Mandarin at the Museum

Learn how to say colours in Mandarin, explore the museum collections, in person or virtually, and create your own Chinese object card.

Using the gifs or downloads below, find out where each object is in the museum. Can you remember how to say the colour in Mandarin for each one? You can try to find them online either by:

• searching our online collections
• using Google Streetview of the museum (this link takes you straight into the East Asia gallery on Level 5)

You can also try to find them on your next visit to the National Museum of Scotland. 

While you are exploring, look out for an object you'd like to create a card (download below), short film or even a gif about!

Using the Mandarin resource backpack in the museum. Image © Ruth Armstrong

This resource is designed to be used in the classroom, at home or on a visit to the museum. 

For online use use the instructions above. 

For use at the museum, the teachers' notes below will be of particular use. They include:

• More information about the dragon and the objects
• Follow on activities about each object, many of which can be completed at home
• A longer list of Mandarin and Pinyin words for popular colours
• Additional online resources to explore

Practice saying these colours in Mandarin.

Colour	Mandarin	Pinyin	English
	黑色	hēi sè	black
	白色	bái sè	white
	红色	hóng sè	red
	蓝色	lán sè	blue
	粉色	fěn sè	pink
	棕色	zōng sè	brown
	绿色	lǜ sè	green
	银色	yín sè	silver
	黄色	huáng	yellow
	橘色	jú sè	orange
	紫色	zĭ sè	purple
	金色	jīn sè	gold

When visiting the museum, classes can book to use our Mandarin activity backpacks to explore the objects in person. The backpacks contain sensory items relating to each of our seven objects featured in this resource. 

Mandarin resource activity backpack. Image © Ruth Armstrong