Artifacts desperate to return to China from British Museum

Escape from the British Museum, a three-episode video series made by two vloggers, tells the story of a rare Chinese jade teapot with a pattern of curling branches, escaping from the British Museum and looking for a way to return home to China. While the female vlogger plays the role of the jade teapot, the male vlogger acts as a journalist who helps the artifact return home.

In the video series released online on Sept 5, the jade teapot returns to China with letters from other Chinese cultural artifacts, which were stolen or looted from China and are displayed or stored in the British Museum, saying they are desperate to return home.

As some British media outlets said, the video series echoes the Chinese people's call for the British Museum to return the stolen and looted Chinese artifacts. But unlike they claim, the video series does not promote nationalism. Instead, it represents the shared feeling of the Chinese people as well as those in other countries from where Britain and other colonial powers stole and looted historical, religious and cultural artifacts.

With former colonized countries gaining in economic strength, the former colonial powers can right some of their centuries-old wrongs by returning the artifacts to the countries of their origin.

The Chinese people's call for the return of artifacts transcends boundaries, because every country whose artifact is "displayed" (or stored) in the British Museum wants them back. The demand for the return of artifacts is a shared demand. That some British media outlets call this demand "nationalism" suggests they are still living in their colonial past.

It is hard to believe that even in this age, more than half of the stolen and looted cultural artifacts are still with the British Museum. In fact, a commentary piece in The Telegraph, titled "If the British Museum loses its marbles, nationalism triumphs over humanity's common heritage" in January claimed that "the friezes were lawfully acquired by the UK".

By "lawfully acquired", does the author Daniel Hannan mean acquired with the "help" of machine guns and warships? Or does he mean the cultural artifacts of African, Asian and American countries should be kept in the land of robbers and looters, rather than in their land of origin?

If the United Kingdom wants to continue to be an influential global power, it should not follow the advice of people like Hannan.