Former Billionaire Works to Preserve China's Cultural Heritage
LOS ANGELES — A new report in China Daily points to "former billionaire" Wang Yongchao in Shaanxi, China, who's been snatching up priceless antiques and cultural relics. But rather than sell them for profit, he's become a one-man movement to preserve China's cultural heritage.
LOS ANGELES — Most of us carry memories of our culture and family around with us. Little trinkets and mementos that keep the past alive, like family photos or a special watch grandpa used to wear. These mementos are important, and they pass along culture to future generations. Imagine what we would do if we had billions in resources to save other mementos.
A new report in China Daily points to “former billionaire” Wang Yongchao in Shaanxi, China, who’s been snatching up priceless antiques and cultural relics. But rather than sell them for profit, he’s become a one-man movement to preserve China’s cultural heritage.
According to the report, Wang was traveling to the Weibei area of Guanzhong in the late 1980s and spotted an urban reconstruction project, one of many that have swept through China in the past decade:
He saw urban reconstruction turning beautiful old homes into rubble. And it upset him.
He also saw two-meter-long stone posts crowned with sculptures sawn in two. The sculptures were sold to antiques dealers at very low prices, while the antique posts were thrown away.
“I didn’t know what these posts were, but I knew they were irreplaceable historical relics,” Wang recalls.
These posts turned out to be hitching posts for horses that were made in the Tang Dynasty (618–906 ACE), nearly 1,500 years ago. That initial spark turned into the Guanzhong Folk Art Museum, established in rural Xi’an, one of China’s ancient capitals and the current capital of Shaanxi province. The museum sports 16 courtyards and a collection, the newspaper writes, worth nearly US $13 billion. It is a number that seems impossibly high but certainly possible. Three years ago the same paper wrote that Wang had spent 300 million yuan (US$43.9 million) over the past 20 years to accumulate the collection.
After the Cultural Revolution, so many of China’s cultural relics were destroyed. And in the midst of modernization, historic neighborhoods like Beijing’s hutong area are being demolished in favor of more profitable, high-density buildings. It may not be possible for even a billionaire to prevent the demolitions, but I’m glad to see Wang’s efforts to preserve what’s being pushed aside.
This is a slideshow of many of the museum’s artifacts on China Daily. Below we’ve also posted an extensive three-part Chinese documentary on the Guanzhong Folk Art Museum.
