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The stipulations for the specific use of Chinese experts, photographs, and additional

exhibition viewings adhere to Wang’s purpose to bolster political legitimacy by

increasing the Chinese public’s trust in its national government. Zhuang Shangyan (also

Zhuang Yan୿ᘌ), one of the two secretaries of the Special Chinese Commission who

traveled with the art objects to London, described the purpose of the Nanjing showing as

“allowing the citizens to confirm the return of the real (shi ྼ) objects.” In this regard,

the government would be able to “demonstrate its trustworthiness” (yi zhao xinshi ˸݇

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ڦྼ).

The Chinese Organizing Committee also had two main selection principles: only

the best things (jingpin ၚۜ) would be chosen for the exhibit, and any “one of a kind”

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(fan zhi you yijian zhi juepin ɭ̥Ϟɓ΁ഒۜ) would not be included in the selection.

A draft list of the artifacts would first be drawn up by the Palace Museum and then

examined by a subcommittee of the main Chinese organizing committee. The final

selection of items sent from China would be the result of consultations between this

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subcommittee and a special London committee sent to Shanghai in April 1935.

By April 19, 1935, the list of selections had been finalized. On June 7, 1935, after

the objects had been carefully packaged, they were loaded onto the English naval ship

H.M.S. Suffolk. Zhuang Shangyan, the Palace Museum staff leader, and Tang Xifen, an

official in the Ministry of Education, accompanied the art works on the ship headed to

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England’s Portsmouth Dockyard (Figure 4). The one thousand or so items were packed
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carefully into 93 cases. In London they were joined in September by four Palace

Museum staff researchers who were specifically assigned to oversee the unpacking and