Rewi Alley was a New Zealand born writer and activist who joined the Chinese Communist Party and eventually became connected with party leaders. Due to these connections, Alley acquired a number of Chinese artistic items in the 1950s and 1960s, which he subsequently donated to New Zealand's Canterbury Museum. China, Art and Cultural Diplomacy is an ongoing project, headed by University of Canterbury art historian Richard Bullen and University of Waikato historian James Beattie, to digitize and research this collection - and to learn more about "why and how [the collection] developed and the extent to which the artefacts encouraged favourable perceptions of a 'New China' in New Zealand." On this website, visitors can browse 13 exhibits and over 1,000 spectacular items. Exhibits include Calligraphy and Painting, Ceramics (some of which date back to the Han Dynasty), Bronze, Jade, Prints, and even two busts of Rewi Alley himself.