Harkrader loans Chinese items during XXIX Summer Olympics

The Rev. Ed Harkrader has lent several Chinese items he has collected during the years to the Princeton Public Library as part of an exhibit on China. The China exhibit will remain on display at the library throughout the Olympic Games. (BCR photo/Heather Holland)

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PRINCETON — The Rev. Ed Harkrader of Princeton is sharing the beauty of the artistic Chinese items he has collected throughout the years with the patrons of the Princeton Public Library.

About 30 of Harkrader’s Chinese items are currently on display as part of an exhibit on China at the Princeton Public Library. The Chinese exhibit will remain at the library through the end of the 2008 Summer Olympics, which are currently taking place in Beijing, China.

Harkrader’s private collection of Asian artistic items numbers about 1,000 pieces. He has been collecting Asian art and other items since 1953, when he visited Tokyo, Japan. While there, he purchased the first item of his collection, a piece of fine Japanese porcelain.

Harkrader visited China in 1996, the second year after its borders opened to tourists. He traveled along the Chinese coastline, visiting the cities of Beijing and Shanghai. Harkrader also took a train trip to visit Hong Kong while on his visit.

“Beijing didn’t look anything then like it does now,” Harkrader said. “At that time, it was right after the Gang of Four destroyed many of the structures from imperial China, and everything that wasn’t destroyed was painted gray. About the only things left from imperial China were the Forbidden City and the summer palace.”

Harkrader said that his favorite things about China were the people and the food. He even had the chance to eat a entire barbecued fish in China.

“Nobody else would eat it,” he said. “It had the head and the tail and the eyes still on, and nobody from our tour group would even sit down by it at the table. So my mother and I ate it.”

Harkrader said he didn’t buy any Chinese items during his visit to China because fine items were very expensive at that time, due to the fact that the country had recently opened its border to tourists. He said he purchases his Asian items from antique stores, auctions and resale shops in the United States.

“Anyplace I go, I look for them,” Harkrader said. “I just happen to find a lot of them.”

One of Harkrader’s favorite pieces from his private collection are his three-tiered serving dishes bound in bronze. He also enjoys the Buddha statues and blue and white porcelain pieces that he displays in his home garden.

Harkrader, a retired priest who served at St. Louis Catholic Church in Princeton for 13 years, said he likes to collect Asian items because he enjoys art.

“I enjoy art simply for the fact that it’s an expression of a personality of a culture,” he said. “It has it’s own life, it’s own statement. That’s why my house is full of art. I don’t have a blank spot on the wall.”

Harkrader’s Chinese pieces currently on display at the library include ink paintings, dishes carved in layered lacquer, embroidered pillows, a “portable shrine,” cloisonné jars, a blue and white rice-serving bowl, a pink and white rice bowl with chopsticks, a Buddha statue pictured with children, a statue of temple dogs protecting the world, a pair of carved bookends and several intricately painted glass bottles.

Also featured in the collection is a nutshuki — a carving which shows two things at once (Harkrader’s is a turtle and a wise man), a decorative plate depicting roosters and pok choi, which is a vegetable traditionally said to bestow “multiple blessings,” a Chinese dragon and additional Buddhas and porcelain statues.

Harkrader is also loaning the Chinese cloths which line the display case holding the items. The cloths feature traditional Chinese patterns. One depicts red dragons on a black background, and the other displays traditional Chinese symbols of wealth.

The additional Chinese items in the Princeton Public Library exhibit are on loan from the Dan and Margaret Martinkus family.

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