When the string pattern on Ding Zun, the father of the Western Zhou Dynasty, "meets" the exotic curve of Hu Feng holding a pot in the Tang Dynasty, and when the tall footed plate of Su Shan "meets" the blue and white plate that tells the legend of the maritime Silk Road trade... A millennium painting about the integration of Chinese food utensils and civilization is slowly unfolding at the Palace Museum in Hong Kong. The "Mobile Feast - Chinese Food Culture" exhibition, jointly organized by the Hong Kong Palace Museum and the Palace Museum, has been widely loved by Chinese and foreign tourists since its opening two months ago. One of the best ways to reach a cultural core is through its belly. ”Archaeologist Zhang Guangzhi's words became one of the inspirations for this exhibition. In the view of Jiang Dezhuang, a researcher and curator at the Palace Museum in Hong Kong, there are not many exhibitions on global food culture themes, and even fewer that systematically present Chinese food civilization. Many museums tend to display cultural relics as works of art, ignoring their essence as carriers of life. However, these seemingly ordinary utensils and food customs are actually engraved with the code of civilization evolution. Adhering to this concept, the curatorial team spent more than two years selecting over 110 cultural relics from the Palace Museum, the British Museum, the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and several local museums in Hong Kong, including the Palace Museum Cultural Museum. Through the four major units of "crossing life and death," "crossing culture," "crossing mountains and waters," and "crossing time," they led the audience to explore the millennium food charm of China. Coordinating the exhibition of these cultural relics in Hong Kong is a great challenge, but it is precisely this collision that adds a lot of surprises to the exhibition. ”Jiang Dezhuang said. Entering the exhibition hall, the first thing to see is the unit "Crossing Life and Death - Ritual and Food of the Same Origin", which showcases Ding Zun, the father of the Western Zhou Dynasty, borrowed from the Palace Museum. This bronze vessel with a bulging belly and round feet has a majestic animal head on its belly. Zun is a wine vessel. During the Shang and Zhou dynasties, bronze tableware and wine vessels were extensively used for sacrificial ceremonies and banquets. ”Jiang Dezhuang said that selecting this cultural relic is to vividly interpret the concept of "ritual and food sharing the same origin" in Chinese civilization for the audience. In the display cabinet, miniature cultural relics such as Western Han pottery barns, water wells, stoves, pigsties, and chicken cages are vividly depicted. The ancients believed that 'death is like life', and these burial objects were meant to allow the deceased to 'eat and drink well' in another world, "said Jiang Dezhuang. From Han Dynasty pottery stoves to today's Qingming Festival offerings, this is a heritage that spans thousands of years. Continuing forward, we will come to the unit of "Crossing Cultures - Hu Food Fashion". The Tang Dynasty Phoenix Head Pot in the Palace Museum and the Phoenix Head Pot in the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco stand side by side. Their unique handle and spout designs seem to tell the story of the influence of the Hu people's pouring tradition on the Central Plains. In the past, people in the Central Plains used spoons and buckets to pour wine. After the introduction of the Hu style, this' direct pouring 'method gradually became popular, and even the shape of wine vessels changed accordingly. ”Jiang Dezhuang gestured that the transformation of food culture, from deliberation to pouring, often begins with a small action. With the introduction of foreign food such as Hu Cake and Sushan (similar to Shaved ice), the traditional Chinese food sharing system and the Central Asian food sharing culture were blended, which led to the new habit of putting staple food on a large scale. Jiang Dezhuang pointed to the entwined chrysanthemum lotus patterned plate in the collection of the Palace Museum, with a tone of admiration: "What's even more wonderful is that ancient Chinese craftsmen improved this type of vessel into blue and white porcelain, and then exported it back to Central Asia." In a miniature painting of the Ottoman Empire displayed by multimedia, nobles are holding food on large plates painted with Chinese blue and white patterns. "The plate has become a witness to the two-way cultural flow. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the atmosphere of boat tours and banquets was particularly prosperous in Jiangnan. In the "Crossing Mountains and Waters - Enjoying Banquets" section, the Qing Dynasty ivory boats collected by the British Museum vividly present water recreation and dining scenes: under the canopy, two bearded elders are chatting and drinking tea; There were also people holding food boxes and other items on the ship, and some people salvaged fresh river food from the water. The so-called food box refers to the box used by ancient people to hold food and utensils during banquets and outings. Its design allows each item to be placed in its own position and move without colliding with each other. However, due to the lower level of public attention paid to food boxes compared to other palace utensils, such cultural relics rarely appear in the public eye, "said Jiang Dezhuang. This exhibition displays three types of food boxes, one from the collection of the Palace Museum in Hong Kong and the other two on loan from the Palace Museum. The storage boxes used in the palace are magnificent and extraordinary, with black painted gold and red painted gold matched with glass lids, and the interior jade plate is even more luxurious, reminiscent of the lively scene of painted boats shuttling and storage boxes circulating in "West Lake in July and a Half". ”Miss Cheng, a tourist from Nanjing, said. In the exhibition hall, surprises are constantly unfolding. Jiang Dezhuang said that she would also come to the exhibition hall to observe audience reactions during work breaks. What impressed her the most was a tourist from the north standing in front of a Han Dynasty green glazed pottery cicada grill borrowed from the Hong Kong Museum of Art, exclaiming, "So ancient people also ate cicadas like us! When the 'barbecue' from 2000 years ago was right in front of us, we realized that the delicious dialogue that transcends time and space had been staged on our dining tables all along." In the last unit of the exhibition, "Crossing Time - Inheritance," two virtual dining table interactive installations attracted tourists to stop. People gather around, tapping their fingertips on the screen to place orders and savor this cultural feast that transcends time and space, interweaving reality and virtuality. A visitor said quietly: "The ancient box is very similar to today's full box, and suddenly reminds me of Grandma's Dim sum box." Another visitor exclaimed: "There were so many stories hidden in the dinner plate used now." When the visitor walked out of the exhibition hall, the cultural journey came to an end temporarily, but the flow of food culture never stopped. As stated by Wu Zhihua, the director of the Palace Museum in Hong Kong, we hope that this exhibition on Chinese food culture held in Hong Kong can become a window for audiences from all over the world to understand the rich and diverse Chinese food culture through the circulation of utensils and the blending of flavors, and to see the inclusive and open genes of Chinese civilization. (New Society)