Inside Melania Trump and Peng Liyuan’s visit to the Smithsonian’s

Melania Trump and China’s first lady Peng Liyuan spent about 45 minutes at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art in Washington on Thursday, touring Chinese artworks while their husbands held talks at the White House.

A museum stop framed by Chinese art

The visit took the two women through Chinese artworks and a room shaped by Asian design at the museum, according to the source account.

The museum’s Chinese art collection and longstanding ties with China made it a fitting stop for the first ladies’ tour.

Much of the visit centred on the Peacock Room, where displays of Chinese porcelain helped define the setting for the occasion, museum director Chase Robinson said.

Robinson said the two women were “full of questions” during their time at the museum.

Why the Peacock Room mattered

The Peacock Room was presented as an appropriate place for the visit because of its Chinese porcelain displays and the wider context of high-level engagement between the two countries.

“What better place to introduce the two first ladies to our museum on the occasion of high-level conversations and discussions between our two countries?” Robinson told the South China Morning Post.

The tour unfolded in Washington as parallel talks involving their husbands were taking place at the White House.

Source: South China Morning Post