Chinese cultural relics exhibition titled Middle Kingdom has just opened to the public permanently in Swedish Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm. About 1200 objects from Shang Dynasty (1600-1050 BC) to Qing Dynasty(1644-1911AD) are on display.Swedish Crown Princess Victoria formally opened the exhibition by striking on the bronze gong.Eva Myrdal, Head of Research and Development of the museum said that Swedish archeologists have found some silk fragments in the ancient graves in Birka in Sweden dated back to the sixth century. This was the oldest example of contacts between Sweden and China in material culture. After that in the 18th century, Sweden and China had more contacts due to trade. Talking about the purpose of the exhibition, Myrdal said they like to make people change their views about the world's history to see how it was really like in the old days for example in 750 AD. The largest collection of the Museum is from China through controlled excavations and purchase, but close to the origin of the items. The collections range from the bronze age vessels and weapons to the antiques in the Qing Dynasty. Nanjing Road In Shanghai in 1926The Middle Kingdom exhibition began with a woman's head sculpture which was bought by then the Swedish Crown Prince Adolf Gustav in a shop in Nanjing Road, Shanghai in 1926. Far from the place of origin, he was told that this sculpture head came from the border to Gansu, northwest China, while the present research shows that it came from Shanxi province in 12th century's Song Dynasty.According to Eva Myrdal, the collection of objects partly came from the donation of former King Adolf Gustav the sixth, who was almost an archeologist himself and ordered to donate his 2500 pieces of antiques about China to the museum after his death. Some had been bought from market far from the origin in the early 20th century when China faced various problems and the central control was less. Some were also donated by private collectors. For example two big porcelain urns were given by the Portugese embassy to the Swedish Queen Kristina in the 17th century. Some are from the boat of Göteborg. "It is understood that some of the antiques were stolen by someone but sold in the shops in Beijing, Shanghai, London or Paris, but it is the documents in China and archeologists who now help people to understand what they really represent, the date or the event", said Myrdal. "And this is the important part of this exhibition. We hope to develop relationship with present date research in China which will help us to say more about things here because the more it is excavated and the more it is published, the more we will be able to put these things into context." said Myrdal. She said that Swedish museum has a long established contact with China since 1926 when the collection started and Swedish archeologist Johan Anderson began excavation work in China with the Chinese counterparts. And because Sweden was fortunately not one of the colonialists who invaded China then, it came into an agreement with China in how to divide the results of the excavations. And after the items came to Sweden, the Swedish parliament decided to start a museum for these things. In fact, China was also very much an innovation center before the 6 or 7centuries with a lot of important inventions such as the compass and paper. But through these segments, they hope people can understand that as time went by, the Chinese stopped sacrifice of real human beings and instead buried the replica of people such as terra cotta. During the Tang Dynasty, China already had developed very good relations with surrounding countries in eastern, central and western Asia as far as Iran and Iraq. Some people in Europe might thought that things like silk and porcelain only came to Europe."We want to show that we thought things only came to Europe, but in fact, the main part of the trade was actually still in Asia, western Asia such as Iran and Iraq, central Asia and South Asia where were densely populated. Full of road for trade there, this again will open the minds of the Swedish public so that we can see the world with a different perspective," said Myrdal.The exhibition also shows that China was not only influenced by Confucius ideas, but also by Taoism and more importantly by Indian Buddhism and Islam in western Asia through jade Bhudda and similar products. It also shows that during the Tang Dynasty China already received a lot of foreigners in its capital. "We can see how China contacted with surrounding countries and also absorb things and techniques from the surrounding areas into your own products. And we can also see that how you inspired other Asian countries to produce things. For example, here is something produced in Thailand due to Chinese influence."During the later part of the Ming Dynasty, the design was more influenced by outside China, especially by trading with Europe, a lot of products seemed to be designed in the west and produced in China, which is similar to today's situation between China and the west.There are also some bamboo products. Through these antiques, one can also see that collection of antiques was also the long tradition of the Chinese elites long time ago.Describing China's influence on Sweden, Myrdal said it is very interesting that Sweden was actually first influenced by China's modern things and then by the ancient antiques. "We know that the silk came to Sweden in Tang Dynasty but we don't know if we have the real contact. By the 18th century, trade with China was prosperous in Europe and Sweden followed suit. So the interest in China was enormous, but first it came with modern things like tea and silk and then came with ancient things like antiques. Of course, during the 20th century the contacts between Sweden and China have been a lot. Now a lot of Swedish go to visit China and a lot of Chinese came to visit Sweden. So now something new happens again. During the 18th century, few people visited China because it was very expensive and inconvenient, and people knew China through the things coming here. Now people can go to China by air to Beijing and Shanghai and can see the Great Wall with their own eyes," said Myrdal. "We hope we can attract not just people from Sweden, but also from around the world. This is a very fine collection and very nice pieces. So we hope that people will really see them and reflect on them. We have these collections not from Sweden, but from far away, so we want the public to know that at specific time period in specific areas people have different cultures and way of living," said Myrdal.While the cultural relics began to be on exhibition, one of the best Chinese Libraries in Europe for Sinology or the largest one in Nordic countries which has more than 100, 000 books in Chinese also opens. Myrdal said that there is a Sutra which was published in 956AD on this display. People can talk about printing and also relations between China and India where Buddhism comes from through the words in the Sutra.China---one of the most attractive countries for SwedenMyrdal said today people in Sweden are getting more and more interested in the world and China is one of the most attractive countries. A lot of people go to China and many Swedish start tostudy Chinese and many new classes have been opened. "So we hope people can get some ideas about Chinese long history and many people have been working in this country for a long time. A lot of inventions take place there and so on to open a gate to the outside world for Swedish students," stressed Myrdal. School children are the main targets. A lot of classes come here. They can receive children from 5 years old to university level. "We hope it can be used as a way to know the Chinese culture and history."At the opening ceremony, Zhou Heng, Charge d'Affaires from the Chinese Embassy in Sweden expressed congratulations to the opening of Middle Kingdom and believed that this will further enhance bilateral friendly relations. Thomas Bruhl, CEO of Visit Sweden also congratulates the opening. "The number of Chinese visitors to Sweden has greatly increased over the past few years. And China is one of our exploring markets. We hope that the exhibition will not only attract people from Stockholm but also people from the US, Europe and other countries such as Italy or India." The new exhibitions the Middle Kingdom and Chinese Book History are a sequal to "China before China", together covering more than 5000 years in the history of Chinese art and civilization. Just before this, an exhibition of Chinese Gardens was held for more than half a year.