Resilience and innovation of 19th-century China. China’s hidden century

The major themes are brought to life by people, with one key highlight individual serving as the binding element or ‘special embodiment’ of that theme in each section. The 6m-high space allowed for the dramatic hanging of floor-to-ceiling illustrative banners for each theme depicting these highlighted individuals. Alongside the objects, figures from the past are introduced through these transparent glowing banners, accompanied by sound, with the silhouettes illustrating the breadth of life within this time period, ranging from a court woman, a dowager empress, a soldier, and an artist to a housewife, a merchant and a revolutionary, poet and feminist.

Nissen Richards Studio wanted to create as authentic an experience as possible when it came to the depiction of these figures and brought on board a team of students and tutors from the London College of Fashion’s MA Costume Design for Performance course to achieve this. Students created costumes for each character, using a mixture of details guided by the Museum’s experts – combined with theatrical imaginings. This collaboration was incredibly fruitful and even involved a workshop by the film and stage costume designer Tim Yip, who took part in a masterclass and gave an inspiring talk to the students.

Models were chosen for their close resemblance to the characters being portrayed or for their specialist knowledge of that character. Each student was then paired with a model, with the students dressing the volunteer and working with them to create poses that would describe a character via a moment or a stance, thereby becoming more of a theatrical representation. Some of the characters’ costumes were more controlled and literal, while others worked better with slightly more stylized details.

The final costumes were photographed at Nissen Richards Studio’s offices - experimenting with lighting techniques and different screens, to give an effect of peopling the exhibition at a real scale. This treatment sits alongside incredibly detailed costumes exhibited within cases to give a feeling of people from the past. The idea was the visitors would meet people from that time to help identify how people lived and create an emotional connection. By connecting these images with well-researched voices, it gives visitors an impression of being immersed in the period.

The Introduction section is a place of orientation in place and time. The language of layers is introduced immediately here as a play on ‘hidden China’. This darkened area features first a quotation of a relatively unknown Manchu poet, who questions the very idea of our existence. There follows a mysterious glowing Tyvek wall to set the tone, while also beginning the exhibition’s people thread, depicting individuals that visitors will meet later in the exhibition. In the introduction section, the shadow of an ‘unknown woman’ greets visitors, along with a beautiful original large map and some key objects to set the scene. The ‘unknown woman’ is a courtier from the imperial court and is based on a real portrait, though her identity is not recorded.

The first themed area is the Court, based on the Imperial Palace in Beijing. This is a very light area, whose treatment is based on symmetry, order, and layering. A graphic intervention shows the timeline of Qing dynasty rulers from the long 19th century, followed by a costume originally worn by one of its adult emperors. This is very much an architectural space with a scene build, in terms of networks, that includes Tyvek screens to give visitors a perspective through the space.

The highlighted individual story in this space is that of Cixi, the Dowager Empress. Surrounding objects are given a very pure and clean treatment to represent the symmetry and order of the court. Architectural structures and scenic screens evoke the architecture of the Imperial Palace, moving towards a warm red wall as if bathed in light. Objects sit between the layers as if held by the architecture.

The theme of the second area is the Military. The design architecture here is asymmetric with fractured walls, depicting a landscape as a theatre set, which visitors wander through, contrasting with the bright symmetry of the court. Three monolithic wall fragments – measuring 3 x 4m – each contain many objects and costumes on the reverse side, revealing stories and featuring a broad mix of items from military costumes to paintings, documents, ruins, and weapons. The key highlighted individual here is ‘a bannerman’ – an elite soldier.

Leaving the turmoil of war, the visitor enters a space that celebrates beauty and innovation, rather like an artist’s studio. This gentle and composed space – with its theme of Artists - embodies the sense of rebuilding and resilience. The visitor sees how this time period also bore fruit in terms of innovation in art, even during the turmoil of war.

This slightly brighter space - with lighting throughout by Beam Lighting Design created to suit each theme - features scroll paintings, calligraphy, and album leaves. A film at the end, provided by the Shanghai Museum, slowly unveils the name of the Studio of One Step Back. Banners here illustrate artists’ brushstrokes. The key featured individual is artist Ren Xiong and the highlighted location is Jiangnan, south of the Yangzi River.

The fourth area – Everyday Life – is all about the urban experience and takes the form of a large space representing the hustle and bustle of frenetic street life. The design takes inspiration from the streetscapes and intricate interiors of cities such as Shanghai, Ningbo, and Tianjin. The individual in focus here is Lady Li, a middle-class woman of the era, whose portrait is also included among the exhibits, together with that of her businessman husband.

There are lots of costumes on the show – dressed in black fabric mannequins and displayed in glass cases – as well as a plentiful display of high-level banners featuring genuine shop signs from the period, from noodle shops to painting repairers or milk tea sellers. The feeling is as if the visitor is standing in a street and meeting characters within the showcases, with a large graphic backdrop and with ambient audio of street noises playing all around. The object-rich space also examines families and fashions, roles, and experiences, with the design creating pockets of space to conjure up fragments of different lives.

Global Qing, the fifth themed area, is a dramatic circular space – a two-way window showing China looking outwards at the world, beyond via its port cities, and examining its relationship with other nations. Its visual focus is the sky and seascapes and the space features dark blue walls and high-level graphic banners of the sea and boats, using images from the artworks. Hanging banners here – and elsewhere – are 3.2m high in the 6m-high space and follow the circular shape of the gallery.

Featuring scenic but subtle imagery, this section features deep showcases that contain paintings, and artifacts, all contained within a series of windows looking outwards, with the final window also serving as a threshold to lead to the final space. The key individual in this space is the rich merchant Mouqua.

The final area – Reform to revolution – looks at Qing China in its final years, with connections to Japan, Europe, and America. The space is defined by its three sections focussing on educational reform, diplomatic reform, and military reform, finally resulting in a revolution. It’s a darker area, reflecting the closing moment, which is dedicated to the final key person – Qiu Jin - a revolutionary, poet, and feminist, who was martyred for the revolution. As you leave the exhibition, you hear the uplifting song that Qui Jin wrote – here performed by the London China Philharmonic Choice. Qiu Jin composed this anthem to stir women into action to leave behind their subservient roles. Like the exhibition itself, these forward-looking and uplifting voices offer hope for a better future and celebrate the resilience and creativity of the people of the 19th century.