Treasures continue their journey
An exhibition at the city’s history museum reveals the story of the emergency relocation of celebrated relics during Japan’s invasion of China, Zhang Kun reports.
Many people ran for their lives. And some fled the invading forces to not only save themselves but also national treasures.
It’s this saga, which unfolded during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45), that’s being recounted at the Shanghai History Museum through to March 29. Subsequently, The Long March of the National Treasures: An Exhibition Commemorating the Southward Evacuation of the Palace Museum’s Artifacts will tour other cities, including Guiyang, Guizhou province, and Beijing.
After the Japanese invaders occupied regions in northeastern China in 1931, the Chinese government decided to relocate the Palace Museum’s treasured artifacts to the south. It took over a year to pack the selected artifacts in more than 13,000 wooden crates. In 1933, they were sent to Shanghai by train, along with over 6,000 boxes of relics from other historical sites in Beijing, and were stored in a warehouse in the former French Concession.
By the end of 1936, a new warehouse was built in Nanjing, the then capital of China, and the artifacts were transported there. The following year, fighting battles against Japanese invaders broke out in Shanghai and Nanjing, and the artifacts had to be relocated again. They were eventually transported to three counties in southwestern China’s Sichuan province: Baxian, Emei and Leshan.
In 1946, just after the war, these artifacts were moved to Chongqing and the next year to Nanjing. From the end of 1948 to 1949, a portion was shipped across the Strait after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.
The 2,971 boxes of artifacts later made up the Palace Museum in Taipei’s core collection.
By 1958, more than 10,000 boxes stored in Nanjing had been shipped back to the Palace Museum in Beijing. The 2,221 boxes left behind then became the main collection of the Nanjing Museum in Jiangsu province.
The Palace Museum later sent many objects from its collection to other museums, libraries and archives around China to support the construction of cultural facilities all over the country.
“Spanning more than two decades and covering thousands of kilometers, the ‘Long March of the National Treasures of the Palace Museum’ was a miraculous achievement in the protection of cultural heritage for all human civilization,” says Wang Xudong, director of the Palace Museum in Beijing.
It was common for museums around the world to relocate their artifacts to avoid damage during the war, points out Zheng Xinmiao, a former director of the Palace Museum in Beijing, who is also a senior scholar researching on this chapter of the Palace Museum’s history.
What’s unique about the Palace Museum’s collection, compared to other leading museums in the world, is that these objects have been accumulated across centuries and dynasties as testimonials to Chinese civilization, Zheng says. Such relics as ancient books and documents, as well as fine bronze, jade and ceramic pieces, represent China’s collective cultural identity. So, when the country was fighting against Japanese invaders, their protection stoked the flames of patriotism, Zheng says.
The items’ initial relocation from the Palace Museum immediately captivated public attention. Some feared the objects could be damaged, sold or lost.
“People working for the Palace Museum cherished the artifacts like their own lives and carried out strict measures to ensure their protection throughout the lengthy process,” Zheng says, noting that workers at the Palace Museum in Shanghai produced more than 90 volumes of documentation about the objects.
As the items were moving around, the Palace Museum held several exhibitions, the most important of which took place in London from 1935 to 1936.
“It was the first overseas exhibition of artifacts from the Palace Museum and, for that matter, also the first large-scale overseas exhibition of any artifacts from China,” Zheng says.
Before they were shipped overseas, 735 objects were showcased at a preview exhibition in Shanghai. After their return to China, another exhibition was held in Nanjing.
People from China’s cultural and intellectual circles were actively involved in these exhibitions. They engaged in heated discussions about which objects could travel abroad and which could not.
Many acclaimed collectors in Europe, such as Percival Victor David, a prominent connoisseur of Chinese ceramics, had previously recognized only porcelain as representative Chinese artifacts, while other items, such as jade ware, were considered unimportant ornamental handicrafts, but this exhibition “helped them realize that paintings and calligraphy are truly the essence of Chinese culture”, Zheng says.
Over the past decades, more people have started to realize the significance of this history. While there are two Palace Museums, in Beijing and Taipei, both are dedicated to promoting Chinese culture. In 2010, workers from the Palace Museum in Beijing and their colleagues in Taipei took a journey together along the relocation route’s important locations.
“We had received lots of important historical documentation about the relocation from our colleagues in Taipei,” says Zheng.
In 2017, the then director of the Palace Museum in Beijing, Shan Jixiang, called for the protection of the locations where the artifacts were stored in Sichuan. A center to research this subject was established at the museum later that year. And in 2021, a memorial museum commemorating this legacy was founded in Chongqing.
The Shanghai exhibition features three chapters.
The first showcases historical photographs and documents about the journey. The second highlights the four years that these artifacts were stored in Shanghai. And the final chapter depicts the artifacts’ long journey through multimedia displays.
“Shanghai is the first leg, and we hope to add new materials and improve the exhibition design during the tour,” Zheng says.
He adds that there are plans to hold the exhibition in the Palace Museum in Beijing in 2025, when it celebrates its centenary.
It seems many more stories are yet to happen to these once roved relics.