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Private collector, public values
By Zhan Yan |
February 8, 2009, Sunday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
UNLIKE many Chinese collectors who prefer to keep a low profile, the 53-year-old Ma Weidu revels in taking the public limelight. One of the best-known antique collectors in China, Ma frequently appears in magazines, newspapers and on television programs, sharing his experience in antique collecting and the knowledge he has gained to spread the concept of collection among the general public.
As a private collector, Ma has neither a wealthy family background nor any experience in business. He just made the right purchase at the right time and now has his own museum filled with antiques in suburban Beijing. However, when he was growing up as a child in the 1960s, Ma knew little about antiques.
Born in 1955 in Beijing, Ma dropped out of school at 11 at the start of the "cultural revolution" (1966-76). Despite the social turmoil, he managed to study by his own and, after publishing a novel, became an editor for a literary magazine.
"When I was young, literature was my ultimate dream," he said. "But I discarded it when I found the literary scene was quite corrupt - writers could bribe judges for a prize."
So he turned to collecting antiques, an experience he likens to other feel-good emotions. "It's like when you drink quality wine, you can't go back to common wine; or when you smoke a quality cigar, you can't go back to common cigarettes," he said.
"I started collecting antiques in the 1980s. I bought rare furniture, ceramics and jade, all at an incredible price compared to their prices today," Ma recalled. "In fact, I felt I was richer than other working-class people at the time because I had my remuneration from collecting plus a monthly salary."
Ma found that most people were throwing out old things to make room for modern items such as a collapsible chair, a TV set, a sofa or a bike in the late 1970s and early 1980s when China just opened its door to the outside world and began economic reforms.
"Everyone was in a hurry to upgrade their lives, but I was not," he said. "It's obvious that with the advance of technology, modern gadgets can only grow cheaper, but not the traditional artworks," said gray-haired Ma at his Guanfu Museum in Beijing.
"I watched how the business of antique trading boomed in China. The two most crowded places in Beijing before sunrise today are Tian'anmen Square, where tourists crane their heads to watch the national flag being raised, and Panjiayuan (a curio bazaar) where people lower their heads to hunt for treasures."
Ma uses three indicators to show the levels of interest in antiques: extra money in people's pockets, government permission and popularity of books on curio knowledge.
In his early years of collecting, Ma would wander, on his way to work, through the antique market and visit people's homes to search for valuable items.
"I doubted everything when I was young. I'm not the guy who, if you told me something, I would believe it," he said. "I had to prove it myself. Such skepticism accompanied me in antique collection. In this field, there is a definite answer to whether an object is genuine or not.
"The tip is not to reveal any facial emotion," he suggested. "Appraising an antique is akin to seeing a doctor. The face of the doctor is always indifferent, no matter how serious the patient's condition. Likewise, no matter how priceless the pieces are, you should stay calm."
When Ma found one of his "treasures," he enjoyed showing it to friends. "Once I rushed into a friend's home and people inside quickly turned off the TV, looking embarrassed because they were watching porn. I said 'let's look at the bowl I just bought.' But they showed no interest."
Thanks to his early start in collecting, Ma has accumulated more than 1,000 Chinese antique pieces, some of which are priceless. He opened China's first privately-owned heritage museum in 1996 and formed a board of trustees in hopes that they could enrich the museum with their pieces.
Ma named his Guanfu Museum after the Taoist classic word "guanfu," which means "look at it again and again." "If you look at an object again and again, you are either in love with it or studying it," he said. "In my view, this museum is akin to a 'Hope School' in an underdeveloped area. It has nothing to do with money or vanity. Its role is to protect traditional Chinese culture and art."
In his view, antiques illustrate "how great our ancestors were. Without them, we have nothing to prove and nothing to show proudly to the next generation."
Ma plans to donate his collection to the nation. "Antiques belong to the society. We are just the temporary keepers. Most of them have been passed down by at least 10 generations or up to 50 generations."
Ma has written books about collecting and gained popularity by talking about it on TV. He has mastered a way to "preach" appealingly with a humorous and witty style.
Despite the enthusiasm for Chinese antiques, fueled by astronomic prices at auctions, Ma insists that collecting only belongs to a small group of people. "It is not a public activity... I hate to relate collecting to investment. Today, many collectors ignore the cultural and artistic values of antiques."
Ma said collectors often ask him to authenticate their pieces. "To tell you the truth, most are fakes," he said. "Sometimes I have to use a euphemism to avoid hurting them directly. I feel sorry for them."
Yet sometimes a judgement goes beyond the definition of real or not. "One day the public security department asked me to judge a large jade work. If it was real, the thief would be sentenced to death," he said. "I refused them. I can't make a judgement that decides whether a man lives or dies."
As a private collector, Ma has neither a wealthy family background nor any experience in business. He just made the right purchase at the right time and now has his own museum filled with antiques in suburban Beijing. However, when he was growing up as a child in the 1960s, Ma knew little about antiques.
Born in 1955 in Beijing, Ma dropped out of school at 11 at the start of the "cultural revolution" (1966-76). Despite the social turmoil, he managed to study by his own and, after publishing a novel, became an editor for a literary magazine.
"When I was young, literature was my ultimate dream," he said. "But I discarded it when I found the literary scene was quite corrupt - writers could bribe judges for a prize."
So he turned to collecting antiques, an experience he likens to other feel-good emotions. "It's like when you drink quality wine, you can't go back to common wine; or when you smoke a quality cigar, you can't go back to common cigarettes," he said.
"I started collecting antiques in the 1980s. I bought rare furniture, ceramics and jade, all at an incredible price compared to their prices today," Ma recalled. "In fact, I felt I was richer than other working-class people at the time because I had my remuneration from collecting plus a monthly salary."
Ma found that most people were throwing out old things to make room for modern items such as a collapsible chair, a TV set, a sofa or a bike in the late 1970s and early 1980s when China just opened its door to the outside world and began economic reforms.
"Everyone was in a hurry to upgrade their lives, but I was not," he said. "It's obvious that with the advance of technology, modern gadgets can only grow cheaper, but not the traditional artworks," said gray-haired Ma at his Guanfu Museum in Beijing.
"I watched how the business of antique trading boomed in China. The two most crowded places in Beijing before sunrise today are Tian'anmen Square, where tourists crane their heads to watch the national flag being raised, and Panjiayuan (a curio bazaar) where people lower their heads to hunt for treasures."
Ma uses three indicators to show the levels of interest in antiques: extra money in people's pockets, government permission and popularity of books on curio knowledge.
In his early years of collecting, Ma would wander, on his way to work, through the antique market and visit people's homes to search for valuable items.
"I doubted everything when I was young. I'm not the guy who, if you told me something, I would believe it," he said. "I had to prove it myself. Such skepticism accompanied me in antique collection. In this field, there is a definite answer to whether an object is genuine or not.
"The tip is not to reveal any facial emotion," he suggested. "Appraising an antique is akin to seeing a doctor. The face of the doctor is always indifferent, no matter how serious the patient's condition. Likewise, no matter how priceless the pieces are, you should stay calm."
When Ma found one of his "treasures," he enjoyed showing it to friends. "Once I rushed into a friend's home and people inside quickly turned off the TV, looking embarrassed because they were watching porn. I said 'let's look at the bowl I just bought.' But they showed no interest."
Thanks to his early start in collecting, Ma has accumulated more than 1,000 Chinese antique pieces, some of which are priceless. He opened China's first privately-owned heritage museum in 1996 and formed a board of trustees in hopes that they could enrich the museum with their pieces.
Ma named his Guanfu Museum after the Taoist classic word "guanfu," which means "look at it again and again." "If you look at an object again and again, you are either in love with it or studying it," he said. "In my view, this museum is akin to a 'Hope School' in an underdeveloped area. It has nothing to do with money or vanity. Its role is to protect traditional Chinese culture and art."
In his view, antiques illustrate "how great our ancestors were. Without them, we have nothing to prove and nothing to show proudly to the next generation."
Ma plans to donate his collection to the nation. "Antiques belong to the society. We are just the temporary keepers. Most of them have been passed down by at least 10 generations or up to 50 generations."
Ma has written books about collecting and gained popularity by talking about it on TV. He has mastered a way to "preach" appealingly with a humorous and witty style.
Despite the enthusiasm for Chinese antiques, fueled by astronomic prices at auctions, Ma insists that collecting only belongs to a small group of people. "It is not a public activity... I hate to relate collecting to investment. Today, many collectors ignore the cultural and artistic values of antiques."
Ma said collectors often ask him to authenticate their pieces. "To tell you the truth, most are fakes," he said. "Sometimes I have to use a euphemism to avoid hurting them directly. I feel sorry for them."
Yet sometimes a judgement goes beyond the definition of real or not. "One day the public security department asked me to judge a large jade work. If it was real, the thief would be sentenced to death," he said. "I refused them. I can't make a judgement that decides whether a man lives or dies."
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