Made in China at the Wereldmuseum Amsterdam
by Marilou den Outer
China – factory of the world. China – as a label in your new sweater.
Powned recently broadcast the four-part TV series ‘Made in China’, after which the image of ‘the land of that cheap rubbish’ lingers. But of course that’s not the whole story. That is what can be seen and experienced at the exhibition Made in China, now in the Wereldmuseum Amsterdam. It gives an impressive picture of what the manufacturing culture and craftsmanship in China encompasses over the centuries and today. Visitors can take a fascinating journey through the China of the past and present. With objects, stories in audio and on video images. QR codes at the room texts provide explanations in Chinese. You can compose your own Chinese characters on a display and learn something about the structure of the script, there is a weekly short woodblock printing workshop and a tour in Dutch, once a month a tour in Chinese. There is also a podcast series and blogs around the exhibition. At the bottom of the article there are links and more practical information.
Bridge to the present
The exhibition was previously shown in Rotterdam and has been running in Amsterdam for some time now. Dr. Willemijn van Noord, sinologist and archaeologist, was at the cradle of the exhibition, years ago. Then, as a junior curator of China, she was asked to write a proposal for a major China exhibition. That would be the first in no less than 40 years. And that while there are more than 25,000 objects with a China connection in the collections. A whole series of institutions and experts – sinologists, Dutch people of Chinese descent and many others – contributed to the realization.
Willemijn: “Building a bridge to the present was the assignment from the start. We quickly decided that the focus would be on ‘making’, with China as a case study. And we wanted to get started with a fresh perspective. For example, by showing Chinese perspectives on copying, and thus debunking the Western dichotomy between original and counterfeit.”
The bridges to the present run like a thread through the rooms.
For example, you are standing in front of a display case with lacquerware, a technique that was already at a high level in China three thousand years ago. But, fairly inconspicuously, there is also a small vase by Gan Erke (1955-) from Anhui. This contemporary master lacquer worker experimented for years until he finally succeeded: an age-old method to rediscover the special ‘rhino skin effect’ with lacquer. This art was already in the 19 th century was lost in China.
And there is more. Stones for the game Majiang (mahjong) were traditionally made by hand. Now there is only one very elderly craftsman who does that, in Hong Kong. His daughter designs contemporary sets with Hong Kong character, which her father carves to keep the heritage alive. She also made a mini set especially for the Wereldmuseum. By the way, it is also for sale in the museum shop. More about the exhibition makers’ visit to Hong Kong, see the website of the Wereldmuseum.
Theme rooms
Each room has its own theme. Upon entering, the visitor is immediately sucked into the world of making, not with sterile factory images, but in an atmospheric round space, with large video screens showing today’s craftsmen at work.
The second room starts with a quote on the wall from a time that was highly regarded as ‘made in China’:
“In China there is a very good people . . . they are a clever people, who can make everything very subtle and astute”, Lucas Jansz Waghenaer in 1592
The room focuses on the global demand for Chinese products, which were transported via five major historical trade routes. For example, you can see that porcelain plates with Koranic texts were once ordered, and that in the fifties Chinese flashlights went to Tanzania, which have a political story from the time of Mao Zedong attached to them, which can be listened to on the spot via the audio.
Extra special objects in this room are watercolor paintings on marrow paper with Peruvian scenes. They come from workshops in Canton (Guangzhou) that are located here in the 18 e and 19th century , as an export article.
The next room shows classic materials and techniques such as ceramics, lacquerware, paper, with at least one contemporary piece of work each time. On a large map, the exhibition also clearly indicates where in China important makers and raw materials are located and where the centres of expertise for processing them have been created.
Then the visitor sees how mass production worked. In the past, with the famous terracotta warriors from the tomb of the first emperor. These images all seem different, but studies have long shown that they were built up by assembling standard components (such as eight types of faces) in different combinations. They were then colourfully painted, which can be seen in the scientific reconstructions of restorer Catharina Blaensdorf, who spent years researching them.
The downside of today’s mass production does not remain unexposed. Because yes, China is the factory of the world, and yes, somewhere a price is paid for all those cheap products. On large scrolls you can read poetry from migrant workers. Selected by Leiden professor and sinologist Maghiel van Crevel. There is also a film by Chen Hangfeng about how he saw the village of Xitan change. The centuries-old village used to be known for successful civil servant-scholars and there were temples for ancestor worship. Now the majority of the world’s Christmas decorations are produced here.
The Art of Copying
A separate room is dedicated to the Art of Copying. That should be taken literally, it is not about ‘forgeries’ or ‘bad counterfeits’. A good example are the block prints that were made in the forties of the last century of the famous paintings in the Mogao caves of Dunhuang. Woodblock printing had existed in China for much longer, but with this experiment it was possible to print in large format for the first time. Remarkably, they are hardly distinguishable from ink paintings. In other words, innovation by copying. Read an extensive story about this woodblock printing art on the museum’s website. This also applies to a more recent imitation (shanzhai) that is in a display case: a fake mobile phone – from the time when the Nokia was still the proud forerunner in this field. The imitations were so creatively made that they became more popular than the original. This also encouraged innovations, such as the ‘dual-SIM’ function.
Also on display is a 17th-century copy of a bronze vessel, as it was already from 1600 BC. were made in China. Such copies were long dismissed as a ‘forgery’ in the West. But they were never intended that way: they were made as a tribute.
Ten contemporary makers
The end of the exhibition gives way to ten contemporary makers. You can wander around among objects, images and stories. From philosophy about nature incorporated into tea bowls and sustainable fashion against the throwaway society, to the reuse of ceramic waste in bricks that are permeable to rain, and photography with what appears to be traditional Chinese Shanshui landscapes. But if you look very closely: they are full of urban buildings.
So there is a lot to see at Made in China. “Some visitors come back more often because they were not able to see everything at once,” says curator Willemijn. For her, this exhibition project was and is a rich and sometimes new experience. Laughing: “I was trained as an archaeologist – never had the chance to speak to a maker of those ancient objects. I found the conversations with the makers in China a great experience. My interest in contemporary art has been completely sparked!”.
Thanks to this exhibition, new objects and loans have been added to the Wereldmuseum’s collection. And developments are moving at lightning speed in China. Hopefully it won’t be 40 years before the next exhibition can be seen. In any case, this Made in China can be seen until August 31, 2026 at the Wereldmuseum, Linnaeusstraat 2 in Amsterdam.
Practical information and links
Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 17:00 (during school holidays also on Mondays).
Until 18 January 2026, the Wereldmuseum will also be open in the evening, on the occasion of the Amsterdam Light Festival. Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 19:00 to 22:00. Admission is free and reservations are not necessary.
In the hall of the museum you can see the interactive light installation Knotted, by the artist Raven Kwok (Shanghai, 1989). Knotted lets you experience how we are all connected: your movements and your distance from others are constantly changing the luminous patterns around you.
Activities and extras
* Every first Sunday of the month there is a free tour of the exhibition in Chinese
* Every Saturday and Sunday at 1.30 pm there is a guided tour in Dutch and at 2.30 pm you can make your own block-printed painting, inspired by masterpieces of the famous Qi Baishi. Participation is free, Reserve a spot here
* There is a five-part podcast about Made in China
* Blogs:
At the very bottom of this blog page are links to portraits of contemporary makers, the shorter marketing videos of contemporary makers in the Netherlands (such as Ting Gong), and also the blogs of the ‘research trip’, including the makers of the mahjong tiles
* Instead of a catalogue, there is an e-book with themes from the exhibition, which can be read for free in the browser
