Introduction
“Xiaoxia,” or “whiling away the heat,” refers to the art of enduring summer with grace and ingenuity. Before air-conditioning and iced drinks, how did people cope with—and even enjoy—the hottest months?
For farmers, summer meant labor in the fields and the harvest of water chestnuts and lotus roots. For literati, it offered time for reflection, book collecting, and the appreciation of art. It was also the season of the Dragon Boat Festival, when emperors and commoners alike joined in celebration. This exhibition traces these intertwined rhythms of work, leisure, and festivity, inviting visitors to see summer not simply as weather, but as a lived cultural experience.
Through paintings and calligraphy, the exhibition presents the things, activities, and spaces that helped people keep cool. Visitors are invited to imagine the scent of festival herbs, the sound of dragon boat races, the sweetness of summer fruits, the chill of ice and springs, and the feel of kudzu robes or bamboo mats.
These artworks reveal not only how people cared for body and mind in summer, but also the values of their time. Imperial retreats could evoke the duties of governance, while cooling fans suggested the wisdom of advance and retreat. We hope these works inspire you to look beyond their beauty and find your own sense of coolness amid the summer heat.