The Consulate General of Mexico in Shanghai celebrated Chinese New Year at the Long Museum West Bund on February 12. Representatives from the Mexican community in Shanghai and the city's foreign consulates attended the event.

As part of the celebration, guides from the museum gave the guests a tour of the exhibit, which featured 150 works of silver, including crowns, coins and sacrificial utensils, from Mexico and China.

The exhibit, Mexico's Silver: History and Future, which ran from November 13 to January 12, provides a thorough history of the works of silver created in Mexico. A collection from the Arocena Museum from Coahuila, Mexico, showed the creation and design of works of Mexican silver from the baroque, renaissance and neoclassical periods. The Hangzhou Museum in Zhejiang Province also contributed a collection of Mexican silver coins traded in China in the 19th century. The modernist works of silver exhibited came from Tane, the Mexican company that specializes in high-end works of silver that are at least 50 years old.

Visitors were impressed with the exhibition, and the museum looks forward to bringing more and more Mexican art to China to show the glory and splendor of the Mexican civilization, said Zhu Jun, the Long Museum's executive director.

The Mexican night event concluded the exhibit, which Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto opened during his visit to China last year. "As president Nieto said, silver marked the beginning of the trade relationship between Mexico and China," Luis Arturo Puente Ortega, the Consul General of Mexico in Shanghai, said at the event. "The exhibit revealed the history between the two countries, marked the precious friendship of the two people, and proved the strong will of the two nations in strengthening their strategic partnership."

Over the past year, a series of cultural activities have been held in Shanghai to promote Mexican culture and art. In September, more than 400 guests joined a celebration in Shanghai marking Mexican independence. They wore traditional Mexican dress and sombreros. In the same month, the consulate organized a public lecture at the Long Museum on the influence of Mexico on Chinese contemporary art. In January, a metro train decorated with the poems of the famous Mexican poet Octavio Paz made its inaugural trip. Passengers on Metro Line 10 can still read the poems during their daily commutes.

A wide range of new products entering the Chinese market also demonstrate the growing commercial ties between the two countries. "We celebrate the achievements that we have accomplished in the past, and look forward to the challenges we face in the future," Ortega said.

An exhibit

 

Zhu Jun, the Long Museum's executive director (left) and Luis Arturo Puente Ortega, the Consul General of Mexico in Shanghai

 

The exhibition hall at the Long Museum

Photos: Yang Lan/GT