Collector played prominent role in China's modern history

The man who collected most of the relics donated by Chiu Tai-loy - his great grandfather, Wu Tingfang - played a significant role in modern Chinese history.

Wu, who died in 1922, was a diplomat and politician who served as minister of foreign affairs and briefly as acting premier during the early years of the Republic of China.

Born in 1842, he graduated from St Paul's College in Hong Kong in 1861, first working as a legal interpreter. He studied law in England in 1874 and was called to the Bar there three years later, reportedly becoming Hong Kong's first Chinese barrister on his return.

Wu served as first attache in the negotiating delegation after China's defeat in the Sino-Japanese war (1894-95). From 1896 to 1902, he served as Qing envoy to the US, Spain and Peru, and on his return held important posts in the imperial government.

In 1906, Wu became one of two ministers entrusted by the Qing government with the task of revising laws, and drafting a criminal and civil procedure law, according to the March 2004 issue of Perspectives, a monthly journal on China. This law is generally considered the origin of modern Chinese procedural law, even though it never came into effect due to provincial opposition.

After the overthrow of Qing rule - during which Wu twice petitioned the emperor to abdicate - he joined the new republican administration and served briefly in early 1912 as minister of justice for the Nanjing Provisional Government, helping Sun Yat-sen, the father of modern China, to draw up regulations and laws.