The exhibition was well-received. "There are still people coming up to the entrance desk and saying 'who did that exhibition. I'll never forget it. It was one of the greatest exhibitions I've ever seen,'" Barnes said.

She spent three years of her life on it and felt really gratified to have that kind of public response.

Barnes also likes to talk about a rabbit pendant made of jade in public tours.

"It's so tiny that people would never look at it unless I do. So I try to tell people how it would have been used, who would have used it, why jade is important to the Chinese people," she said.

If she's not in the exhibition hall talking and answering questions, she will be in the office to study more about each object.

Her office is a wonderland for anyone interested in art. In just five square meters, she fit in as many Chinese elements as possible.

The wooden floor has a bamboo layer on it, which reminds one of the decorations of a traditional Chinese tea house. A gongfu tea set was placed on the table beside the computer while several porcelain tea cups and mini zisha (purple clay) tea pots were laid out neatly on the bookshelf.

The books, including ones on ceramics that she published, art auction catalogs, and Chinese art and history chronicles, took the rest of the space.

Closer US-China cultural exchanges in recent years have made Barnes' research work more exciting.

The museum's Chinese collection comes primarily from dealers in the early 20th century without context. Sometimes the curators are not sure whether an object is real or fake. The important archaeological discoveries in China in recent years have been incredibly helpful for Barnes to study the collection.

"The excavation of imperial kilns in Jingdezhen really changed our understanding of 14th century and early 15th century ceramics," said Barnes.

She is now working on an exhibition of porcelain from Jingdezhen, a city in China's Jiangxi province famous for porcelain making, looking for ways to tackle the challenge that the American public don't know how to appreciate broken pieces.

"I think with anything, if you can get people to start looking, and give them some information, create a story around it, they will enjoy it," said Barnes.