Collect gold in times of trouble, collect jade in good times": private market, public engagement and the protection of cultural property in the People's Republic of China (original) (raw)
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Antiquarianism is a complex interweaving of nostalgia, traditionalism, modernism, and artistic individualism, in which social and cultural anthropologists justifiably take an interest. However, anthropological studies on antiques might be quite different from studies of other material cultures, because, for example, antiques often move from locker to locker, their price is not readily revealed to a third party, and the transaction usually involves relationships that are complicated in nature. Likewise, the social value and trade price of antiquities are always contestable. Moreover, there are also some sensitive issues concerning legal controls on their export. This can make the study of the antique business often problematic and complicated, especially since the trading of antiques often takes place in secret locations that are usually difficult to investigate. The antiquities trade may also involve legal and ethical problems such as tomb robbing, plundering, and smuggling activities between rural and urban areas Murphy 1995;. Nevertheless, the purpose of this paper is neither to explore how smuggling activities take place nor to investigate how tomb robbers trade with buyers. Instead, my main aim is to examine what the antiquities trade means to some petty merchants and to share some of my observations regarding the relations between antiquities trade and changing lifestyles in South China. 2 Regarding the scope of the study, I want first to describe the relatively recent transformation of a village in Minzhong area (central Fujian) that produced and exported wooden furniture and the changing values involved in such a newly emerging rural private business. Secondly, I want to focus on the specific case of an antique arcade in Xiamen in order to shed light on the changing meanings of the word "antique." Given the changes taking place in mainland China, which have been affected by its Open Door policy since 1978, it is important to understand how the definition of cultural relics (in Chinese, wenwu) has changed, especially from the idea of treasures belonging to the public to private treasures. I shall therefore also elaborate briefly on the definitions of antiques and cultural relics. Thirdly, I want to link the discussion to the question of how the antiquities trade reflects issues of urban development, especially the adaptations made by migrants flowing from rural areas to coastal cities in China. By combining my observations on Xiamen"s development with a study of the emergence of petty antique merchants resulting from the high-level policy change, a picture of people"s changing lifestyles should emerge.
Historical Heist: An Economic Argument Against Embargoing Chinese Cultural Property
2009
ceramic Tang Dynasty animals, each worth around ten thousand dollars to Western dealers. Despite his ignominious maiden raid, Feng was paid forty-five dollars as his share of the profit. He does not know why Westerners pay so handsomely for such a dingy piece of pottery, and does not care, so long as he is paid. 4 II. CHINA'S MIGHTY REQUEST Feng's story is not unique. According to China's National Cultural Relics Bureau, approximately 220,000 ancient tombs in China were breached and looted between 1998 and 2003. 5 China has an epidemic on its hands, and under its soil. Thus, on May 27, 2004, the People's Republic of China formally requested that the U.S. Department of State restrict the importation of Chinese archaeological material from the Paleolithic period to the Qing Dynasty due to a concern that Chinese cultural heritage is under attack from pillage. 6 The request stirred tremendous debate in the U.S. art community. It sought to render illegal the importation of certain categories of metal implements; weapons; vessels; sculpture; jewelry; pottery and porcelain vessels; architectural elements; stone implements; lacquer, bone, ivory and horn wares; and wood and bamboo objects, among others. 7 Art dealers, museum curators, collectors, and art enthusiasts focused their attention on the State Department to see how it would manage the request. 8 These individuals were well aware that the United States had 4. Id. 5. Id. 6. Public Summary, Request of the People's Republic of China to the Government of the United States of America Under Article 9 of the 1970 UNESCO Convention, available at http://exchanges. state.gov/culprop/cn04sum.html [hereinafter Public Summary]. In this public summary, the Chinese government argues that the "[p]illage of archaeological sites and smuggling of cultural artifacts. .. has become rampant in recent years despite the law enforcement efforts of the Chinese government." Id. The summary indicates that China has attempted to solve the problem, but is in need of U.S. assistance if there is to be any marked improvement in the situation. The summary also provides a brief history of pillage and looting in China since the mid-nineteenth century. China acknowledges the worldwide popularity and high prices of Chinese archaeological artifacts and attributes this to the illegal excavation and smuggling of cultural property. Id. 7. Id. 8. Randy Kennedy, China's Request for Art-Import Ban Stirs Debate, N.Y. TIMES, Apr. 1, 2005, at E31. Prominent archaeologists, preservationists, and scholars lined up to support the Chinese government, in opposition to antiquities dealers and museum officials who staunchly opposed the request. Opposition leaders argued that any change would be unfair, ineffective in preventing looting, and devastating for the art market and museums. Furthermore, they argued that the United States represents only a small part of a thriving international market for Chinese antiquities. Emphasizing the growing demand among wealthy collectors in China itself, the group argued that China has not fulfilled its obligations to protect its own cultural patrimony. Id.
Jade and Guanxi in China: Material-Social Congruity and Contingency
The Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies 40(2), 2022
This article discusses how the gemstone jade mediates guanxi ('personal relationships'), and how guanxi mediates jade trade in China. Outlining some affective, spiritual, moral and somatic meanings and efficacies of jade, especially as a gift, the article first discusses how jade materialities, cultural history and ontology influence human interactions with, and through, jade in contemporary China. Secondly, the article presents some more economically instrumental investments in, and exchanges of, jade and discusses why and how a national anti-corruption campaign engendered fluctuations in Chinese jade markets. Finally, the article discusses how guanxi ideally forges personal trust that facilitates transactions of jade, even though some younger jade traders consider guanxi insincere. Studies of guanxi in China's reform era have conventionally given analytical primacy to how social relationships structure and give meaning to material exchanges. In contrast, this article argues that jade itself can be a catalyst for social relationships that span affect and instrumentality. Combining object-oriented, ontological and institutionalist approaches, the article conceptualises the outlined relations between jade and guanxi as material-social congruity and contingency in the Chinese context.
Trading culture of jade stones
This article aims to illustrate the trading culture of jade stones by examining the social life of the traded stones in their transnational movement from Burma to Thailand during the period of the Burmese socialist regime. Drawing on the work of the well-known anthropologist, Appadurai, I adopt a perspective emphasizing processes to look into the complex intersection of economic, political, and cultural factors relating to repeated transactions. These factors include the politics of organization, the politics of knowledge, personal guts, and the uncontrollable factor of luck. The research shows that market laws entwined with intricate socio-political forces of the region were the driving force in the exercise of the trade beyond national boundaries.
"Reforming Connoisseurship: State and Collectors in Shanghai in the 1950s and 1960s"
Frontiers of History in China, 2012
This paper examines the relationship between the state and art collectors during the 1950s and 1960s in Shanghai. It explores how the state gained control over art and collecting, by building state museums, by co-opting connoisseurs and their collections, and by extending "socialist transformation" to the antiquities market in 1956. However, state control was far from complete, and some trade in antiquities continued outside of official channels. To crack down on this illegal trade, cultural authorities in Shanghai launched a Five-Antis Campaign in 1964 to punish alleged art speculators. Through its cultural institutions and political campaigns, the state controlled culture but did not monopolize it.
The Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies
This article discusses how the gemstone jade mediates guanxi (‘personal relationships’), and how guanxi mediates jade trade in China. Outlining some affective, spiritual, moral and somatic meanings and efficacies of jade, especially as a gift, the article first discusses how jade materialities, cultural history and ontology influence human interactions with, and through, jade in contemporary China. Secondly, the article presents some more economically instrumental investments in, and exchanges of, jade and discusses why and how a national anti-corruption campaign engendered fluctuations in Chinese jade markets. Finally, the article discusses how guanxi ideally forges personal trust that facilitates transactions of jade, even though some younger jade traders consider guanxi insincere. Studies of guanxi in China’s reform era have conventionally given analytical primacy to how social relationships structure and give meaning to material exchanges. In contrast, this article argues that j...
Art malls and popular collecting in post-socialist China
Researching Art Markets: Past, Present, and the Tools for the Future, 2021
This is a draft of my article in the collective volume, Researching Art Markets: Past, Present, and the Tools for the Future, edited By Elisabetta Lazzaro, Nathalie Moureau, Adriana Turpin. The book is set to be published May 26, 2021, with Routledge.