Chinese artworks on display in Nagasaki

An exhibition featuring artworks from China's Fujian Museum is being held at a museum in Nagasaki City, southwestern Japan, Kyodo News reported Friday. Artworks on display at the Nagasaki Museum of History and Culture include a Fujian-made bowl that was imported to Japan and a statue of a Chinese goddess of the sea. Fujian and Nagasaki have a long history of exchanges. Ties between the two dated back to ancient times when Japan sent its emissaries to China in the days of the Tang dynasty to learn about advanced Chinese technology and scholarship, the report said. The art show, which will run through Nov. 30, is being held at a time when relations between China and Japan remain strained following the Japanese government's illegal buying of China's Diaoyu Island and its affiliated islands in the East China Sea. "We want visitors to learn that the two countries' cultures have been enriched through bilateral exchanges, particularly at a time like this when Japan-China relations are on the rocks," the report quoted Koichiro Fukase, a senior researcher at the Nagasaki museum, as saying.