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Chinese artifacts

Chinese artifacts
The latest news, analysis and opinion on Chinese artifacts. In-depth analysis, industry insights and expert opinion.
The remains of the Old Summer Palace are dusted with snow in Beijing in January. The palace complex was destroyed by British forces in 1860 as part of the second opium war. Photo: Xinlu Liang
China-France relations

As France passes law on returning loot, should China pop the champagne?

While the law should make returning artefacts easier, it sets high standards of evidence which may be hard to meet.

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Chinese culture

Turning walnuts into ‘jade’? Social media goes nuts over old Chinese tradition

Chinese culture

How China’s Han dynasty forged a unified cultural and national identity

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Taiwan

How National Palace Museum’s anniversary became a Taiwan identity battleground

The treasures housed in Taipei are at the centre of a culture war that reflects island’s fractious relations with the Chinese mainland.

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Illustration: Lau Ka-kuen
From our archives

When the Terracotta Army came to Hong Kong

A historic exhibition showcases artefacts from the Shang and Qin dynasties, drawing over a quarter million visitors.

Art

How a Hong Kong seal carver keeps an ancient Chinese art alive

Third-generation seal engraver Yam Man-hong talks about preserving the craft at his tiny Hong Kong stall, and keeping up with the times.

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Architecture and design

Netflix documentary unearths mysteries of China’s terracotta army

Mysteries of the Terracotta Warriors, a documentary on Netflix, delves into the construction and excavation of the vast mausoleum Qin Shi Huang, the country’s first emperor, ordered built to house his tomb.

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A still from Mysteries of the Terracotta Warriors. Photo: Netflix
Art

Chinese museums’ loan of art and artefacts to US counterpart is a landmark

An exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art will tell the story of China’s Jiangnan region through ancient artefacts from Chinese institutions, in an instance of cultural exchange amid ongoing Sino-US tensions.

Britain

British police recover stolen Ming dynasty vase worth US$2.5 million

London police and Swiss authorities smashed a criminal ring believed to have stolen the artefact from a Geneva museum in 2019.

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Ancient China

Video | Chinese Bodhisattva statue from 12th century found in France

Lost, ancient Chinese Bodhisattva statue found in French home
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Art

Inside Joseph Hotung’s long-hidden private Chinese art collection

While much of Joseph Hotung’s collection of Chinese jades and Yuan and Ming dynasty porcelains is already on display, now his private cache is coming to light at Sotheby’s auctions.

Antiques in Joseph Hotung’s London home. Photo: Sotherby’s
Archaeology and palaeontology

Video | The mysterious tomb of Emperor Wen

Archaeology and palaeontology

House in long-gone Utah town tells story of early Chinese rail workers’ lives

A 150-year-old house unearthed in Utah yielded thousands of artefacts illuminating the Chinese contribution to the building America’s railways.

China society

The delicate and dying art of fixing ancient Chinese books by hand

There are more than 50 million antique books in China, but only a handful of people are trained to repair them.

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Lian Chengchun examines a torn page at her studio in Beijing. Photo: Patrick Wong
Stanley Ho

Stanley Ho donation returns stolen bronze horse head to Beijing’s Old Summer Palace

The piece is one of 12 sculptures representing the Chinese zodiac stolen from the palace during the Second Opium War’s Anglo-French invasion.

The bronze horse head, dated circa 1750, is from a series of 12 zodiac animal sculptures that once adorned a fountain at Beijing’s Old Summer Palace. Photo: AP
Art

What will Hong Kong Palace Museum show? Here’s a hint

Publicity for the first exhibitions at the Hong Kong Palace Museum in 2022 strongly suggests that national treasures rarely shown in public will feature heavily among the 800 exhibits loaned by its namesake in Beijing.

Art

Inside China’s porcelain capital, 2,000 years and still going strong

Jingdezhen, in Jiangxi province, has been producing exquisite handmade porcelain artworks for two millennia, but can its ancient techniques compete in a changing market?

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Coronavirus pandemic

Amid pandemic, Chinese people observe Ching Ming Festival online

With access to cemeteries limited due to the coronavirus pandemic, many people are opting for online tomb-sweeping services or setting up virtual shrines for their loved ones on sites such as waheaven.com.

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A cemetery worker in a protective suit makes an offering of flowers at a gravesite in the Babaoshan cemetery in Beijing. Photo: AP
Investing

Hong Kong art dealers turn to the internet to find buyers

Art dealers and galleries employ digital tools to boost sagging fortunes of the once vibrant art market, with one dealer saying ‘this is the way forward’

Fashion

Yes, a dress really can save the world, says a 62-year-old artist

Would you wear a dress made out of plastic church models, anti-pollution masks, or inflatable doves? Chinese artist Kong Ning does, as a way of highlighting pressing issues such as pollution and world peace.

Chinese culture

A salute to women: imperial beauty in China, Japan explored

Crowning Glory exhibition explores how women were able to express themselves despite being closeted in their quarters according to Confucian custom.The earliest items on display in the exhibition date back to the 7th century.

A Japanese painting from the series calledœMirror of Historical Eras that shows how Japanese women would have their long black hair tied up in different ways depending on their status. Photo: courtesy of Liang Yi Museum
TV shows and streaming video

Antiquities to apps: BBC series on China’s Greatest Treasures

New series hosted by art critic and BBC host Alastair Sooke looks at how important works of Chinese art still influence the nation today, from its food to the country’s links with the rest of the world.

A BBC crew filming the Da Ke Ding 3,000-year-old bronze cauldron at the Shanghai Museum for China’s Greatest Treasures. Photo: BBC
Style Edit

STYLE Edit: Would you pay HK$25 million for this painting?

Open season for modern and traditional Asian art collectors as 1,800 lots, valued at HK$780 million, go under the hammer at the China Guardian Hong Kong Autumn Auctions 2019

Chinese culture

Western museums hoarding Chinese relics have run out of excuses

China’s scientific advances mean the claim that ancient artefacts are best preserved in the West no longer holds water.

Art

Collector asks: ‘Where are Xi Jinping’s works of calligraphy?’

Chi Wang, whose Nationalist general father instilled in him a deep appreciation for the art form, explains how the true value of Chinese art is much more than the auction price.

Professor Chi Wang, a scholar and collector of Chinese art, practising calligraphy. Photo: courtesy of Professor Chi Wang
Chinese culture

Opinion | Chinese culture will flourish when there is freedom of expression

The website of the Tokyo National Museum publicises its exhibition of a masterpiece by Tang calligrapher Yan Zhenqing. Photo: Tokyo National Museum
Chinese history

Beijing and Taipei National Palace Museums – a tale of two legacies

The mid-century scramble to stop art and artefacts falling into the wrong hands saw the collection splinter, with Nationalists transporting their treasures to Taiwan and the People’s Republic allowing Forbidden City to preserve posterity.

Chinese history

Ruins of 2,000-year-old coin workshop found in central China

Archaeologists discover fragments of ceramic moulds, copper coins and a kiln site where an ancient government office once stood in Henan province.

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