Relics of the grasslands and forests

For months, Hing Chao has traveled across northern China, following the footprints of the past.

His route has led to museums in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Shanxi, Hebei, Shaanxi, and Gansu provinces, where he examined weapons, horse gear, bronze ornaments, and other artifacts scattered across collections hundreds of kilometers apart.

Some of those historical objects are associated with warfare. Others were used in everyday life. Together, Chao, founder of the Hong Kong Culture Festival, chairman of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Earthpulse Society, executive director of the International Guoshu Association, and a leading advocate for Chinese martial studies in Hong Kong, hopes that they tell a broader story about the people who moved across China’s northern grasslands, forests and frontier regions, and the exchanges that shaped them over centuries.

The ongoing exhibition, Bows Singing in the Wind: Martial Heritage of Northern China, at the Liaoning Provincial Museum in Shenyang, Liaoning province, displays Chao’s curation.

The exhibition uses artifacts related to mounted archery to explore the cultures and arts of ancient northern peoples, as well as the history of exchange and integration among different ethnic groups.

According to Chao, the exhibition has brought together 451 artifacts from 15 museums and archaeological institutes.