In 1860 British and French troops pillaged and destroyed the Summer Palace of China’s Qing emperors, carrying off pieces of art and chunks of architecture – and a tiny, hairy dog who belonged to the emperor. Looty, as the dog was renamed with impeccable bad taste, was given to Queen Victoria and was the first “Pekinese” in Britain.
A portrait of Looty is one of the many arresting images and facts in what must be the strangest blockbuster the British Museum has ever staged. In 2007, this museum put on a show about China’s first emperor. China’s Hidden Century takes the story up to the last emperor – the child ruler Aisin-Gioro Puyi, deposed by a revolution in 1912. Yet in the closed world of the 19th-century imperial court, recreated here, it seemed nothing had changed for centuries. It’s a heady experience to enter the heavily ritualised ambience of the emperor’s inner circle. The clothes alone are incredible works of art: gowns and dresses intricately decorated with butterflies, filigree patterns, dragons. There’s a dress that belonged to the Empress Dowager Cixi, who effectively ruled China from 1861 to 1908 and changed her glittering apparel several times a day: nearby are costumes and wall hangings from the operas performed at court. It’s hard to tell opera from reality, so formalised was everyday life in this rarefied centre of power.
