China's infamous landmark to arrive in Liverpool for the first time

China’s landmark Terracotta Warriors are to be exhibited for the first time in the Liverpool World Museum from February 2018 with aims to offer a new perspective on China’s history.

Approximately 120 objects will be on display in Liverpool, a city renowned for being the UK’s oldest and most thriving Chinese community.

It will be the first time in 30 years that the Warriors have been exhibited in the UK outside of London, and it is set to include a number of objects that have never been on show in this country before.

This unprecedented exhibition will tell the legacy of the First Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang di and his army, along with important artefacts and research from the pre-unification Qin Kings (307 to 221 BC) to the First Emperor’s reign in the Han Dynasty (206BC to 220AD).

Earlier today, Karen Bradley, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, announced the news whilst visiting the First Emperor’s burial site and tomb complex near Xi’an.

She said: “The Terracotta Army represents one of the most significant archaeological excavations of the 20th century, and I’m delighted that a selection of the warriors will be coming to Liverpool for the first time in 2018

“The exhibition will also encourage an ongoing cultural exchange between China and Britain, further progressing the relationship between our two nations and strengthening lasting ties.”

More than 8,000 figures belonging to the First Emperor were accidently discovered by Xi’an farmers in 1974, arguably making this one of the 20th century’s momentous archaeological discoveries.

David Fleming, Director of National Museums Liverpool, said: “We are hugely excited to have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to bring an exhibition of such international importance to the World Museum

“It is really important that we stay in healthy dialogue with our international colleagues.”

Since the first discovery, more than 600 pits around the Emperor’s mausoleum have been discovered.

Each Terracotta Warrior has been modelled to have individual clothing, hair and facial features.

New discoveries are continually coming to light, which indicate that Emperor Qin wished to take the entire universe with him into the afterlife.

The Terracotta Warriors were last in the UK in 2007 in London’s British Museum for the landmark exhibition, ‘The First Emperor: China’s Terracotta Army’.

Jane Portal, China’s Terracotta Army exhibition curator of 2007 from the British Museum of London, said: “This exhibition will provide a wonderful opportunity to see these extraordinary objects close up and to learn about an empire which at its height was the rival of Rome and was to prove historically more enduring.”

The Chinese Community of Liverpool have excelled in every major event in the city, from artistically partaking in this year’s Biennial, to celebrations for the Year of the Rat during the 2008 Capital of Culture for Chinese New Year.

Therefore this valuable snippet of China will surely stretch people’s knowledge and interest, and strengthen bonds with the Chinese Community.