Five thousand years of Chinese civilisation through 108 million relics
Four year survey finds that is just what is in the hands of the state. The number grows even more when considering overseas museums and private collectors
China has just completed an extensive four-year survey of the country’s “movable” relics, including porcelain, paintings and ancient books, and concluded that were has 108 million relics in hands of the state as of October, 2016, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage said earlier last week.
The millions of artefacts across China – about 12 times of the number of works in the British Museum – can testify to the nation’s 5,000-year-old civilisation with many items surviving tumultuous centuries of war, disasters and invasions.
A 2008 nationwide survey of “unmovable heritages”, including buildings, grottos and graves, found 123,480 historical heritage sites in the country.
While many Chinese are proud of being part of a coherent ancient civilization, modern Chinese society is also bidding farewell to its past with appalling speed– ancient towns and urban communities have been flattened for modern developments; villages with hundreds, if not thousands, of years history were demolished completely; and much of the country’s heritage, including most parts of the Great Wall, are left in ruins.
The pursuit of economic prosperity through urbanisation has often made protection of historical relics an afterthought, said Xu Guoqi, professor of history at the University of Hong Kong. Examples include massive public works projects such as the construction of high-speed railways or the Three Gorges Dam, he said.