小玉壶 ::《逃出大英博物馆》

I've not particularly bothered with visiting classical museums in China because they didn't have many artefacts or heirlooms. Most of these have been taken out of China either by immigrants, smuggling, theft or uhhh dubious cultural exchanges. The 'famous' and known pieces are all in Taiwan, notably its National Palace Museum in Taipei, and many remarkable pieces in the British Museum in London, UK. 

The recently released Chinese video three-part series on Douyin — 'Escape from the British Museum' 《逃出大英博物馆》#抖音精選 has ignited fresh calls for British museum to return these artefacts. It tells the story of a jade teapot in London (personified as a woman in Han dress) looking for its way back to China. That teapot isn't a heritage piece, as it's recently done. But it exists; it's an actual piece in the British Museum, created in 2011 by Yu Ting 玉雕大师、俞挺, in Suzhou. It's "decorated with a Mughal style pattern of lotus flowers and entangled branches of Mednilla Magnifica."

Instead of watching crappy C-drama, I watched all three parts of this series (totaling about 17 minutes; each lasts for 3min, 4min and 9min.) Wahhh, what a blistering metaphor that totally tugs at one's heartstrings. LOL All films and C-drama adhere to the national propaganda anyway, right down to the plot that has to be morally acceptable and especially the clothing that cannot have Korean or Japanese influences. Dohhh. The underlying political commentary in this teapot story is ridiculously powerful, and it definitely stirred up a ton of nationalistic sentiments. 

The British Museum Act prevents any return of its permanent collections. Unilateral, obviously. Of course it makes sense to the museum and its administrators, but on it's quite laughable on the nationalistic front and in the face of fierce global critique. In this day and age, I feel that looted national treasures ought to be returned to its rightful owners. Even if a museum had paid for its items in its permanent collections, these of dubious transactions and well knowing the historical value, ought to be fiercely debated about returning it to well, China, especially if she can provide better care and a permanent home for these items. Citing museum rules of not returning is just arbitrary and it kinda stinks hearing it.

This three-part video caused a stir not just with the museum administrators, it also created giant waves and hit a huge sentiment with the Chinese social media users. Okay, likely all nationalist Chinese. Comments and opinions flew around the globe. 

Titled 'If the British Museum isn't taking good care of relics, Chinese want theirs back', Wei Wei's article in SCMP pointed out that the British Museum seems really lackadaisical with security measures, and can't even keep up with the filing of a proper catalogue of its estimated 23,000 Chinese objects. 

It has been said on the Chinese internet that “the best of China’s cultural relics are not in the Palace Museum, but in the British Museum”, and that “no Chinese person can walk out of the British Museum with a smile”.

Indeed, while the sight of these marvellous pieces – each a showcase of the mastery of Chinese art – may stir national pride in Chinese visitors, such feelings are often mixed with grief as the tour of the museum goes on.

I obviously don't feel any ounce of nationalism or ire over the these objects in the British Museum. If any, I'm thankful that I don't actually have to go to China to see it or queue like crazy (i.e. Beijing's Forbidden City and Summer Palace queues) to view them. But I understand historical and issues of 'rightful ownership', and I can empathize with the desire to have these objects 'come home'.

From the declining years of the Qing Dynasty in the late 1800s (First Opium War 1840) to the collapse of the dynasty in 1911 and all the way to the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, that whole century saw an exodus of treasures sent out of the country. Wouldn't you want back something that you morally and ethically have a claim on? Whether you would pay to get them back is an entirely separate issue. The third part of the series has this tagline — 山河无恙，家国永安. SCMP's Wei Wei concluded her article with, 

So why would this jade teapot that travelled overseas as a cultural exchange flee the British Museum? A romantic answer, from Chinese netizens, goes: the teapot was sent there in peacetime, and still remembers the way home.