In 1997, Berkeley puzzle enthusiasts Wei Zhang and Peter Rasmussen traveled to Suzhou to search for an old craftsman mentioned in a forty-year-old Chinese puzzle book. They discovered that the puzzle maker had long since passed away but succeeded in locating his descendants and recording his story.
While in Suzhou, Wei and Peter found a beautiful brass nine linked rings puzzle at the weekly antique market outside Confucius Temple. That purchase was the beginning of an fifteen-year odyssey around China, Europe and the east coast of the United States during which the couple collected over 1500 antique Chinese puzzles and documented their histories. The collection was named Yi Zhi Tang (art and intelligence collection) in recognition of the exquisite craftsmanship employed in creating the old puzzles.
Wei grew up in Xinjiang Province in China. When she was eleven years old, she saw a nine linked rings puzzle for the first time and was fascinated by it. Although educated in linguistics and computer science, she finds it far more intriguing to roam the world of mechanical puzzles.
Peter is a former teacher and textbook publisher who has long been fascinated by the mathematics underlying many puzzles.
The 2008 exhibition at the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco was the first public showing of the Yi Zhi Tang collection — and it was also the first public exhibition of antique Chinese puzzles to be held anywhere in the world. During 2010 and 2011 the exhibition was on display at the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) in New York City. The collectors’ dream is to find a permanent home for their collection in a setting — preferably in China — where people of all ages can appreciate the beautiful antique puzzles and play with modern versions of them.
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