RUTH AYLETT admires the blunt honesty with which a woman’s experience is recorded, but detects the unexamined privilege that underlies it
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The itinerant treasures of the East
BEN CHACKO finds many parallels with present-day peaceful Chinese influence, as well as evidence of exploitation, in a historical exhibition
silk 1
IAN SINCLAIR draws attention to the powerful role that literature plays in foreseeing the way humanity will deal with climate crisis
High quality pulp, rollicking online murders, Abnorman Britain, and high skates drama: reviews of The Get Off, Everyone In The Group Chat Dies, Pagans and First To Fall
DENNIS BROE notes what happens to content when the streaming giants incorporate AI and deregulation into their economic models
New releases from The Tenementals, Nik Bartsch’s Ronin, and Kuunatic
SCOTT ALSWORTH hears the call to burn down and rebuild the video game industry from the bottom up
The Chinese language only introduced a feminine pronoun in the 1920s. Now, it might adopt a gender-inclusive one, suggests JANET DAVEY
Silk Roads
British Museum, London
SILK ROADS is not quite what it seems.
The publicity evokes the classic image of the Silk Road, as a silhouetted camel caravan ascends a dune somewhere in central Asia.
And Silk Roads does showcase the splendour of China in its chosen period, the Tang dynasty (618-907 AD). It bristles with treasures, from pottery camels to spectacular silk wall hangings depicting Buddhist devotional scenes from the monastic cave complex at Dunhuang; steles illustrate the Tang empire’s tolerance for the Christian and Zoroastrian faiths in its bustling, multicultural capital Chang’an; the hoard of a ship sunk off the Indonesian coast over 1,000 years ago demonstrates China’s early mastery of mass production, packed with 60,000 items for sale, much of it mass-produced ceramics from huge, state-owned factories.
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