# The Jade Cabbage's prosaic company

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jade-cabbages-prosaic-company/119628>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [July 18, 2002, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jade-cabbages-prosaic-company/119628 "2002-07-18T15:30:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jade-cabbages-prosaic-company/119628/1 "2002-07-18T15:30:51Z")

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On a recent visit to Taiwan I visited the National Palace Museum where many of China’s great art treasures are housed. I was told “Don’t miss the jade cabbage - it’s the _Mona Lisa_ of Chinese art.” And whilst it doesn’t quite stalk you around the room, it certainly is a masterpiece. Here is a picture of it [about actual size](http://www.cca.gov.tw/Culture/museum/npmtr/B1105/B110514/npml.jpg) and [here](http://www.cca.gov.tw/Culture/museum/npmtr/B1105/B110514/) is a page from the museum complete with praise that verges on fulsome (in the correct sense of the word).

What puzzled me is that in the _same glass case_ as this great work of art is another piece. Also jade, it looks like a piece of barbeque pork. Here is someone’s photo of the [two of them together](http://homepage.mac.com/in_taipei/PhotoAlbum1.html) (scroll down). It struck me at the time that if the jade cabbage is the Mona Lisa of Chinese art, then the other one is, well, a lump of rock that looks like a piece of pork. Why the hell would they be in the same case?

I did try asking the guide at the museum, but was unable to phrase the question in a way that made sense to her. After about five minutes of me saying, I know they’re both made of jade (they have a whole floor of the stuff) and I know pork and cabbage go pretty well together, but why would you put a mere curiosity in with a masterwork? - she looked at me patiently and said “It looks just like a piece of pork”.

A minor question, but it’s starting to get to me. Any ideas?

[sub]It’s always the same for me in Taiwan. As an intellectually curious 8 year old in the rare books room of the National University I asked our guide “So, how many Chinese characters are there?” and she said gravely “I’ll show you” and led me down a very long corridor to where I supposed the great masterlist of characters was but turned out to be the toilet.[/sub]

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**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2002, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jade-cabbages-prosaic-company/119628/2 "2002-07-19T15:40:56Z")

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Three views in a full day? Is it something I said or do you guys really hate cabbage? I thought the title at least was kind of intriguing \<sniff\>.

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**Author:** ![xenophon41](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xenophon41/32/253_2.png) [@xenophon41](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xenophon41)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2002, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jade-cabbages-prosaic-company/119628/3 "2002-07-19T16:19:44Z")

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We choose not to respond to an obvious pork-bashing post?

_ **Do Not Feed the Pork-Basher!!** _