From Football to Chinese Ceramics

Xu Jing and Sun Yue were greeted with a downpour when they arrived in Manchester on Monday afternoon.

The weather brightened that afternoon as we walked round the city though, anticipating more rain in the days ahead, Xu wisely bought herself a raincoat from Primark. While they have been absorbing the city’s cultural sites (and famous football team!), I have been learning a huge amount about the Palace Museum – Karen Exell and I were both incredibly envious when they said that there were one thousand cats in their museum!

The ten galleries at the Whitworth Art Gallery can hardly compare to the eight thousand rooms at the Palace Museum, though they have had the opportunity to look at some of the Gallery’s treasures from the textile and watercolour collections. I have enjoyed every moment of their trip so far – and never thought that visiting the Manchester United Museum would count as work … I have been astounded by their specialist knowledge.

Together Sun Yue and Xu Jing assisted the decorative arts curator at Manchester Art Gallery identify a selection of Chinese ceramics.

Inspired by their visit, the curator has decided to devise an exhibition of Chinese ceramics using the new material she has gathered.

Heather Birchall, Whitworth Art Gallery