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Title details for Fragile Cargo by Adam Brookes - Available

Fragile Cargo

The World War II Race to Save the Treasures of China's Forbidden City

by Adam Brookes
Adam Brookes
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
The "gripping and meticulously researched" (The Times, London) true story of the determined museum curators who saved the priceless treasures of China's Forbidden City in the years leading up to World War II and beyond.
Spring 1933: The silent courtyards and palaces of Peking's Forbidden City, for centuries the home of Chinese emperors, are tense with fear and expectation. Japan's aircrafts drone overhead, its troops and tanks are only hours away. All-out war between China and Japan is coming, and the curators of the Forbidden City are faced with an impossible question: how will they protect the vast imperial art collections in their charge? A difficult and monumental decision is made: to safeguard the treasures, they will need to be evacuated.

The magnificent collections contain a million pieces of art—objects that carry China's deepest and most ancient memories. Among them are irreplaceable artefacts: exquisite paintings on silk, rare Ming porcelain, and the extraordinary Stone Drums of Qin, which are adorned with 2,500-year-old inscriptions of cultural significance.

For sixteen years, under the quiet leadership of museum director Ma Heng, the curators would go on to transport the imperial art collections thousands of miles across China—up rivers of white water, across mountain ranges, and through burning cities. In their search for safety the curators and their fragile, invaluable cargo journeyed through the maelstrom of violence, chaos, and starvation that was China's Second World War.

Told for the first time in English and playing out across a vast historical canvas, this "compelling story of art, war, and adventure" (Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of The Romanovs: 1613-1918) follows the small group of men and women who, when faced with war's onslaught on civilization, chose to resist.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    February 14, 2023

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781797148090
      • File size: 356715 KB
      • Duration: 12:23:09

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from December 5, 2022
      Journalist Brookes debuts with a novelistic account of Chinese curators’ largely successful efforts to save priceless antiquities first from Japanese bombs during WWII and then from potential looters during Mao Zedong’s Communist takeover. Led by Ma Heng, director of the Palace Museum in Beijing’s (then Peking) Forbidden City, the curators packed and shipped nearly 17,000 cases of objects, including a 10th-century scroll depicting a river in winter and a mid-15th-century red porcelain ewer, deep into China’s hinterlands, where they were stowed in caves, warehouses, and even a Buddhist temple. Many of the most valuable pieces ended up in Taiwan, while others were returned—after nearly 17 years—to the Forbidden City. Along the way, Brookes describes the objects in mesmerizing detail and vividly recounts the human toll of war. The most poignant portrait is of Ma Heng, who came under suspicion and endured a relentless program of “ideological transformation” in the 1950s. The Communist Party, Brookes writes, “took his devotion to the collections and turned it against him, hounding and humiliating him in his final days.” Art lovers and WWII buffs will devour this riveting and bittersweet history. Photos. Agent: Zoë Pagnamenta, Zoë Pagnamenta Agency.

    • Library Journal

      Starred review from June 10, 2024

      After penning the Philip Mangan thrillers, former journalist Brookes offers a riveting account of Chinese archivists' efforts to protect antiquities from the Forbidden City from destruction during and after World War II. Narrating his own work, Brookes describes how, as Japanese bombs threatened the city in 1933, curators from the Forbidden City's Palace Museum packed and relocated over one million treasures representing the breadth of China's cultural history. Later, as tensions between the Nationalists and the Communists escalated, the items were moved once again. Brookes's brilliant narrative style mirrors his exuberant descriptions of the riches--scrolls, paintings, carvings, porcelain, and more. He also brings the background history to life, focusing on three brave curators and several significant items they saved. Brookes makes palpable the deprivation facing the scholars and potential damage to the cargo as they traverse waters, mountains, rough roads, and war-decimated cities with their pursuers close behind. Each time a solution is suggested, further complications arise, but the guardians persevere. Brookes ably communicates his meticulous research, including memoirs, diaries, and poems. VERDICT Listeners will be on the edge of their seats as they learn about the heroic efforts of Chinese scholars and curators throughout this 16-year mission.--Susan G. Baird

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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