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His ancestors were Manchu Qing officials, and 183 family heirloom antiques were donated free of charge, but the motherland wanted to buy them back but was refused

King Zhou You, in order to win a smile from the beauty, issued an imperial list, saying that whoever could make his concubine smile would reward that person with a thousand pounds of gold. Later, someone came up with a way to light a beacon to tease the princes, in exchange for the laughter of the mother-in-law. It confirms what Browning said: Man does whatever it takes to seek personal gain.

In 2018, the birthday of a centenarian, the Boston Museum held a special exhibition for this purpose. What is it? Let a museum host a special exhibition just for a centenarian. On his 100th birthday, he announced that he would donate to the museum 183 pieces of his family's collection, including 21 important and historical Chinese works of art, including "Ten Thousand Miles of the Yangtze River" to the museum.

The Boston Museum also publicly announced that it would accept this unprecedented and extraordinary donation of Chinese paintings and calligraphy. The centenarian is a Chinese-American, Weng Wango. Because of family reasons, he loves to collect, for his own collection, he is also willing to donate for people to appreciate, these cultural relics, collections are not other things, but the treasures left in the history and culture of the mainland.

History has no borders, but cultural relics are, and cultural relics are the crystallization of a country's cultural heritage, a heritage, and a symbol. The elderly Weng Wange did not intend to donate the collection to China, but to the United States. His approach to the United States and China is very different, and in 2000 he sold 542 ancient books to the Shanghai Museum for $4.5 million.

Although these antiquities are All of Weng Wange's own collection, and we have no right to intervene and ask for them how he deals with them, they have a completely different attitude towards China and the United States. For his motherland, where his ancestors grew up for generations, his approach is jaw-dropping. Before the donation, Ongwango was known as a patriotic collector because his collection of works was not only complete but also very beautiful. He also said that he was not a collector, but a collector.

This also starts from his family, the most famous of which is Weng Tonggong, the emperor of the two dynasties, the prime minister, the military aircraft department, in the late Qing Dynasty can be described as a position above ten thousand people under one person, and he loves to collect, so his collection gradually expanded. Not only Weng Tonggong, but also his family also has a pivotal position. In the late Qing Dynasty, his family and he could be said to have changed and influenced the changes in the situation at that time.

Onwango is his fifth-generation grandson, who took over so many family treasures when he was only 2 years old, and in order to escape the war, in his 30s, he went to the United States. During these periods, he has well protected these collections, which is not easy in the era of war, so why not donate them directly to the motherland when it is so difficult to protect these collections?

When he was in the United States, Weng Wange, as the chairman of the Huamei Association, made great efforts to introduce Chinese culture to foreigners, and also made many contributions to the exchange of Chinese and American cultures, and was regarded as a patriotic collector before he donated the treasure "Ten Thousand Miles of the Yangtze River" free of charge. Because before that, he also donated the "Spoon Circle Zen Map" to Peking University free of charge.

The Chinese Museum pleaded with Weng Wange to put "The Ten Thousand Miles of the Yangtze River" for exhibition in the museum, but he was ruthlessly refused, and he also donated the "Ten Thousand Miles of the Yangtze River" to the Boston Museum free of charge. Even more egregiously, he auctioned 542 ancient books to the Shanghai Museum and collected $4.5 million. This choice allowed him to live a happy life in the United States, fame and fortune.

What you collect is a priceless treasure, and if you sell one or two pieces casually, you will naturally get money. The specific reason for this is that the Boston Museum was still a private institution at that time, a gathering place for various political figures, and his children could enter high society through donations, while exempting his children from taxes. In his eyes, the priceless cultural relics are more attractive to Weng Wange than the bright future of his children.

Although the treatment of cultural relics in this way will make the ancestors chill, the temptation of realistic interests is enough to make Weng Wange move. In modern times, we have seen countless people spend all their efforts and money to return China's cultural relics to China, just to return China's cultural relics to China's territory.

When someone interviewed Why did Onwango make such a move? His response was also perfunctory, saying that China's conservation measures were not perfect and would damage cultural relics. The facts are well known to everyone, although such a choice cannot be interfered with by others, but such behavior is really chilling.

Abroad, we have witnessed the end of Chinese cultural relics, some stolen, some damaged. Many foreign museums do not have strict protection measures, nor do they protect cultural relics according to the characteristics of the cultural relics themselves. So Onwango's excuse is just an excuse for his own interests.

It is undeniable that these cultural relics are the collection of the Onwango family itself, their own private objects, and they can be handled as much as they want, and we have no right and ability to intervene. But the loss of hundreds of cultural relics has done great damage to China.

Because these cultural relics are not only cultural relics, their own connotations, their own historical value, for history, this meaning is extraordinary, irreplaceable. Although people are selfish, in the face of national interests, Chinese people should have their own pride.

Resources:

The Princes of Beacon Theatre

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