Went to the DMA today with my parents to see the "Splendors of China's Forbidden City" exhibit. It was pretty interesting. I've always had a hell of a hard time keeping the different dynasties straight. The exhibit focused on Qian Long of the Manchu dynasty, the last "great" emperor of China, supposedly. Anyways, I got a pretty good feel of Manchu culture I guess. One surprising thing I learned was that bats were used in all kinds of art motifs (cuz the word for "bat" sounds like the word for "good luck")- if someone'd told me that and I hadn't seen & heard it myself at the museum, I woulda thought it was total hogwash. But I guess I'd always known that the Chinese like those plays on words like that. All in all, the visit was quite an amusing experience.