A Relic’s Return W

孙佳慧China is now one of many countries demanding the repatriation of looted antiquities

“elcome home, Tiger Ying!”

When hundreds of netizens posted this welcome message in November 2018, it was not to hail the arrival of some beloved athlete or celebrity. Instead, they were celebrating the return of a 3,000-year-old vessel, looted in 1860 and kept abroad for over 100 years.

This ying vessel, now stored in the National Museum of China, is just one of an estimated 17 million Chinese artifacts believed to be in private collections or public displays in over 200

museums overseas. Many were lost during wartime, or smuggled out by unscrupulous traders, often working in cahoots with tomb raiders.

According to veteran archeologist Sun Ji, ying were traditionally used to hold alcohol, which was burned along with spices during the ancient sacrificial ceremonies of the Western Zhou dynasty; no more than eight are known to exist, and the Tiger Ying, named after leaping casts of the jungle cat that decorate its lid and spout, is believed to be the most intact, with a four-character inscription, “self-made ying,” carved inside its lid. As Sun told China Daily, “The vividly portrayed tiger sculptures and exquisite patterns are also incomparable.”

In 1860, when the Old Summer Palace, an imperial garden of legendarily exquisite design on the outskirts of Beijing, was ransacked and burned down by Anglo-french forces, the Tiger Ying was grabbed by Royal Marines captain Harry Lewis Evans, and entered the private collection of the Evans family.

Over 150 years later, in April 2018, the Tiger Ying appeared in an auction catalog by Kent’s Canterbury Auction Galleries in southern England. The vessel was accompanied by letters, written by Evans, which authenticated the find, recording the robbery explicitly: “I went out on Thursday with a party to burn down the Summer Palace...the temples were enriched with quantities of the most beautiful bronzes and enamels, but were too large and heavy to be moved conveniently.

“I succeeded in getting several bronzes and enamel vases that will, I hope, some day find their way to Southsea, as well as some very fine porcelain cups and saucers of the Emperor’s imperial pattern,” Evans continued, “but they are so dreadfully brittle that I quite despair ever being able to get them home in their present condition. I have, however, packed them up very carefully.”

The discovery of the letters triggered outrage back in China. Though the Chinese government strongly protested the vessel’s sale, its auction proceeded, and was finally won by an anonymous buyer at the price of 410,000 pounds (3,631,000 RMB) on April 11.

Then came a dramatic—though not unfamiliar—twist: On April 28, the National Cultural Heritage Administration (NCHA), which had previously been working to repatriate the artifact, received a message that the mysterious buyer wanted to donate the Tiger Ying to China.

The NCHA, the Chinese Embassy in Britain, and the National Museum quickly began preparing a plan to bring the item home. In September, experts from the museum traveled to Britain to further authenticate the artifact, noting that the vessel showed characteristics of Western Zhou bronzeware from its shape, sculpture, and inscription.

“I SUCCEEDED IN GETTING SEVERAL BRONZES AND ENAMEL VASES THAT WILL, I HOPE, SOME DAY FIND THEIR WAY TO SOUTHSEA”

After identification, NCHA representative Wu Min signed a confirmation receipt with the auction house, and on September 23, the ying was returned to China’s custody, remaining in the Chinese embassy until it was moved to Beijing in November. On December 11, the Tiger Ying was officially transferred to the National Museum for a handover ceremony.

“Its journey back home is a milestone in our efforts to repatriate lost treasures from overseas,” director of the NCHA Liu Yuzhu commented at the handover ceremony. “It fully shows our responsibility to protect our country’s cultural heritage, and may contribute more wisdom about handling similar issues.”

In March this year, China and Italy announced an agreement for the latter to return over 700 cultural relics, a move that came amid renewed calls for more historical artifacts to be returned to their countries of origin.

Last November, France gave 26 artworks back to the West African nation of Benin, and China has been particularly robust in using its political clout to demand that items looted during conflicts such as the Opium Wars be recognized and returned. The UK returned about 3,000 smuggled artifacts to Beijing in 1998. Since then, there have been several high-profile returns: two bronze zodiac animal heads, also taken from the Old Summer Palace, from France in 2013; and 361 antiquities, seized by the FBI in 2014 during a raid on an Indiana farm, sent back from the US earlier this year.

“There are museums the Western world over that are full of artifacts which were acquired under dodgy circumstances, going back,” Hong Kong University Professor Quentin Parker told CNN in March. “China has had so much of its cultural wealth destroyed and also stolen over centuries, and especially over the last few decades, so it’s trying to make a stand.”

According to the China Cultural Relics Academy, over 10 million artifacts were illicitly taken between 1840 and 1949. Now, as many are coming home, the NCHA’S Liu has remarked: “The loss and return of Chinese cultural relics are closely connected with the fall and rise of the nation.”

THOUGH THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT STRONGLY PROTESTED THE VESSEL’S SALE, ITS AUCTION PROCEEDED

He lay on top of the dune, motionless, his camouflage uniform conveniently blending into the sand.

The wind howled past, and the ground was like asphalt in summer, generating an unbearable heat.

But he remained still. Beads of sweat gathered into wriggling streams on his face, only to be totally absorbed by the dry air before they could fall. He used to be an excellent soldier with determination. Of course, he still was.

He held his breath, and with full attention, he stared at the battlefield in front of him, which was almost distorted by the scorching sunlight. Although the area was obscured by the sand every now and then, he had to fix his eyes on it, and kill every enemy as soon as they appeared in his sight.

In a world populated only by sand, the bodies of enemies were almost welcome embellishments. He blinked slowly. Two consecutive days of guard duty had overloaded his nerves, and such days seemed likely to continue.

Three days ago, when he left the bunker, headquarters had given him an order that had to be obeyed. With mixed feelings, he looked at the vintage-style telegraph transmitter beside him and cursed in his heart: that damn old thing. This “antique” had countless problems—when he sent messages to headquarters, they

were able to receive them, and this had already been proven; but he had never received any information back. Still, he could not throw it away, because after all, under the current circumstances, it was his only companion.

He just never thought that he would be in this situation one day—nobody had thought that.

Physically, it was unbearable. These days, even when peeing, he dared not move his eyes from the battlefield. He let out a deep sigh. After all, he was not a machine: he had emotions, and he used to have his own family. The long war had dehumanized him. During the war, he relentlessly killed the enemy soldiers; the enemy women and children, whom he kept alive only due to mercy, would probably kill him once he turned his back. To win, everyone had done unethical things. Although his treatment of enemies was somewhat brutal, it worked. Long-term killing had gradually dulled his conscience.

Subconsciously, he touched the metal thing hanging from his neck and smiled. In his indifferent heart, there were still some tender feelings left. A girl’s face was irregularly painted in acrylic on the surface of that metal thing, but with the passage of time, some paint had scraped off and the metal showed through at the corners. Over a hundred years ago, people called this thing a phone case.

“Heh,” he smiled, as if mocking himself. “It has been a long time, and my memory is also aging.” Maybe that was the reason he smiled.

He was not a natural person, but a new product of this lamentable age—a clone.

The girl on the phone case was a classmate in his grade at police academy. Both her charming smile and sweet voice had left a deep impression on him; for such a petite girl, she showed such tenacity. During military training, there were some tasks that even he wanted to quit, but this lovely girl persevered without any complaint. Although her shooting results were bad, on the whole she had excelled much more than he did.

He had gradually fallen in love. Whenever he was close to her, he would feel short of breath, just like there was something heavy on his chest. When he got this beautiful photo of her, he printed it on his

IN A WORLD POPULATED ONLY BY SAND, THE BODIES OF ENEMIES WERE ALMOST WELCOME EMBELLISHMENTS

phone case. He was the kind of person who always had his mobile phone in hand, so each time he took it out of his pocket, he would see her smile. However, as he was shy and not an eloquent talker, he never confessed his feelings to the girl, just watched her quietly. After graduation, the girl made her own career, and he knew that she’d gotten married and lived a happy life…until one day, when she and her husband were traveling abroad, the world war broke out.

The enemy country did not keep to the international laws, so at the start of the war, everyone from his country who traveled there were seized as hostages, then killed, including her…peacetimes were always rare throughout human history. Only in turbulent ages did people know the preciousness of peace. It was funny to think that in history, people could wage wars for various strange reasons: religion, land, resources, and even the smile of a beautiful girl.

The scale of the war had gradually expanded since the beginning, and as other countries joined, the struggle became like a seesaw. As time went on, both sides were short on soldiers. People like him, who had police training, also joined the army to answer the country’s call (or just to avenge some woman), and involved themselves in the war. Since he showed outstanding performance in battle, he was received by the president, and his blood samples were preserved.

In the middle of the war, some bastard pushed the launch button on nuclear bombs, and the war was immediately escalated. Nuclear bombs exploded everywhere, just like firecrackers, and the explosions did not stop until the surface environment of the Earth was obliterated. Countless people perished, but neither side won, and this had been his last thought before he died.

He let out a heavy breath and ran his tongue over his chapped lips. Now he was a little short of breath— the sun poured its heat onto the ground without any reservation, and as he had been lying on the hot sand for so long, he felt some symptoms of dehydration. Although there was a water bottle tied to his leg, he dared not make any big movements. The enemy knew that he was in this area, and perhaps they had already sent soldiers to kill him.

He tried his best to collect a little saliva in his mouth, and then he swallowed it. He gently moved his left hand to his chest and touched the phone case.

The corners of his mouth curled upward.

When he’d woken up in the bunker, he could hardly believe it. His country had mastered cloning technology before the war, and some low-level clones had already participated in various dangerous tasks during the war. Today, as the cloning technology was much more advanced, it only took four months for an embryo to grow into an adult, and some cloned soldiers even had their own consciousness.

Was he still himself after being cloned? He had been thinking about it for a long time. As a cloned adult, at the moment he woke up, he retained all the memories he had had as a natural person. He could remember the taro cooked by his mother; he could remember the happy moments he spent in internet cafes with his friends; and naturally he could remember her, the charming girl in university…but now he was just a tool that could walk, a machine made to kill.

The enemy also mastered this technology, and this meant that the war would continue. How funny it was! You could never escape it even when you died. Although the enemy soldiers were also clones, as long as he thought that one of them used to be the natural person who’d killed the girl, it was difficult for him to let go of his hatred.

A large number of cloned soldiers had been sent out of the bunker. More than a hundred years had passed, but the damage that the Earth suffered was still too monumental to be healed—the surface had become desolate due to nuclear explosions, and the ecological environment was totally destroyed. However, even under these circumstances, the survivors didn’t consider how to make up for the mistakes they had made, how to recover the ecology of the Earth. Instead, they were thinking about how to continue the unfinished war.

Due to a shortage of materials, many clones did not even have clothes. The clones on the ground dared not violate the orders issued by their superiors in the bunker. When the first batch recovered their memories, they were dissatisfied with their superiors and rebelled. Thereafter, all cloned soldiers were implanted with remote-controlled bombs, and had no choice but to fight and kill the enemy. If they were lucky, some were able to take the enemies’ equipment and other belongings.

Did any of these new clones doubt what they had been told? At least

HE WAS NOT A NATURAL PERSON, BUT A NEW PRODUCT OF THIS LAMENTABLE AGE—A CLONE

academy, he fired a few more shots at the scouts. Then he coldly switched on the safety, picked up his telegraph transmitter, and carefully crawled backward.

Now, he started envying those dead enemy scouts, because at least they had companions when they died, but he had already been left alone. His two comrades had died one after the other, while he was still alive. After becoming a clone, he would sometimes wonder: If he had been brave enough to bare his heart and be with her, what would have happened?

If they traveled abroad before the war, they might also have died together. “We ask not to be born on the same day, but to die at the same time”—that was the ideal of a couple. Or what would have happened if the war had not broken out? Those politicians might not have put their citizens’ lives at risk for the sake of their so-called “benefit.” Who knew those kinds of things for sure? He used to think that after graduating from the academy, he would work for a few years to gain some experience, and then try to obtain a certificate and become a teacher. The sudden outbreak of the war had turned him into a soldier instead of a teacher.

How sad it was! He had become an excellent soldier who continuously killed enemies on the battlefield, but after so many battles, what did he get? All he owned now was this injured body, as well as the phone case hanging from his neck. Right now, the AKM he held in his hand, and the telegraph transmitter, whose functions were insufficient, might be more precious than him. The waywardness of human beings had totally destroyed the ecosystem, so there were not many natural resources available now. One of the scouts he just killed wore only underwear, but they should have brought some useful things with them.

These two were dead, right? Since he had started to retreat, those two soldiers did not make any movement. Death? He sneered. The battle had finished, why was he still so nervous? If he had not been a soldier, he might have peacefully died in the bloody nuclear war and would not have been cloned to continue fighting. Over these one hundred years, how many generations of those natural people hidden in the bunker had lived and died? Those people could have their own children, but people like him could only be cloned and used as cheap weapons. Perhaps if he died in battle, the things on his body would also be taken, including his phone case.

He continued to retreat, without knowing why a person as tenacious as himself could suddenly become tired of the war…but he was unable to kill himself, because when clones were created, they were programmed to become weapons that could not commit suicide. On that thought, if he committed suicide, would the superiors re-clone him? They might not, because a person with a fragile heart was worthless in the war. At this point in his thoughts, he ironically smiled.

A shot sounded, and the stone beside his leg was blasted away.

Were there other enemies ambushing him? Why didn’t he detect it? Shocked, he quickly rolled over on the ground, and subconsciously trained his gun. He froze. That was the reason for his quickened breath, his nervousness, and the heaviness in his chest. That was the reason…

He did not shoot. He was already unable to do so. The enemy’s second shot hit his chest, and blood immediately gushed out.

At the last moment of his life, he held the phone case tightly.

As the enemy’s bullets rained down on him, he died with a smile.

The enemy soldier reloaded her gun with an expressionless face. After making sure there were no snipers around, she came up to his body and silently searched for anything of use.

There was something clutched tightly in the left hand of the corpse. What was it? The enemy soldier tried hard to pry his fingers away, and found that it was a worn phone case. But why was there an image of the girl on it so similar to herself ? The enemy soldier was confused. She looked at the corpse and felt there was something familiar about this strong soldier, who had killed more than a dozen of her comrades, but she couldn’t remember anything beyond that. She did not even know what she was supposed to be remembering. But now there was no time to think, because she needed to continue to search the area and kill every enemy she saw.

All she took was the AKM rifle. The phone case was thrown in the sand. Her personal information had been discovered by chance by the senior figures of the military, who found out that she had been the top student of the police academy in the

HE HAD BECOME AN EXCELLENT SOLDIER WHO CONTINUOUSLY KILLED ENEMIES ON THE BATTLEFIELD, BUT AFTER SO MANY BATTLES, WHAT DID HE GET?

e lay on the ground silently with his automatic rifle held in hands. He loaded the gun and readied himself to kill enemies at any time.

Just now, he’d mustered all his skills and finally killed a female enemy soldier. That female soldier had been very skilled, and after he’d shot her, he found that she had a pretty face. But no matter how beautiful she was, it was still insignificant on the battlefield.

He had a vague feeling that he knew this beautiful female soldier… but he could not remember anything. Besides, he was too busy to dwell on this strange feeling. The enemy was skilled and strong. How could he dare let himself be distracted?

“That dead woman should only blame her bad luck in meeting me,” he thought indifferently.

At this moment, he suddenly found that a well-disguised enemy was quietly hidden in a place not far from him. The enemy got up and rushed towards him with a high-explosive grenade in her hands. With a glance, he found that this enemy had the same pretty face as that female soldier he’d just killed.

But he had no time to feel I wanted to give