Du Fu Thatched Cottage Museum a popular destination

By Huang Zhiling (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-10-07 19:48

Zeng Chengwei, a master ancient musical instrument player, gives a performance with Qin, an ancient musical instrument, in the Du Fu Thatched Cottage Museum on the evening of October 2, 2009./Huang Leran

CHENGDU: Tourists flock to the famed Du Fu Thatched Cottage Museum in Chengdu, capital of Southwest China’s Sichuan Province, during the National Day holiday which started on October 1 and ends on October 8, attracted by a myriad of colorful events there.

The events include the calligraphy and photo exhibition of Chen Shaomo, the 37^th Sichuan-style Bonsai Exhibition of Du Fu Thatched Cottage Museum and Listening to Music by Ancient Musical Instrument during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Jointly organized by the Shaanxi Provincial Calligraphers’Association and Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Culture, the eight-day calligraphy and photo exhibition of Chen Shaomo started in the Du Fu Thatched Cottage on September 30 and nearly 100 calligraphy works and paintings by Chen are displayed.

Chen (1914-2006), a master poet, calligrapher and painter, was a vice-chairman of the Shaanxi Provincial Calligraphers’Association. During his lifetime, he shunned publicity and refused to hold exhibitions.

The Fu Fu Thatched Cottage Museum is a major base for the production of Sichuan-style bonsai. Since 1973, the museum has held 37 bonsai exhibitions. In the current exhibition, thousands of pots of fresh flowers and more than 200 bonsai works refresh the eyes of visitors, said Zhi Yun, a lover of bonsai from Central China’s Hubei Province.

Listening to Music by Ancient Musical Instrument was held on the evening of October 2. Visitors to the museum that night were impressed with young women dressed in the Tang Dynasty (AD618-907) costume and walking in lanes with palace lanterns.

As the museum is in the traditional Chinese construction style, visitors thought they had returned to the bygone Tang Dynasty, said Jiang Yanjing, a visitor from Shaanxi Province.

Jiang, a lover of ancient musical instrument, was impressed with music produced by the zither and traditional Chinese dance staged that night.

According to museum curator Jia Lan, it was the third time her museum had hosted Listening to Music by Ancient Musical Instrument, which had deepened visitors’understanding of her museum’s rich cultural connotation.

Du Fu (AD712-770) was one of the greatest Chinese poets. He lived at the present site of the Du Fu Thatched Cottage Museum for nearly four years writing 240 of his existing 1,400 poems.

The museum which covers 20 hectares is a beautiful traditional Chinese-style garden hailed as the sacred land of Chinese literature.

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