- há 7 minutos
In a mystery binding together China, UK & Australia, British colonial forces took a golden warrior statue following an epic rebellion by Chinese martial artists. But how did it end up in a prestigious Australian building?
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00:07These fists were supposed to stop bullets.
00:13They were meant to withstand empires.
00:21This is the story of a century of humiliation.
00:31And a warrior who's been hiding for years.
00:43In the days of the British Empire, things were taken.
00:46They usually ended up in museums and galleries with polite plaques.
00:51My name is Mark Fennell,
00:53and this is the not-so-polite story of how they really got there.
01:07You ever read something someone wrote like a hundred years ago,
01:11and you think, that is so relatable.
01:14That's the experience that I got when I was reading these cat poems.
01:21So, I am Xiran Jiao, and I am a best-selling author and also a YouTuber
01:26who makes content about Chinese history and culture.
01:30So, back in the Song Dynasty, if you wanted to get a cat,
01:32you had to follow the same rules
01:34for when you were to get a concubine for yourself.
01:38So, basically, the value of women back then
01:40were the equivalent to pet cats.
01:42Xiran is also something of an activist,
01:44using the internet to educate, actually kind of rant,
01:49about the sheer amount of stolen Chinese artefacts
01:52in galleries and museums around the world.
01:54One of the reasons why I came to talk to you
01:56is I'd like to understand more about Chinese looted art.
01:59Mm-hm.
02:00Tell me everything you know.
02:02There's a lot that has been looted from China.
02:04All of these Western powers came to our country
02:07and then just, like, ruthlessly stole from us
02:10and looted so much treasure
02:13that I'm surprised that there's any left in China.
02:16Xiran is, in some ways, part of something much bigger,
02:19a movement among the global Chinese diaspora
02:22to reclaim not just the past, but how the past is told.
02:27It's because, like, the Western powers came in and did all of that
02:31and then they didn't really pay reparations ever.
02:34And they didn't really, like, ever try to make amends.
02:36And that is a source of national shame and anger.
02:40So I think the Western powers,
02:42they have forgotten about this history,
02:44but China certainly has not forgotten.
02:46Does that change the way you think about museums
02:50when you're walking through them?
02:51I do.
02:51Now I am super critical of museums.
02:54Whenever I am in a museum
02:55and I see an artefact that is not native to the area,
02:57I question, why is this artefact here and not in China?
03:01Like, explain.
03:01Come to my grave when...
03:04But the real reason I'm here,
03:06standing in a makeshift YouTube studio,
03:08is actually because of something from here.
03:12My hometown.
03:14Welcome to Sydney, Australia.
03:17See, this is a saga of the high seas,
03:20a gallery of martial arts
03:22and a precious object
03:23that almost no-one seems to know even exists.
03:29Well, I certainly didn't anyway.
03:31That is, until one day I got a message from this woman.
03:36Hello.
03:37Hello.
03:38Hello.
03:38How are you?
03:39Good to meet you.
03:40It's nice to meet you too.
03:41Yeah.
03:41Thanks so much for talking to me.
03:43Pleasure.
03:44I'm Joanna Mendelsohn and in 1972,
03:48I got this amazing job,
03:51very badly paid, amazing job,
03:53it was a very badly paid amazing job,
03:55at the Art Gallery of New South Wales
03:57as curatorial assistant,
03:58which was sort of like the most junior appointment.
04:02And in that job, way back in the 1970s,
04:05there was something on display
04:06that Zhou has never forgotten.
04:09I'd like you to have a look at this.
04:10That is the object that most fascinated me.
04:13This is why we're here.
04:15A bronze and gold Buddhist statue.
04:18A warrior.
04:19So, Chinese Ming Dynasty,
04:21Waitou,
04:22from the Palace of 10,000 Years, Peking,
04:25which is Peking now, Beijing.
04:27Yeah.
04:27It's gold.
04:29And it's very aggressive.
04:31It looks as though he's very angry
04:32and he could stop you.
04:35He could stop you in your tracks.
04:37Right.
04:38It was so wonderful.
04:39And it really was a beautiful piece of work,
04:42a beautiful sculpture.
04:43And then, when the gallery's management changed,
04:46it vanished.
04:47It vanished?
04:48It just wasn't on view anymore.
04:49I thought, whatever happened to that statue?
04:52It was a story I thought needed to be told.
04:55Or rather, I guessed that you were going to find out
04:57the answers that I didn't know.
04:59So, you've got an ancient golden warrior statue
05:02that, at the moment, is nowhere to be seen.
05:05But how did it end up in Australia in the first place?
05:09We know it came from China.
05:11How do you think it left China?
05:13I'm assuming it was looted.
05:15Why does it matter to you that people know the truth
05:17of where these things come from?
05:18Probably because of the kind of person I am,
05:21the kind of art history I've always researched,
05:23which is, I want to find out what's at the bottom of things.
05:25Me too.
05:26That's why I'm doing this.
05:27Yeah.
05:27This is fun.
05:28This is like art as a detective novel.
05:34So, a little digging around Art Gallery Records,
05:36and by records I do mean their website,
05:39shows that he's been on and off display for years
05:41at the Art Gallery.
05:42But the only real clue as to how it got there
05:45is that it was a gift.
05:46Somebody by the name of Francis Hickson.
05:51It seems Captain Francis Hickson was a Navy man,
05:55so I am taking to the high seas.
05:57And by seas, I mean centimetres,
06:00which is roughly how far this boat is from dry land.
06:03But it's where I'm meeting this guy.
06:05Hello.
06:06Hello.
06:07Afternoon, Mark.
06:07How are you?
06:08Good.
06:09Meet James Hunter.
06:11And I am the curator of naval heritage and archaeology
06:14at the Australian National Maritime Museum.
06:16So, I have this problem.
06:18There is a statue that is in the vaults
06:21of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
06:23It is Chinese.
06:25We don't quite know how it got to Australia.
06:27The only piece of information I have is a name.
06:30Captain Hickson.
06:31Francis Hickson.
06:32That name is Francis Hickson.
06:34Does that name mean anything to you?
06:36It does, yes.
06:37He was born in the 1830s in England.
06:40So, he's in the Royal Navy,
06:41and he goes on his first overseas voyage,
06:44which, incidentally, happens to be Australia.
06:47And I guess he decides to throw down roots here.
06:50But ultimately,
06:51Francis Hickson was the commander
06:55of the New South Wales Naval Brigade.
06:58Was he a good sailor?
06:59He was apparently a very good sailor, yes.
07:02He got very high marks from his commanding officers
07:05when he was in the Royal Navy.
07:06He ultimately attained the rating of Master.
07:10Francis Hickson has this incredible career.
07:13Does he ever go to China?
07:14Francis Hickson does go to China.
07:16A situation around that time had occurred,
07:20and there was immense poverty,
07:23and the peasants banded together.
07:25They armed themselves,
07:26and they laid siege to Beijing.
07:30This siege was huge.
07:33For some reason,
07:34multiple nations felt the need
07:35to send tens of thousands of troops into China to put it down,
07:39including the British
07:41and their distant colonies in Australia.
07:44So, Francis Hickson is responsible
07:47for getting together one of those brigades
07:49of volunteer soldiers and sailors to go to China.
07:58At the request of the British Empire,
08:00Francis Hickson and his ship, the Salamis,
08:02sailed past Fort Macquarie.
08:04Which, these days, is this.
08:06It's the Sydney Opera House.
08:07And they headed out towards China.
08:14But what was going on in China
08:16that required a bunch of British colonial soldiers
08:19to cross the ocean?
08:20And how did it lead to a golden statue
08:23landing in the hands of a British-born sailor?
08:27Well, that uprising had a name.
08:31It was known as the Boxer Rebellion.
08:34And the most Hickson and his men would likely have heard
08:37was that Chinese peasants were murdering foreigners.
08:41But that wasn't quite the whole story.
08:48To find out what really sparked that conflict,
08:52weirdly, I've come to a church in Ireland.
08:57Hello, Mark. Nice to meet you.
08:59Nice to meet you too.
09:00Nice to meet you, please.
09:01So, I want to show you this.
09:02This is the whole reason I'm here.
09:04Oh, OK.
09:05This is the statue that was taken.
09:07Yeah.
09:07Many Buddhist monasteries,
09:09they have this Dharma guardian in their temples.
09:14Dr Zhou Zhang Lu lives here, in Dublin,
09:17but he has been digging into the history
09:19of this uprising in China for years.
09:21The first thing you need to know
09:22is that the China of 1900 is not the superpower it is today.
09:27For centuries, the Qing Empire ruled this vast land.
09:31But things were not going well.
09:34They'd lost wars against Western colonial powers
09:37and been forced to sign damaging treaties
09:39that ceded territory and control.
09:41Actually, China was defeated in every single war
09:44against the colonial and imperial powers.
09:47If you look at the map of China,
09:48the country was losing land,
09:50the country was losing money to foreign powers.
09:52And it was regarded as a total humiliation.
09:55That shaped Chinese people's world view.
09:57And that sense of humiliation starts to permeate the culture.
10:01But the trigger that changes everything
10:03seems to be religion.
10:05As European powers took hold of parts of China,
10:09Christian missionaries, particularly British ones,
10:12try to convert the Chinese from, well,
10:15amongst other faiths, Buddhism.
10:17Missionaries that come from places like this.
10:19So Ireland also sent a lot of missionaries to China in the 19th century,
10:27including St. Patrick's College.
10:30So you've got this huge influx of Christian missionaries,
10:33Christian churches kind of popping up across the country.
10:35And the missionaries are trying to convert the Chinese people.
10:38So they were starting to have an increasing number of religious conflicts.
10:44There's no question lots of other factors fuelled this uprising too.
10:47There was poverty, famine, natural disasters.
10:50These missionaries coming in, pushing this new faith.
10:53The Chinese people in these villages, they snap.
10:57So how is it that people start fighting back?
11:00Like what is it that turns?
11:02The movement was started by farmers in villages.
11:06Since at least the 10th century,
11:08there had been a tradition in rural regions of China
11:10of martial arts societies.
11:14Many villages, especially young male villagers,
11:17who would practise martial arts for self-defence,
11:19in case bandits tried to loot the village.
11:22Except now, they had an enemy
11:24who they felt was looting their very culture.
11:27And you see these martial arts societies banding together,
11:31growing in power.
11:32So the target is the church,
11:34is the missionaries and the Chinese Congress.
11:36But it's also all things foreign.
11:38They believe it should be eliminated.
11:40They feel that their suffering
11:42is all because of the arrival of Westerners.
11:47If there's no Westerners,
11:49then their life will return to normal.
11:50So the slogan for the movement is
11:54support the Qing, which is the Qing government,
11:57and exterminate the foreigners.
11:59When you say exterminate,
12:01what do we mean?
12:02What does that actually mean practically speaking?
12:04Practically speaking,
12:05it means they will attack the church
12:07and sometimes end up in extreme violence.
12:11The violence escalates.
12:13The Qing dynasty backs the boxes
12:15and suddenly tens of thousands of people,
12:17Chinese and foreign, are killed.
12:19This is why the British and other forces
12:22are called into China.
12:24Only they face something there unfamiliar.
12:28How is it that this conflict gets the name Boxer Rebellion?
12:32Actually, the Chinese name is not Boxer.
12:35The Chinese name is Righteous Harmony.
12:38It's a Righteous Harmony fist.
12:40That's the fist.
12:41So in Chinese...
12:42Oh, right, okay.
12:42Yeah, the fist.
12:43Yeah, okay.
12:44So they went straight from the word fist to boxer.
12:47Yeah, yeah.
12:48That's the fist.
12:49Right, okay.
12:50And to be a member of this righteous and harmonious fist group
12:54had an almost spiritual quality to it.
12:56So there are two parts.
12:59One is physical training.
13:01It's this martial arts training
13:03to build up your muscle, build up your skill, killing skill.
13:06Right?
13:07Another part is this ritual.
13:08So by conducting that ritual,
13:10they believe that the ancestors and the gods and the angels
13:13will help them.
13:15And so will become...
13:16The knife or the bullet won't hit them.
13:19They will become bulletproof.
13:20And then by doing so, you will be able to defeat the foreigners
13:25because they are using firearms.
13:27After years of exploitation by Imperial powers,
13:31triggered by European missionaries,
13:34this civilian martial arts force,
13:36believing themselves to be invulnerable to foreign weapons,
13:39came face to face with an alliance of eight national forces.
13:47This might seem like an obvious question,
13:49but what happens when warriors who believe that they're bulletproof
13:53come up against guns?
13:54It's a massacre.
13:58It's very simple.
14:00How could a human being, an organic body, defend a bullet?
14:04There's no way they can win.
14:11The Chinese fighters were defeated
14:13and the ruling Qing Empire who supported them,
14:16they capitulate to the foreign powers
14:18with horrific results.
14:21The Chinese government, the obligation is to arrest
14:24and execute all the boxers publicly.
14:27So...
14:28Publicly?
14:29Publicly, yes.
14:30And, yeah, that's the end to it.
14:34It's in this aftermath
14:36that a boat arrives
14:38from the British colony of New South Wales.
14:46lorraine
14:47LORRAINE
14:47Except...
14:48Francis Hickson is no longer on board.
14:52Yes, Francis Hickson did go to China.
14:55He just didn't make it all the way there.
14:56He's considered too old for combat
14:58and he turns around at Hong Kong.
15:00However, his son, also a navy man,
15:03does make it to Beijing.
15:05They don't see action.
15:06It's probably worth pointing that out immediately.
15:09The main fighting is over.
15:11So what these guys end up doing is doing a lot of policing
15:15and a lot of sitting around not doing much of anything.
15:19Well, it seems they definitely did something.
15:23Now, I have a very interesting piece of information for you.
15:26It is an article talking about Captain Hickson
15:31bringing a piece of bronze statuary that he was donating.
15:36OK, so it says,
15:37The following additions to the National Art Collection
15:39were made during the past month.
15:41Presentation by Captain Hickson.
15:42An ancient bronze statue found beneath the ruins
15:45of the Palace of 10,000 Years near Peking
15:48by a detachment of the New South Wales-China contingent
15:50from 1900 to 1901.
15:52There you go.
15:53It could have been his son or another soldier,
15:56but either way, Hickson got that statue.
15:59This is that connective tissue.
16:00This is how he collects it.
16:03I would certainly say
16:05that's a fairly compelling line of evidence, yeah.
16:07Spicy question.
16:08Is this looting?
16:11Well, looting's in the eye of the beholder, I suppose.
16:15From my perspective, yes, it is.
16:18Whether you're collecting it from an archaeological site
16:20or you're literally walking into a museum,
16:22smashing a glass and taking it off the shelf
16:24and carting it home, it doesn't belong to you.
16:27So, yeah, I would call that looting.
16:30But while the New South Wales sailors were away in China,
16:34something changed back in their colony.
16:37So, when these guys load up on the ship,
16:41they're all British subjects at that point
16:43because, of course, they are British colonies.
16:46When they're en route to China,
16:48they are informed that when they come back
16:52as of 1st of January, 1901,
16:54they have a whole new nation
16:55because federation occurs and they are Australian.
17:01So, you have a centuries-old Chinese statue,
17:05likely looted by British colonial soldiers,
17:07which ends up in the empire's newest nation, Australia.
17:11This is wild.
17:12Well, to me, at least.
17:14If I was to tell you that there is a golden statue,
17:18a Buddha statue,
17:19that's been sitting in the vaults of an Australian museum
17:22for literally decades
17:24that I've managed to track back
17:26and work out has come from the Box Rebellion,
17:28Yeah.
17:28Would that surprise you?
17:30Not really.
17:31Why?
17:32This is a topic that's always just lingering in Chinese culture.
17:37It's, like, the sensitivity over, like,
17:39how many artefacts were, like, looted overseas.
17:42Wait, so people generally know about it in China?
17:44They know that there's heaps of looted stuff?
17:46Yes, and then it's definitely very alive
17:48in the cultural consciousness,
17:50and, yeah, people are aware and people are mad about it.
17:52Do you think that shapes the way China views other countries now?
17:56Do you think it still has an impact?
17:57It definitely does.
17:59Just imagine, like, you were the dominant power in the region
18:02for, like, 2,000 years.
18:04You thought that you were, like, the greatest civilization ever,
18:07and then suddenly, in the span of, like, 100 years,
18:09you lose, like, so many wars,
18:11and you get your territory, like, taken by a bunch of white people.
18:17And the Japanese, too.
18:18Let's not forget them.
18:20And it is just, like, so much...
18:22It's a whole trauma conga line.
18:24And...
18:27This boxer uprising ultimately becomes one brutal chapter
18:32in a period that China now literally calls
18:35the century of humiliation at the hands of other nations.
18:40I think just the culmination of the Boxer Rebellion
18:43and that entire century of humiliation, as Chinese culture calls it.
18:47I'm not saying this to excuse the Chinese government's current actions,
18:50but I do feel like Chinese people still suffer
18:54from a lot of lingering colonial trauma.
19:00In truth, if you see a piece of Chinese art in a Western museum,
19:05then there is a decent chance that it is there
19:07because of some British or other imperial sailor
19:10pulling a Francis Hickson.
19:13And to millions of Chinese people,
19:15each piece is a reminder of that century of humiliation.
19:20There's no shortage of countries that have been looted
19:23exactly the same way, but the difference is this.
19:25China is one of the few nations in the world
19:27that can actually do something about it.
19:44Hello.
19:45Hi.
19:45Hi, how are you?
19:46It's so great to meet you.
19:47Nice to meet you too.
19:49This is Dr. Emmeline Smith,
19:51and even though we're meeting in Glasgow, Scotland,
19:54her main job is as a criminologist
19:56travelling through Asia looking for looted and trafficked art.
20:00The objects that come from China
20:02that are sprinkled all throughout the global north,
20:06how are they viewed within China?
20:08Do they want them back?
20:09Are they viewed as problematic within China?
20:11Where cultural objects were previously seen
20:14as sort of symbols of an oppressive or undesired past,
20:19now cultural objects are very much seen as symbols
20:23to establish this new national identity.
20:26So yes, obviously, China wants them back.
20:29Now it's angry and it's powerful now.
20:33And yeah, they're definitely trying to get those back.
20:35I hear stories all the time about like really rich Chinese people
20:39who go to these auctions to buy the artifacts back
20:42just to like donate it to the country again.
20:44Or they just get it back,
20:46and then because it's in the hands of a Chinese person again,
20:48they're happy about that.
20:50What China is doing is really exceptional
20:52because it doesn't take the long route
20:54of perhaps court cases and ethical claims
20:58to repatriate its heritage.
20:59Instead, it's buying it back
21:00because it has the political willpower
21:02as well as the financial power
21:04to restore these cultural objects.
21:05And in that sense,
21:07it is perhaps a little bit threatening
21:10to the European foundations of the antiquities trade
21:14because China is redefining the rules of engagement.
21:20It occurs to me I haven't actually showed you the object.
21:22So this is from the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
21:24So this is a bronze object
21:26that was taken from rubble in the Boxer Rebellion,
21:30in the tail end of the Boxer Rebellion.
21:32They've had it in their collection since 1905.
21:35The thing is, they haven't had it on display.
21:37How familiar is that?
21:38Like, how often does that happen?
21:40It's very common, yes.
21:42Museums typically have only 1% to 2% on display
21:44of what they have.
21:45That's not very much.
21:46And often museums don't even know
21:48what is in their storage units, right?
21:50So how painful is it that an object of worship
21:53that was clearly taken from a space of worship
21:56is not even on display?
21:57A lot of the times when I work in Asia,
22:00communities ask me,
22:01well, how are you taking care of our gods?
22:03Are you at least feeding them
22:04or displaying them properly with respect?
22:07But instead, we've created a museum culture
22:09where thousands of people ogle at these objects
22:13from behind glass.
22:14The fact that it goes into museum storage,
22:17it's not even being worshipped,
22:18it's not right.
22:26According to the Art Gallery of New South Wales,
22:28it's now been at least eight years
22:30since the statue was last seen in public.
22:34Not many people know about it.
22:35The only reason I know about it
22:37is a former worker who worked at the Art Gallery
22:39in the 1970s reached out to me
22:41and she's like, hey, they've got this thing.
22:43Do you think it's plausible
22:44that they've kept it off display
22:45because of that reaction?
22:47I think definitely.
22:48And I think, well,
22:50that definitely speaks to guilt.
22:51Is it possible that it's been put off display
22:54because it is quite controversial?
22:57I don't know.
22:58You'll have to ask the gallery.
22:59We've actually found it at the museum.
23:01We've had things get donated to us
23:04from the Boxer Rebellion
23:06and from other conflicts.
23:07And in many cases, we turn it down.
23:09We won't take it.
23:10So, for example, if it came from China,
23:12our belief is that it should go back to China
23:15and we certainly won't accept it.
23:17Is there a good way of hanging on to it?
23:19Like, is there a way of honourably hanging on to something
23:22that was looted in the wake of a war?
23:23No.
23:25I don't think so.
23:29After months of negotiating,
23:32the Art Gallery of New South Wales
23:34has asked me to come to a storage facility
23:36at an undisclosed location.
23:38Yes, it is an actual secret vault.
23:41I'm here to meet someone
23:45that I never thought I'd get to meet.
23:49I can tell you from experience
23:50most art galleries and museums
23:53would never do this.
23:54They would never invite me
23:56and put you guys here to talk about this.
24:00Why?
24:00Why did you agree to open this up
24:03out of the vault and show me?
24:04It seems pretty obvious and straightforward to us.
24:06We're a public art museum.
24:07The works in our collection,
24:09they belong to the people of New South Wales.
24:11Our goal is to display art for enjoyment,
24:15for discussion, for research.
24:17So we're always happy to show a work
24:19and to talk about it.
24:23Is this loot?
24:24I think it's best not to use words like that right away.
24:28But again, we wouldn't deny that that's not a possibility.
24:31So in 1905, Francis Hickson gave an interview to a newspaper
24:35and he said it was found in the rubble
24:37of the Boxer Rebellion.
24:40Would that qualify to you?
24:42I don't think it really matters
24:43how you describe the process,
24:45whether you call it acquisition, loot, theft, whatever.
24:49The fact is, if it was coming out of rubble
24:51in the middle of a war zone,
24:53that sort of raises red flags, I think,
24:55in terms of how an object moves.
24:57I think it's fair to say it's a problematic history.
25:01I think it's our duty to find out what we can find out.
25:04We would love to know more about the details.
25:06The other thing is sometimes you never know the details.
25:11There's a huge move at the moment within China
25:14to buy back, acquire, or demand in some cases,
25:18artworks.
25:20Kind of like this.
25:22Has anyone ever asked for it back?
25:24No.
25:25No.
25:26This statue hasn't been on display for a little while.
25:29When I leave here today, what are you going to do with them?
25:33Well, actually, we're planning a huge rehang
25:36of our Asian collection,
25:37and this sculpture will be an important part of that display,
25:41and you'll be able to see it in the gallery.
25:43It's good to look at the object
25:44and almost think,
25:45what story is the object trying to tell?
25:47What would it tell if it could?
25:51What would he say about those sailors
25:54from that tiny corner of the British Empire?
25:57It's entirely possible
25:58that you would have had palaces
26:01that had been looted, burned to the ground,
26:04and cultural bits laying around
26:06that people probably said,
26:08ooh, look at that, nice statue,
26:09I'll pick that up and take it home as a keepsake.
26:11Or would he speak of the farmers
26:13who raised fists against empires?
26:16Box Rebellion was regarded as a movement
26:19not from a top level,
26:21but from a grassroots level.
26:23It was the awakening of the general public.
26:28Or a story of rage and humiliation.
26:31It makes me feel angry
26:33just because all these Western powers,
26:35they liked Chinese artifacts and art enough
26:38to, like, take all of that stuff,
26:40but they didn't care for the actual Chinese people.
26:42They like the culture that we create,
26:44but they don't have any respect.
26:46If one day you walk past this warrior,
26:50ask him,
26:51whose story are you telling?
26:53We need to know about our past.
26:56We need to know how things happen.
26:58We can't understand the present
26:59unless we understand the past.
27:01And do you think objects like this
27:03can reveal some of that history?
27:04Oh, yes. Objects speak.
27:07They're very eloquent.
27:09You look at them and they tell you things.
27:21A major issue they've changed.
27:21When they forget your belief,
27:21because the Lord is with it.
27:21Reg� to the West To sleep.
27:21You
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