‘So much Chinese culture came from the outside’: nomads, the Silk Road and developments in ancient art in northern China

Images of Mongolian steppes, forest and desert transport visitors to a Hong Kong exhibition to the region for an exploration of the art of ancient nomads

Artefacts on display show the gradual refinement of nomadic art through cultural influences that flowed along the Silk Road from Europe

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Marc Progin’s photographs of Mongolian landscapes provide the introduction to an exhibition in Hong Kong of the artefacts of nomads in what today is northern China. Photo: Connor Mycroft

Published: 6:15pm, 27 Jul 2022

Visitors to “Hunters, Warriors, Spirits: Nomadic Art of North China” are greeted by stunning images of a verdant plain, a snowy white forest and an arid desert. All were captured by Hong Kong-based photographer Marc Progin during visits to the Mongolian steppes.

Hing Chao, the curator of the exhibition and executive chairman of family-owned shipping group Wah Kwong Transport Holdings, says Progin’s contemporary photographs transport viewers to the region’s unique landscapes.

“This exhibition is really conceived as a journey,” he adds.

Chao, who is known for his passion for promoting traditional culture and heritage in Hong Kong and China, first thought of staging an exhibition on the culture of nomadic hunters in 2007.

Visitors to the exhibition “Hunters, Warriors, Spirits: Nomadic Art of North China” are given magnifying glasses to view some of the ancient artworks on display at the City University of Hong Kong’s Indra and Harry Banga Gallery. Photo: Connor Mycroft

The best known of the nomads who roamed what is today northern China were the Mongols. From his base on the steppes, Genghis Khan had created by 1206 the largest land empire ever built. But the exhibition introduces other indigenous groups.

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