district administrator under the British Government in the 1970s and 1980s. The works concentrate on scrolls and poetic couplets by scholar-officials from Canton region. The calligraphies offer an insight into China's elite literary culture in the later Qing period (1644-1912) among scholar-officials who were also calligraphers, painters, poets and philosophers of note. Some men were well-known figures in later Qing history and were more important as government officials than as calligraphers, but such was the aura surrounding high office that, in keeping with the social and artistic practices of their times, their brush work was in demand among their circle of friends and subordinates.