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he World War II Race to Save the Treasures of China's Forbidden City
Atria Books
October 2023
On Sale: October 10, 2023
378 pages
ISBN: 1982149310
EAN: 9781982149314
Kindle: B0B3Y8ZM5Q
Paperback / e-Book
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Historical
The gripping true story of the bold and determined museum
curators who saved the priceless treasures of China’s
Forbidden City in the years leading up to World War II and
beyond.
Spring 1933: The silent courtyards and
palaces of Peking’s Forbidden City, for centuries the
home of Chinese emperors, are tense with fear and
expectation. Japan’s aircrafts drone overhead, its
troops and tanks are only hours away. All-out war between
China and Japan is coming, and the curators of the Forbidden
City are faced with an impossible question: how will they
protect the vast imperial art collections in their charge? A
difficult and monumental decision is made: to safeguard the
treasures, they will need to be evacuated.
The
magnificent collections contain a million pieces of
art—objects that carry China’s deepest and most
ancient memories. Among them are irreplaceable artefacts:
exquisite paintings on silk, vanishingly rare Ming
porcelain, and the extraordinary Stone Drums of Qin, which
are adorned with 2,500-year-old inscriptions of crucial
cultural significance.
For sixteen terrifying
years, under the quiet leadership of museum director Ma
Heng, the curators would go on to transport the imperial art
collections thousands of miles across China—up rivers
of white water, across mountain ranges, and through burning
cities. In their search for safety the curators and their
fragile, invaluable cargo journeyed through the maelstrom of
violence, chaos, and starvation that was China’s
Second World War.
Told for the first time in
English and playing out across a vast historical canvas,
this is the exhilarating story of a small group of men and
women who, when faced with war’s onslaught on
civilization, chose to resist. Fragile
Cargo reminds us of the enduring power of beauty in a
world beset by conflict and violence.
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