As we all know, in recent years, folk collection has been very hot, and more and more "rich people" are also fascinated by collecting antiques, these "rich people, including the second generation of the rich, entrepreneurs, senior executives of large companies, etc." They like to collect often have one factor: Chinese culture! Including: hometown feelings, historical feelings, cultural feelings, etc., they are all constituent departments of Chinese culture, and they are also an important reason for people to like antique collections. This includes some patriotic Chinese and overseas Chinese, who have photographed China's antique cultural relics abroad, most of which will be donated to the motherland free of charge, and their patriotic enthusiasm is worthy of our admiration. Today I will tell you about a British Huaqiao, who donated 60,000 cultural relics inherited to the motherland free of charge.
This British Chinese named Zhao Tailai, born in 1954, his ancestral home is Dongguan, Guangdong, overseas Chinese in britain, his great-grandfather is the famous diplomat Wu Tingfang in the late Qing Dynasty, Wu Tingfang once studied in Britain, after returning to China, followed Li Hongzhang, served as China's ambassador to the United States, and became the governor of Guangdong Province in 1922. Zhao Tailai was born in Dongguan to a famous family, his grandfather and father used to practice medicine in Hong Kong, after the founding of New China, his father returned to his hometown in Dongguan with his family and became a doctor in Humen Town Hospital. In 1969, Zhao Tailai, who had lost his parents during the Cultural Revolution, had to go to Hong Kong to join his aunt, and at the age of 15, he became Zhao Shaoang's disciple. In 1979, Zhao Tailai received his aunt's inheritance in Hong Kong, in addition to tens of millions of yuan worth of real estate, there are also two floors of collections, and these collections are of great origin and value.
Later, his aunt gave him a "treasure map" and told him that there was still a precious collection in his residence outside London, and that her aunt died of illness in 1981, for which she never married. Later, Zhao Tai came to England to receive his aunt's inheritance, and there was a huge manor house on the outskirts of London, which the Zhao family bought more than 80 years ago. He took out the "treasure map" given by his aunt and found a large number of ancient calligraphy paintings, ceramics, jade and bronzes in a cellar, which was reported to be mostly treasured by his great-grandfather Wu Tingfang. Wu Tingfang was the ambassador to the United States, Peru and other countries in the late Qing Dynasty, and after the founding of the Republic of China, he served as the chief of justice, the chief of foreign affairs, and the acting prime minister. The family collection has been continuously collected and supplemented by three generations, and has been passed on to Zhao Tailai more than tens of thousands of pieces.
In order to rescue the treasure left by his family, Zhao Tailai moved to the United Kingdom in 1992, became a British citizen, and was forced to become an "underground worker". Because he was afraid that the news of the treasure would leak out, Zhao Tailai spent a full 10 years to count, from bronzes from the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, to the Tang and Song dynasty calligraphy and paintings, to the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, which were almost comparable to the National Museum. Zhao Tailai believes that these cultural relics are all Chinese, should be handed over to the state for good preservation, according to statistics, Zhao Tailai donated more than 60,000 pieces of cultural relics to Major Museums in China free of charge, with a total value of more than 800 million yuan. In order to transport tens of thousands of rare treasures back to China, Zhao Tailai sold 4 villas in London and used the money from the sale of villas to transport these cultural relics back to China, winning the 2005 and 2007 Global World Outstanding Chinese Awards.