An exhibition to be held in
Hong Kong to feature more than 100 pieces of relics will assert that Chinese civilization goes back to as far as the Xia Dynasty (circa 2205 BC - 1766 BC), a
Hong Kong government official said.
Christina Chu, chief curator of the
Hong Kong Museum of the Art recently said to Xinhua in an exclusive interview that the exhibition is one of the HKSAR government's events in store to mark the fifth anniversary of the July 1 handover to the Chinese motherland.
From a modest rocky island of fishermen and hunters to a contemporary world-class city governed under the Basic Law, the
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) has a colorful history of some 6,000 years of human activities, much of which has identical cultural affiliations with the mainland, according to the HKSAR's Antiquities and Monuments Office.
However, Chu said some western scholars are prejudiced enough to refuse to accept that Chinese civilization goes back to as far as the Xia Dynasty, although many archeological evidences unearthed on the mainland already proved the history.
Regrettably, even in the latest edition of Britannica Encyclopedia 2002 deluxe - an encyclopedia held with high esteem internationally, the Xia Dynasty is still claimed to be just "an early Chinese dynasty mentioned in legends but of undetermined historicity", when in fact the historicity has been established.
So the exhibition to be held here starting from June 7 entitled "The Origins of Chinese Civilization: Cultural relics from Henan Province" will present primary historical artifacts to prove that the Xia Dynasty is the first Chinese dynasty to have inherited the Longshan culture and Erlitou culture.
The exhibition will feature more than 100 pieces of relics and cover the Chinese civilization cradle's Peiligang culture (circa 6000 BC), Yangshao culture (circa 5000-3000 BC), Longshan culture (circa 4700 to 2920 BC), as well as the Erlitou culture at the sites in the archeologically significant Yanshi County in Henan Province, she said.
"Archeological evidence covered in the Yanshi County site yields evidence to suggest that dynastic China may go as far back as to the Xia Dynasty," Chu said.
In 1959, Chinese mainland excavations at Erlitous, in the city of Yanshi, uncovered what was most likely the capital of the Xia Dynasty. The site has been reported to show that the Xia people were direct ancestors of the Longshan and were predecessors of the Shang Dynasty.
Modern Chinese history textbooks on the mainland in
Hong Kong have long established that the Xia Dynasty is in fact the first dynasty of the Chinese history, to which Chinese civilization can be traced.
Apart from the Origins of Chinese Civilization exhibition, two other exhibitions will be worth visiting, where one can appreciate developments of the HKSAR and its links with the mainland since time immemorial.
An online exhibition website by the HKSAR's Antiquities and Monument Office shows a variety of stone tools found suggests that they are identical to those unearthed on the mainland, Chiu Siu Tsan, head of the Antiquities and Monuments Office, said.
The Middle Neolithic deposits discovered in the HKSAR already show its close cultural relationship with the mainland some 4000-2500 BC ago, he said.
"The deposits discovered at Chung Hom Wan on
Hong Kong Island, Tai Wan on Lamma Island, Fu Tei Wan on Chek Lap Kok and Yung Long in Tuen Mun included cooking vessels and food containers, mostly decorated with designs painted in red, or impressed with a fine cord pattern, he explained.
Similar cultural remains were found in sandbar and shell-midden sites in Shenzhen, Dongguan, and
Zhuhai in Guangdong Province on the mainland, and the
Macao Special Administrative Region, he said, adding that the shapes and decoration of the pottery and stoneware unearthed there are more or less identical to those discovered in Hong Kong.
One interested in the contemporary history of the HKSAR should not miss the permanent exhibition entitled the Story of
Hong Kong at the
Hong Kong Museum of History. In the gallery "Modern Metropolis and the Return to the Mainland", the growth and development of
Hong Kong in the postwar years will be shown.
The early resettlement estate, the natural disasters, such as typhoon strikes, lashing rainstorms, and prolonged drought in
Hong Kong will be displayed.
One can also learn about Hong Kong's postwar economy, industry, rade and tourism. The more recent exhibits related to the key events of the Sino-British negotiations, the signing of the Joint Declaration and the Handover Ceremony, will be on display.
