Fragrance of Time - In search of the Chinese Art of Scent

The culture of fragrance represents an art of living in China that has had a rich and long history. It can be traced back to the pre-historic period when our ancestors burnt various kind of plants as a practice of engaging with deities. This primitive use of scent not only marked the beginning of the Chinese culture of fragrance, but also signified the human endeavour to explore the spiritual world through their senses even preceding the development of the writing system. Since then, swirls of fragrance have diffused "to various aspects of ancient life and woven the cultural imagination of scents among the Chinese for millennia. Meanwhile, with the advancement of art and craft and the introduction of exotic fragrances in ancient China, incense tools and fragrance products grew in diversity. Throughout history, as generations of artisans carried on the creation of varying types of incense ware with remarkable craftsmanship and creativity fragrance also became a great pursuit of passion among the literati, who imported spiritual meanings of fragrances into everyday life.

Interestingly, the history of Hong Kong was once closely intertwined with the development of Chinese fragrance culture. According to the Gazetteer of the Xin'an County revised the Jiaqing period of the Qing dynasty, during the Ming and early Qing. Lek Yuen of New Territories and Sha Lo Wan of Lantau Island produced some of the best fragrant wood which was even exported to regions such as the Yangtze River Basin and the Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. Hong Kong itself was a trading port for fragrance materials with incense products from Dongguan transported to Tsim Sha Tsui, before exporting to other regions. That is also said to be how the name of Hong Kong, which literally means "fragrant harbour", came about. Taking place at the historical site of incense trading, the exhibition on the culture of fragrance, jointly organised by the Hong Kong Museum of Art and the Shanghai Museum, hence bears great significance. Featuring 160 sets of precious exhibits from the two museums, it presents the lifestyle aesthetics and cultural meaning of fragrance in China in a comprehensive way, bringing you on a journey of scents across millennia.