This time machine is slowly opening. DNA technology deciphers ancient packaging codes of rice and bamboo strips from the mud. Inside a well-preserved barrel, layer upon layer, over a hundred intact famille rose porcelain wares are stacked. Western vessel shapes are painted with traditional Chinese motifs of “Teaching Children” and “Court Ladies.” A British-brand hair oil bottle, Vietnamese daily goods, and a wooden makara carving with a dragon’s head and a fish’s body all hint at a shared human longing for safety and a better life. To understand the ship’s structure, the archaeology team traveled far and wide in search of the nearly lost craft of building traditional Chinese wooden sailing ships. The ship and its cargo from the Tongzhi era conceal the ultimate riddle of destination, identity, and fate, thereby unveiling a diverse and open port culture in Shanghai and the millennia-old maritime civilization of China behind it.
