Curious case of disappearing artifacts surfacing in markets

Reportedly, in North China's Shanxi province, which boasts of the largest number of immovable cultural heritage among all provincial-level regions in the country, and the neighboring Henan province, a cradle of the Chinese civilization, there exists a sizable underground market selling components dismantled from ancient buildings－furtively in many cases.

In the absence of funds and adequate hands to ensure their safekeeping and necessary maintenance, a large number of ancient relics in remote rural areas of not just the two provinces but also many other parts of the country are falling in the hands of thieves and illegal dealers of cultural relics.

In fact, some of the old buildings in the villages, mostly built with bricks and wood, have been "gnawed away" piece by piece, day by day, under the residents' very nose.

The villagers would not feel surprised to find the delicate brick carvings, stone statues and wooden panes disappearing from old houses in their neighborhood surfacing in marketplaces hundreds of miles away just days later.

And it is also no secret that these markets serve as a transit point for these stolen goods to make them parts of properties or projects of their buyers, who come from various walks of life, including rich people who like to decorate their houses with artifacts, and construction companies specializing in building pseudoclassic architecture, mainly for local government tourism projects.

In other words, it is the robust market for these components from ancient buildings that is accelerating their "mythical" disappearance in the country.

However, dismantling of authentic antique buildings in rural, unprotected places and building of pseudoclassic architecture decorated with components from the past in better-off places should not be taken as a laudable example of circular economy and green development.