The Loss of Cultural Relics in Modern Chinese History
China’s long history has yielded an abundance of cultural relics. Unfortunately, since the mid-nineteenth century, many Chinese cultural relics have been destroyed or removed from China by various means. The term ‘lost cultural relics’ refers to Chinese c
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The Loss of Cultural Relics in Modern Chinese History
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Introduction
China’s long history has yielded an abundance of cultural relics. Unfortunately, since the mid-nineteenth century, many Chinese cultural relics have been destroyed or removed from China by various means. The term ‘lost cultural relics’ refers to Chinese cultural objects looted, stolen, clandestinely excavated or illegally trafficked between 1840 and 1949.1 Although there are no definitive totals of the lost Chinese cultural relics, the Chinese Society of Cultural Relics estimates more than ten million pieces of invaluable Chinese cultural objects have ‘sunk into oblivion’ in Europe, the United States, Japan, and Southeast Asian nations since the First Opium War. Approximately one million pieces are thought to be grade-one and grade-two valuable cultural relics.2 UNESCO notes that more than two hundred museums in forty-seven countries house a total of 1.64 million Chinese relics and that ten times more Chinese antiques are held by individuals worldwide. These relics include priceless calligraphy and paintings, ancient bronze ware, pottery and First defined by the Chinese Social and Cultural Development Foundation, ‘lost cultural relics’ are differentiated from objects that were legally acquired and exported in Chinese history. According to the SACH, as a general rule, if an item was brought out of China legally, China does not seek restitution or return but instead repurchases some items selectively. China seeks repatriation of so-called ‘lost cultural relics,’ i.e., those looted, stolen, illegally excavated or exported from China in modern Chinese history. See Wang Zhe & Zhang Juzhong, ‘Retrospect and Prospect of the Study on the Loss and Return of the Chinese Cultural Relics’ (in Chinese), Dongnan Wenhua, (2009), no. 1, at 16. 2 See ‘How many Chinese cultural treasures “lost” overseas?’ People’s Daily Online, 30 January 2007, viewed July 10, 2012, http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200701/30/eng20070130_346095. html#, Chinese cultural relics are divided into ‘valuable’ and ‘ordinary’ cultural relics. Valuable cultural relics are further broken down into grade-one, grade-two, and grade-three cultural relics. Grade-one cultural relics are ‘especially important for historical, artistic, and scientific values.’ Grade-two cultural relics have ‘important’ cultural value. Grade-three cultural relics are ‘relatively important’ to China’s cultural heritage. Ordinary cultural relics only have ‘certain historical, artistic value’ (Article 3 of the Law of PRC on Protection of Cultural Relics, 2002). 1
© Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016 Z. Liu, The Case for Repatriating China’s Cultural Objects, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-0597-8_1
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1 The Loss of Cultural Relics in Modern Chinese History
porcelain, sculptures, oracle bone inscriptions and classical works held primarily in Japan, Britain, France and the US. The British Museum alone holds more than 23,000 Chinese relics.3 This chapter discusses two different categories of lost cultural relics:
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