What: Preview and dinner for the exhibition Emperors’ Treasures: Chinese Art from the National Palace Museum, Taipei.
Where: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Audrey Jones Beck Building and Caroline Wiess Law Building.
The scoop: Around 175 guests got a glimpse of the dazzling exhibition featuring more than 160 works of art from the National Palace Museum in Taipei. The exhibition, on display at the MFAH through January 29, 2017, highlights the artistic and cultural contributions of imperial rulers in China, from the Song dynasty to the Qing dynasty.
Afterwards, guests dined on an Asian-influence dinner of pork belly braised in Shaoxing wine, halibut with white miso glaze, and flourless bittersweet chocolate torte with mango compote, catered by City Kitchen, and were entertained by the Lâm-hun-koh Nanguan Music and Theater Troupe, a group of cultural ambassadors from Taiwan whose preserve the essence and spirit of Nanguan music and opera.
Mayor Sylvester Turner praised Houston's diversity in welcoming guests, including Jeng-yi Lin, director of the National Palace Museum in Taipei and Louis M. Huang, director general of the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office in Houston.
The mayor also singled out Houstonians Anne S. Chao, Nancy J. Li-Tarim, and Kenneth Li for leading the committee that brought the treasures to Houston. "There are so many Li's here tonight that if they just voted for me alone, I would win any election," Turner quipped.
Who: Seen in the crowd were Albert Chao, Joanne Huang, Mary Cullen, Anne and Charles Duncan, MFAH director Gary Tinterow and Christopher Gardner, Lucy Sun, Liz and Tom Glanville, Leslie and Brad Bucher, Jenny Lin and Victor Lee, Elise and Russell Joseph, Audrey Chang and Joseph Tung, Nancy and Rich Kinder, Laurie and Reed Morian, James Watt, Nancy Allen, and Ilsa and Tommy Reckling.
Jenny Lin, Victor Lee.
