A young gentlewoman steps into the back garden of her family estate and finds a riot of blossoms unfolding in silence. The flowers flaunt their beauty not to a crowd but to crumbling walls and a neglected well. The scene comes from The Peony Pavilion by Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) playwright Tang Xianzu. In it, the heroine Du Liniang mourns the waste of beauty unseen, her lament echoing her own cloistered youth and stifled longing.
Were Du to wander into Beijing's Nanchizi Museum today, her melancholy might lift. Tucked inside Pudu Temple West Alley, only a short walk from the crowds around Tian'anmen, the courtyard museum offers a refuge of calm. Built in the style of a classical Chinese garden, it features airy halls, delicately latticed windows, terraces linked by corridors, a pavilion and, at its heart, a still pool reflecting the sky.
The setting alone suggests poetry; recently, however, it has thrummed with new energy as visitors arrive in steady streams, some dressed in traditional attire to photograph the scene.
The exhibition, which runs through April 19, borrows its title, Chazi Yanhong (Deepest Purple, Brightest Scarlet), from Du's aria in the garden scene. Yet, the mood here is reversed. Instead of regret over beauty overlooked, the show heralds spring's arrival with exuberance and color.
Co-curator Zhang Yuyang describes the exhibition as an exploration of vitality within the classical garden setting. At the same time, it reflects on the spiritual dimension of the flower-and-bird genre in Chinese painting, which "forms a vivid aspect of the creative artistry and aesthetics of intellectuals".
To achieve this dialogue between past and present, Zhang and her team have transformed the museum into what feels like a three-dimensional handscroll.
Visitors move through spaces where ink paintings by Pan Tianshou (1897-1971) and Zhang Daqian (1899-1983) anchor the historical lineage. Both artists revitalized flower-and-bird painting with bold, expressive brushwork that broke from rigid convention while honoring tradition.
Adding another layer are vintage pendants, brooches and earrings shaped like birds and flowers, collected by Zheng Yingyan. Displayed like small treasures within the garden setting, the jewelry pieces underscore how nature's forms migrate across mediums, from ink on silk to metal and gemstone.
Among the participating artists is Dong Lin, who teaches at Beijing Union University. She contributes porcelain works ranging from delicately painted peaches arranged on a cake stand to wall panels depicting birds alighting amid dense blooms.
"I formed a bond with flower-and-bird painting in childhood," she recalls.
"I was always playing outside, spending most of the day on the streets. The only time I would calm down, as my mother found out, was when I was painting. She would buy flower-and-bird painting books from the street stands."
Later, while studying at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, she began spending summer and winter breaks in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province, the historical center of Chinese ceramics. There she collaborated with kiln workers, learning to translate painterly instincts into clay and glaze.
Her most ambitious work in the exhibition, Eagle Gathering Wild Fun, stretches more than 6 meters across six panels. Eagles swoop, perch and rest among trees and shrubs, their vitality captured in sweeping lines and vivid colors.
"When I knead and shape clay dough, it feels as if my childhood memories awaken," she says, "and my first love of art returns."
If you go
10 am-1 pm, 2-5 pm, Tuesday to Friday.
Pudu Temple West Alley, Nanchizi Street, Dongcheng district, Beijing.
010-6528-1891.
