Picture rows of dissected corpses, and it is easy to imagine a horror movie or nightmare, not an art exhibition.

"It is to give the public an opportunity to understand the human body and its functions, and to focus attention on health," says a supporter of the exhibition. "I don't understand how anyone could exhibit a corpse as art. According to Chinese tradition, people should respect the dead," says another in disagreement.

The plasticized bodies were filled with materials replacing bodily fluids and fat, making the bodies durable for exhibition and study. The process serves to better conserve bodies and also to make specimens more lifelike and colorful, compared with the specimens that used to be preserved in formaldehyde.