◎Character Biography

　　Jessica Rawson, born in 1943, British art historian, archaeologist, sinologist, professor of Oxford University, academician of the National Academy of Sciences, consultant of the Palace Museum, honorary professor of Peking University, China Academy of Art Visual China Academician of the Academy, former Director of the Oriental Department of the British Museum, Dean of Merton College, Oxford University, and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University. He is currently one of the most active Western scholars in the field of Chinese art and archaeology.

In his academic career, Rosen has written and published more than ten monographs and nearly 100 papers. His works translated into Chinese include "Art and Culture in Ancient China", "Ancestors and Eternity", "Lotus and Dragon: China" Ornament" etc.

　　In the 1970s, when Jessica Rosen in her early 30s came to China for the first time, everything here made her feel both novel and intimate.

For the first time, she walked into a Chinese museum, came to China's cities and villages, and experienced the real and vivid daily life of China.

In fact, before she set foot on the land of China, she had already developed a strong interest here.

　　Curious about China since childhood

　　Rosen was born in England in 1943.

At the age of eight or nine, Rosen and his parents visited the British Museum.

There, she saw the famous Rosetta Stone for the first time.

This huge black stone has 3 inscriptions: Egyptian hieroglyphics, Egyptian colloquial script and ancient Greek script.

"I was hooked all of a sudden. That's when I learned that there are scripts in the world that don't use the Latin alphabet," Rosen said.

　　After this visit, Rosen prepared a small book dedicated to collecting various texts, including hieroglyphs.

She was exposed to scripts other than English at an early age and developed an interest in non-Latin scripts.

Her parents helped her find some books in non-Latin languages, including Chinese works, but it was too difficult to understand the Chinese characters in the books.

This did not deter Rosen, but aroused her interest and gave her the idea of ​​learning Chinese.

　　Rosen, who has been curious about China and has a passion for learning since childhood, chose to major in history when he was an undergraduate student at Cambridge University.

Since her student days, she has devoted herself to the study of ancient China through material culture.

At that time, there were not many first-hand materials for studying ancient China, but an archaeological excavation in Jordan gave Rosen a pleasant surprise.

This archaeological excavation was Rosen's practice during his school days.

During more than half a year of excavation, the team stumbled across many porcelains from the Ming Dynasty in China.

Why did these porcelains come to the Middle East?

How did it come to the Middle East?

The question marks in his mind made Rosen begin to pay attention to the cultural connection between the East and the West.

To this day, interpreting the exchanges and interactions between early China and Eurasia and other civilizations remains one of Rosen's main research interests.

　　Introducing China to Western Audiences

　　After graduating from the University of Cambridge, Rosen began working at the British Museum in 1967, and since 1987 has been Director of the Oriental Department of the museum.

The British Museum is one of the largest national museums in the world with a rich Chinese collection.

In Rosen's words, 27 years at the British Museum were "very important and fruitful".

　　In the UK, people may be able to come into contact with Chinese culture and utensils in their daily lives, such as Chinese ceramics in shops.

Working at the British Museum gave Rosen the opportunity to touch jade and bronze wares from ancient China and observe their details.

"My first job at the British Museum was to sort out the Chinese Shang, Zhou and Han dynasties jade and pottery collected in the warehouse." Rosen said that many collections need to be rearranged, and many bronzes and jade wares also need to be dated.

Here, cultural relics from China can also be compared with collections from around the world, which also broadens Rosen's horizons.

　　The 1970s saw many new archaeological discoveries in China that Western audiences knew nothing about.

"It is necessary to let more people know about Chinese history and the latest research results. Only in this way can they be interested in China from the bottom of their hearts," Rosen said.

Perhaps the most intuitive way is to give the audience a chance to see the real thing.

Rosen organized the exhibition "Animals in Artwork" in 1977 and "Chinese Decorative Patterns: Lotus and Dragons" in 1984.

Both exhibitions have accumulated valuable experience for her.

　　Hall 33 of the British Museum is a permanent exhibition hall dedicated to displaying Chinese cultural relics, and it is one of the only exhibition halls in the museum.

Designing and planning exhibitions in the China Pavilion is the top priority of Rosen's work.

　　Rosen has twice raised money for the China showroom.

Each time, she incorporates the latest archaeological findings and research results to improve the presentation.

"The British Museum has a large number of visitors every year, and the China exhibition hall has always been one of the most visited exhibition halls in the museum. The improvement of the China exhibition hall has opened a door for the audience to better understand China." Rosen said.

　　In 1992, the Chinese exhibition hall of the British Museum welcomed its first audience.

Rosenthal specially invited well-known scholars from the Chinese archaeological field to witness this moment.

On November 8, 2017, after a year-long re-planning, the China showroom opened to the public again.

This time, Rosen is still devoted to the preparations for the Chinese exhibition hall as he did more than 20 years ago.

　　As a well-known curator, Rosen also cooperates with other museums to promote the dissemination of Chinese history and culture.

In 2005, Rosen curated the Palace Museum Cultural Relics Exhibition held at the Royal Academy of Arts in the United Kingdom.

More than 90% of the exhibits are from the Palace Museum, including painting and calligraphy, jade, bronze, porcelain, lacquer, weaving and embroidery, furniture, Western instruments, weapons, etc., to reproduce the culture and art of the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong periods of the Qing Dynasty to the British audience.

"I am very honored to have access to these precious collections of the Palace Museum in Beijing. It was a pleasure to get along with the staff of the Palace Museum, they gave me great support, and at the same time gave me a deeper understanding of the material culture of the Qing Dynasty in China than ever before. ' said Rosen.

　　Promote mutual understanding between East and West

　　Rosen has visited China dozens of times since he first came to China in the 1970s.

Following her Chinese colleagues, she visited the historical and cultural relics in Xi'an, Anyang and other places, visited the unearthed cultural relics from Sanxingdui and Zenghouyi's tomb, and also carefully inspected the mining sites in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River during the Shang and Zhou Dynasties and Inner Mongolia Bronze Age and Iron Age. Ruins etc.

　　Rosen has visited the Liangzhu site four times.

She said Liangzhu was famous for its jade wares, but its achievements in water conservancy projects were even more impressive.

"Currently, all parts of the world are facing environmental challenges, and the case of Liangzhu may help us think about how to live in harmony with nature," Rosen said.

　　For more than 40 years, Rosen has inspected most of the important archaeological sites in China.

"It's very important to be able to visit different parts of China, because the geography is different from place to place, and they always amaze me," she said. "It's something we don't learn from museums. After all, archaeology is not just about objects, it's also about people. and people's land."

　　The more he studied Chinese history, the more Rosen felt the need for a dialogue between Eastern and Western cultures and the need for people from the East and the West to understand each other.

In her view, such understanding does not mean knowing the name of an emperor in history, the name of a famous battle, but understanding some basic elements of both cultures.

Rosen believes that Westerners still know very little about China's vastness and diversity.

　　During his work at Oxford University, Rosen facilitated a large number of Chinese scholars to engage in academic exchanges at Oxford University, organized international scholars to conduct joint research on Chinese culture, and promoted the establishment of four additional positions at Oxford University for the study of contemporary China and one for teaching Chinese archaeology and promoted the establishment of the Oxford University China Centre.

　　Rosen said that there is still a long way to go to expand China studies in Western academic circles.

She hopes that in the future, more people will see Chinese art, understand China, and enhance the Western public's understanding of Chinese culture.

　　Rosen once said in an autobiography: "I have devoted my whole life to ancient Chinese culture and archaeological research." This is true.

Now nearly eighty years old, Rosen is still energetic and active in the field of Chinese art and archaeology.

Recently, she went to the University of Munich, Germany, where a group of professors and students are doing research on China, especially the research on early Chinese documents and archaeology.

The manuscript she is writing is also nearing completion.

This is a book for the general public, about early China from the Neolithic to the Qin Dynasty, expected to be published next year.

"I hope that many people who don't know much about China can read, understand and love Chinese history," Rosen said.

　　(The picture in this article is provided by the interviewee)