On September 12, 2014, the exhibition A Talk with Ancient Chengdu co-held by the Bruckner Performance Center and Jinsha Site Museum was launched at the Internationales Brucknerfest in Austria. Themed on the Jinsha culture in ancient Sichuan, this exhibition displayed 25 photos conveying the representative Chengdu culture and the replica of the stone chimes excavated in Jinsha site. The exhibition concluded on September 25.

As one of the most prestigious classical music festivals in Europe, the Internationales Brucknerfest is an annual event launched in Linz, the capital city of Upper Austria, since 1974. To facilitate the cultural and musical exchanges between China and Austria, China, upon invitation, showed up at the event as a guest of honor. The Austrian President Heinz Fischer and the Chinese ambassador to Austria Zhao Bin were present at the opening ceremony.

At Linz’s sister city, the 3200-year-old city of Chengdu in southwest China boasts a civilization of over 4500 years and numerous cultural relics. Jinsha site, the very origin of Chengdu, showcases ancient Sichuan with rare gold, jade, bronze artifacts, and worship sites.

This exhibition was composed of two parts, namely the collection of photos on the Chengdu culture and the interactive installation stone chimes. The photos introduced the panda, Du Fu’s Thatched Cottage, and the Sichuan Opera, all unique to Chengdu.

The stone chime replica as the most eye-catching component of the exhibition aroused the curiosity in the audiences, who tried it out, listened to the ancient sound, and enjoyed the rhythm from ancient China. The stone chime was excavated at Jinsha site, changing the popular idea that there had been no rites or music in the Sichuan basin before the Qin dynasty. It is viewed as one of the earliest percussion instruments in China, playing a key role in the feasts and worship events 3000 years ago.