Amid the flames, a 'galaxy' endures: Persian treasures glow across China

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China

2026.04.18 15:12 GMT+8

Amid the flames, a 'galaxy' endures: Persian treasures glow across China

Updated 2026.04.18 15:12 GMT+8

CGTN

A photo taken on January 18, 2026 shows a batch of 151 pieces (or sets) of Iranian cultural treasures from five Iranian museums on display in Hohhot, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. /VCG

Under the shadow of the US-Israeli war with Iran, a luminous collection of Iranian cultural treasures is quietly making its way across China – shining like stars scattered across the arc of a great civilization.

"The Flowing Galaxy: Treasures of Persian Culture and Art" brings together 151 artifacts from five Iranian museums, marking the first time Iranian relics from institutions beyond the National Museum of Iran have been exhibited in China.

Featuring artifacts from the 3rd millennium BCE to the 20th century – including ceramics, metalwork, glassware, carpets, and Persian miniature paintings – the exhibition has been touring China since January 2025.

Having embraced visitors in Sichuan and Guangdong provinces and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the exhibition is guaranteed to remain in China at least through January 2027, according to its curator Yin Quanbin.

Yin chose the title deliberately. He wanted audiences in China to glimpse the brilliance of what Iran once built, and through that, he said, "to understand the real Iran."

And right now, that hope feels especially precious. While bombs and headlines reshape how the world sees the country, these relics – some millennia old – touring China offer a quieter, longer view: Iran not as a "flash point," but as one of humanity's great civilizational wellsprings.

Yin said he hopes to one day take Chinese artifacts to Iran for an exhibition, "once the situation stabilizes."

Until then, the galaxy keeps flowing – for all of us.

Amid the flames, a 'galaxy' endures: Persian treasures glow across China

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