Treasures of ancient Shu: Dialogue with the world

The exhibition "Light of the Sun—Ancient Shu Civilization and the World" opened at the United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York on June 9, 2025. At the center of the hall stood a replica of the No. 1 Bronze Sacred Tree from the Sanxingdui Museum in Sichuan Province. Nearby, the exquisitely crafted, openwork Sun and Immortal Birds Gold Ornament glimmered alongside an enigmatic gold mask, attracting many visitors.

This was the first time that artifacts from Sanxingdui and Jinsha archaeological sites were displayed at the UN headquarters, and it was also the 14th overseas exhibition of Sanxingdui artifacts in 2025.

By the end of April 2026, Sanxingdui artifacts had toured over 20 countries and more than 100 cities. The Sanxingdui Museum has established partnerships with 14 world-renowned institutions including the British Museum, the Musée Guimet, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Tokyo National Museum.

An exhibition of Sanxingdui artifacts at the British Museum draws queues stretching for more than 100 meters, September 1996.

Bringing Ancient Shu Treasures to the World

"In May 1993, we showed some Sanxingdui relics at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, to back Beijing's Olympic bid," recalled Zhu Yarong, deputy director of the Sanxingdui Management Committee. "That was the first time our ancient Shu culture ever reached out to the world."

Over the next three decades, Sanxingdui artifacts have traveled to more than 20 countries, evolving into a distinctive symbol of Chinese culture on the world stage.

On the evening of March 25, 2019, a special exhibition themed on Sanxingdui opened at Trajan's Market and the Museum of the Imperial Fora in Rome, Italy, creating a sensation amonglocal visitors. Thanks to that success, Sanxingdui artifacts continued to gain greater international recognition in subsequent years.

In November 2025, the exhibition "Behind the Masks: Discovering Sanxingdui and Jinsha" was held at St Anne's College, University of Oxford. Using images, videos, multimedia and augmented reality, it brought 14 replicas of artifacts from the two sites to life. The exhibition drew enthusiastic praise from Jessica Rawson, former Pro-ViceChancellor of the University of Oxford and Fellow of the British Academy, who described Sanxingdui civilization as having universal appeal.

The Sanxingdui Museum has also expanded its reach into the digital world. In 2020, it launched an online exhibition titled "Bronze Dialogue: Bronze Civilizations of the Yellow River and Yangtze River Basins," which was made available to 192 countries and regions. In 2023, a crossover collaboration with the game Genshin Impact produced creative videos featuring dubbing in Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, and other languages, with subtitles in 15 languages. In 2025, the museum teamed up with another game, Honor of Kings, to roll out a series of "Sanxingdui Quest" skins. In doing so, the ancient Shu civilization has stepped out of its distant past to engage with world cultures and find a contemporary voice that resonates with today's youth.

A sculpture displayed at the exhibition "A Journey to Ancient Greece: Archaeological Explorations" at the Sanxingdui Museum. The exhibition, opened on July 7, 2025, featured 172 exquisite artifacts (including nine replicas) from 31 Greek archaeological museums and cultural institutions.

A Dialogue between Civilizations across Mountains and Seas

The new Sanxingdui Museum opened in July 2023. Since then, it has been drawing visitors from both home and abroad through diverse cultural exchange events, study programs, and international cooperation.

On July 7, 2025, the exhibition "A Journey to Ancient Greece: Archaeological Explorations" premiered as the museum's first international exhibition since the opening of its new wing, immediately attracting widespread attention.

At the exhibition, the Mycenaean gold mask and the Sanxingdui gold mask were displayed side by side, and their striking resemblance seemed to create a dialogue across time and space. This encounter between Sanxingdui and ancient Greece was not only a meeting of two civilizations, but also prompted reflection on the origins of world civilizations and the commonalities we share as human beings. "People from the East and the West have very different cultural backgrounds," said Yang Yufei, executive curator and associate researcher at the Sanxingdui Museum. "But when they stand in front of the gold masks and bronze sacred trees on display, they all see the same beauty."

On February 12, 2026, the exhibition "Arts of the Great Ocean, Masterpieces from the Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac" premiered at the Sanxingdui Museum. It featured 171 masterpieces of Oceanic art, 40 of which had never been displayed outside France before. Zhu Yarong noted that hosting these major international exhibitions is not simply a matter of touring artifacts, but rather an effort to provide the public with a platform for dialogue with ancient civilizations. By bringing the finest expressions of different civilizations together in one space, the exhibition invited visitors to embark on their own journey of cross-cultural Dialogue.