Page 53 - Jindezhen Porcelain Production of the 19th C. by Ellen Huang, Univ. San Diego 2008

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Mr. Chu Shi-ching, professor of Chinese at Tsinghua University,” to name only a few,

voiced opposition to the Chinese government’s agreement to lend objects to the British

without insurance. In a memorandum, they encouraged the government to reconsider the

terms of object selection and loan. They opposed sending of the objects from the Palace

Museum on the grounds that “once an object of art is acquired by the British Museum, it

will never be allowed to leave its portals.” Moreover, the opposition arose from the

British government’s choice of art specialists to aid in the selection of objects in

Shanghai. Particularly vexing was the inclusion of Paul Pelliot, a French sinologist, who

“was associated with Sir Aurel Stein in the excavations at Tun-hwang in Kansu over 20

years ago, when they carried away many valuable Buddhist classics to France and

England.” In a signed memorandum sent to the Republican government officials in

charge, these cultural leaders also urged that the selection rights belong solely to the

Chinese experts, for to abdicate such a right would be to “betray weakness.” Their

choice of the word “acquired” to describe the action of a “loan” to the British Museum

expressed the petitioners’ palpable worry about permanent loss of artifacts, a residual

feeling born out of the past. Thus, concerns about the exhibition planning process

demonstrated an anxiety born from a loss of art objects that had occurred in recent history.

As a result, the professors and cultural leaders voiced an awareness of past infractions of

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pillaging and also a loss of voice over the definition of their own national tradition. In

light of their worries about the loss of art works to foreign governments in the past and

the fear of the selling of artifacts in the present, such descriptors indicate a higher

sensitivity to art works as material objects that could be looted, stolen, sold, and bought.

To be sure, they also blamed their own country for the lack of responsibility over cultural