Canadian Society for Asian Arts: activities

Rice is Life
An exhibition developed by the Vancouver Museum
in partnership with the Canadian Society for Asian Arts

On view May 4, 2007 to January 1, 2008
at the Vancouver Museum
1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver

Funded by:
The Department of Canadian Heritage
Canadian International Development Agency
Canadian Society for Asian Arts

The exhibition Rice is Life draws upon a rich variety of material culture and images, to explore rice’s significance in societies from all over the globe. The exhibit highlights the cultural foundation of the world’s most important food crop—the staple that sustains nearly one-half of all humankind. Objects range from ancient ceramics, rare woodcarvings and textiles, to contemporary batik paintings and religious posters. Rice is Life also explores issues related to the future of rice, such as water and land management, the use of science to foster sustainable rice development, development issues as well as environmental protection.

Why Rice matters
Rice is deeply embedded in the culture and heritage of societies from Asia to Australia, from the Americas to Africa. In much of Asia, rice, ritual, and religion are inseparable due to the widespread belief that the rice plant was divinely given to humans, often by a goddess or “rice mother.”

Rice is eaten for good luck at the Lunar New Year, offered to ancestors and deities, made into spectacular displays for festivals and tossed over newly wedded couples. In the form of rice wine, it is served to guests and poured as a libation to mark sacred rituals.

Rice is the staple food of over half of the world's population. In Asia alone, more than 2 billion people obtain most of their energy intake from rice-based foods. The UN reports that rice makes up 20% of the world's dietary supply and over 1 billion households worldwide depend on rice production as a source of income.

A major scientific breakthrough was reported in 2001, when the rice genome became the first food crop to be successfully decoded. Knowledge of the genome is expected to provide the basic information required to engineer new types of rice. Yet the situation for many of the world’s rice producers is grim. The spectre of increased hunger, malnutrition, poverty and conflict in the coming decades resulted in the declaration by the United Nations General Assembly of the year 2004 as the International Year of Rice (IYR). Devoting a year to a staple food was an unprecedented step in the history of the United Nations.

The growing and eating of rice are so fundamental to daily life in many cultures that rice has become intimately entwined with individual identity, social organization, and artistic expression. For many, rice is not merely a commodity. Rice is Life.

Hours: Tuesday-Sunday 10am to 5pm, Thursday until 9pm.
Info: 604-736-4431 www.vanmuseum.bc.ca

Click here to download the official press release.