One example involves renowned bronze wares from China's Shang and Zhou dynasties (c. 16th century-221 BC). Coveted by museums and private collectors worldwide, these wares, with their bewilderingly intricate and wildly imaginative designs, represented a height in the development of ancient Chinese art.

"However, bronze smelting techniques first appeared in western Asia about 7,000 years ago, more than two millennia before its eastward move brought it to China, where it was influenced by Chinese pottery making," Zhang says.

"Such influence, combined with the invention of mold casting by the Chinese, led to profound changes. Bronze knives and swords beloved by the steppe people were replaced by containers of food and wine, some of giant size. Apart from serving as cooking utensils, many of them also performed a ritualistic function, one embedded in the spiritual realm of our ancestors. And that is how they entered the Chinese cultural vocabulary once and for all."