Making their mark

A Shang Dynasty square ding vessel is on show at an ongoing exhibition at the National Museum of China. An exhibition at the National Museum is presenting China's ancient writing system on oracle bones to a wider contemporary audience, Lin Qi reports. Late Chinese-French artist Zao Wou-ki said in the early 1950s that while Paris had an undeniable artistic influence on his work, he had also been gradually rediscovering China. Zao's father, a wealthy banker and collector of antiques and works of art, accumulated an assembly of oracle bones bearing inscriptions, and his meticulous study of them nurtured his son's early interest in these primitive characters of China.