However, exhibitions at Beijing's Palace Museum are teaching cogent lessons about contemporary, real-world developments. These exhibitions, involving joint loans from Iran and Saudi Arabia, could only take place because of the triumph of Chinese diplomacy. But why would the Palace Museum — the repository of the greatest artistic achievements of Chinese civilization — showcase products of ancient Islamic civilization? The Palace Museum is proving the President's point with exhibitions of goods traded centuries ago and of artifacts illustrative of cultural influences between peoples. But it is the much humbler, camel-borne objects in the Palace Museum that provided the clearest lessons for us.
