From the editor

Late last month, one of the world’s most precious treasures arrived in New Zealand, at Te Papa. The famous Terracotta Army was made in China long ago, before Cleopatra ruled and before the Colosseum was built, to be buried with China’s first emperor.

The eight life-sized warriors and two horses visiting Te Papa are part of a hoard of thousands, the largest of its kind ever found.

As part of their welcome, Te Papa has invited a Chinese New Zealand artist to respond to their arrival with a new artwork.

The result, by Wellington’s Kerry Ann Lee, is a room where visitors to the exhibition can take a moment to collect their thoughts, surrounded by imagery gathered from Lee’s family’s books and magazines. A collage artist, she has even made a special wallpaper for the room, and a video will project other treasures, including lines from a poem by Rewi Alley.

In our cover story, Wellington writer Sam Gaskin, who currently lives in Beijing, asked Lee about the meaning of all of this, what it means to her personally as well as the political significance of gestures like big touring exhibitions.

Their conversation (see page 8) is a rich soup of ideas, connections, anxieties, and hopes. They talk about what it means to settle in New Zealand, to be descended from someone who settled here, and the way that settlement is an ongoing journey, where nothing’s ever really settled.