New China Eyewitness : Roger Duff, Rewi Alley and the art of museum diplomacy

`New China Eyewitness' is the fascinating account of the 1956 visit to the People's Republic of China by a group of prominent New Zealanders - including Roger Duff, James Bertram, Evelyn Page, Angus Ross and Ormond Wilson - and of how Canterbury Museum came to acquire the largest collection of Chinese art in New Zealand. At the centre of the book is the eloquent diary kept by Canterbury Museum director Dr Roger Duff, detailing his efforts to bring to Christchurch the collection of antiquities gifted to the museum by long-time China resident, New Zealander Rewi Alley. Through Alley's contacts with premier Zhou Enlai and Duff's diplomatic skills they obtained the sanction of the Chinese government to circumvent its own export ban on antiquities and permit the gifting of seven crates of treasures to Christchurch. These objects were the basis for the museum's Hall of Oriental Arts and their arrival led to a collections policy dedicated to Chinese art. Beautifully written and illustrated, `New China Eyewitness' offers a rare glimpse of foreigners' views of China during a period of rapid social, political and cultural change, and at a time of unusual political and cultural tolerance. Much of the text has been translated into Chinese.