Macao gained a significant new arts and cultural institution in November, with the opening of the Poly MGM Museum. The museum’s stated aim is to promote “Sino-foreign cultural exchange” through displaying art and artefacts from different regions around the world, while highlighting their connections to China. Its inaugural exhibition is themed around the Maritime Silk Road, a historic trade route connecting Asia to the Middle East and Europe by sea.
The spacious new museum is located on Avenida Dr Sun Yat Sen, on the Macao Peninsula. It currently brims with nearly 230 artefacts and artworks from some 20 national museums and galleries, including many grade-one cultural relics. The exhibition was brought together by a curation team hailing from the mainland, Italy and France.
How the museum came to be
As is suggested in its name, the Poly MGM Museum is a collaboration between Poly Culture Group Corporation (known as Poly Culture) – the arts arm of one of China’s largest state-owned enterprises – and MGM Macau. The two entities inked their ‘Arts & Culture Collaborative Agreement’ last December, in a ceremony attended by officials from both the central and Special Administrative Region (SAR) governments – including Macao’s Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Ao Ieong U and Zhang Hao, director and deputy secretary of the Communist Party of China Committee of Poly Culture.
In his speech, Zhang described Poly Culture and MGM Macau’s partnership as one forged through “a shared passion for the nation and culture”. He noted that the new museum’s opening would coincide with the 25th anniversary of Macao’s return to the motherland, which takes place on the 20th of this month but has been celebrated throughout the year. Zhang also emphasised Poly Culture’s commitment to promoting Chinese history and culture on a global stage.
Pansy Ho, chairperson and executive director of MGM Macau’s parent company, also spoke at the ceremony. She predicted that the new museum would open a “new chapter in the cultural linkage between the mainland and Macao” while advancing the SAR’s transformation into an international integrated arts and cultural hub. “The art museum carries a shared vision of ‘innovation in inheritance’, focusing on the in-depth integration of cultural content and technology, creating a brand-new platform for cultural innovation,” she said.
Grade-one cultural relics on display
The museum’s inaugural exhibition features several grade-one cultural relics, considered by the Central Government to be irreplaceable treasures that embody the nation’s historical and cultural legacy. Grade-one cultural relics are protected under the strictest of regulations and very seldom leave the country.
Among these are four of the 12 Bronze Zodiac Heads from Beijing’s Old Summer Palace, designed by the Italian Jesuit and court painter Giuseppe Castiglione for Emperor Qianlong. The four animals – an ox, a tiger, a monkey and a pig – now belong to the Poly Art Museum in Beijing.
Meticulously cast in refined red copper at the imperial workshop, the heads represent the cultural and technological exchanges that prospered during Emperor Qianlong’s 60-year reign during the 18th century, according to the museum. Castiglione designed a head for each animal of the Chinese zodiac as part of a clock fountain in the palace’s grounds; each would have once spouted water from its mouth.
While three other Bronze Zodiac Heads are now on display in other Chinese museums, five of the original 12 have been missing since the entire set was stolen by French and British troops in 1860. It is interesting to note that Pansy Ho’s father, the entrepreneur and philanthropist Stanley Ho, was responsible for returning two of the heads to the nation after purchasing them at auction from overseas collectors. Specifically, these were the pig (currently on display in Macao) and the horse (now permanently displayed back at the Old Summer Palace).
Another grade-one cultural relic featured in the exhibition is a Guangcai plate embellished with hand-painted inscriptions in Farsi. Guangcai is a very fine style of porcelain that was made for export during the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), and often fused Chinese artistry with foreign influences. This highly decorative plate is on loan from the collection of China (Hainan) Museum of the South China Sea.
The maritime silk road
The exhibition’s primary focus, however, is the Maritime Silk Road and its lasting influence on global cultures. One section explores the development of the compass, which the museum explains is a Chinese invention dating back to the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127). This early version of the navigational tool enabled seafarers to “break free from the constraints of the coasts and sail towards even wider and more remote seas”, and the technology eventually spread west via the Maritime Silk Road.
There is also a section dedicated to Macao’s early shipbuilding industry, where intricately crafted scale-models are displayed. Visitors learn how the global expansion of maritime trade saw many different shipbuilding traditions merge together in Macao during the late Ming dynasty (1368-1644), leading to the construction of novel vessels. The museum acknowledges that shipwrecks were a tragic inevitability during this sea-centric chapter of history, though it notes that wrecks – some explored, some still lost to the depths – often function as underwater treasure troves. “Many ancient ships that have been submerged at the bottom of the sea for thousands of years witness the prosperous scenes of overseas transactions in the past and preserve a large number of cultural relics and historical information,” the section’s accompanying text notes.
Indeed, many valuable artefacts have been recovered from shipwrecks, including fine porcelain like the aforementioned Guangcai plate, ceramics and bronzeware. Examples of these finds are in the exhibition. Cinnamon, ginger, pepper and other spices were also transported by sea – seasoning the local cuisines at every port with exotic flair. The exhibition explains how the popularisation and spread of spices, facilitated by the Maritime Silk Road, dramatically altered food cultures around the world.
Goods weren’t the only things traversing the high seas, of course. Travellers in the forms of merchants, missionaries, artists and explorers also had a profound impact on the lands they reached by ship. The Italian Castiglione was one example. Another was the Portuguese Bishop Belchior Carneiro who, in 1569, founded the Macao branch of the Holy House of Mercy, a social solidarity institution that continues to do important work in the modern SAR today. The museum pays tribute to individuals like these men, too.
Where heritage meets innovation
While the museum features many centuries-old relics, it also embraces cutting-edge technology. Virtual reality and holographic displays bring the exhibits to life, offering visitors a spectacular, interactive experience. The museum also plays host to installations by contemporary artists, like Wu Gaozhong’s Drifting Bottle – 100 Years. This intriguing piece consists of an enormous glass bottle containing messages scrawled by people all over the world, as though writing to their futures selves. The installation is a time capsule scheduled to be uncorked in the year 2123.
From the start, the Poly MGM Museum was intended as a convergence point between East and West, ancient and modern, culture and technology. It aims to “showcase the harmonious integration of Chinese and Western cultures” and demonstrate the profound value of cultural heritage, while further establishing Macao’s position on the global art map – according to a statement from the museum’s founders.
The museum’s debut exhibition will be running until September 2025, with daily guided tours in Cantonese and Mandarin. Tours in other languages can be arranged with advanced notice.
