Queensland Art Gallery Presscuttings Book 10 : Record of press coverage, March 1982 - May 1984

,r ----- Time off 2 8 Apr i l 19 8 3 The warriors of China Hard on the heels of Premier Zhao Ziyang, one of the most powerful men in modern China, comes an exhibition of ancient Chinese military might which starkly brings home to us just how far back Chinese himself in the after-life. Then, in 1974, farmers near the city of Xian in northwestern China, as they drillec! for water, turned up fragments of pottery. When archaeol– ogists moved in, they uncovered a great army of life-size pottery soldi– ers, all ready for battle. language, laws, currency and weights and measures; joining varius sections of the Great Wall of China; and unifying many hitherto warring regions; thus paving the way for the establishment of China as a cohesive national grouping. civilisation reaches. The Queensland Art Emperor Qin Shihuang Gallery, from May 4 tu 2.000 years ago. June 5, will have on Less than 10 years show, nine figures from a ago, even the Chinese vast army of terrcotta people were not aware of soldiers buried, as the lengths Emperor Qin protectors, along with had gone to safeguard ~-~---------- Excavation continues to this day with more than 7,000 figures having been uncovered in three pits. The People's Republic of China offered the exhi– bition to Australia to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the 1972 resumption of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Sold sponsor of the exhibition is Mobil Oil Australia Limited. Qin Shihuang,founder of the Qin Dynasty which ruled 210-200BC, is remembered as one of China' s outstanding leaders. He is credited with standardising the country's written The figures in the Australian exhibition include a striding infan· tryman, kneeling bowman, commander, cavalryman, kneeling archer, armoured soldier and an unarmed soldier. Other items on display will include bronze and ceramic vessels, exam– ples of real armour (spears, swords and cross-bows) buried with the figures, and a 1:4 scale model of one of the real chariots discovered in the pits. Visitors to the exhib· ition will be able to watch a continuous showing of a film , commissioned by Film Australia, which tells the story of the ~xcavation. ·•·