The recent auction in Hong Kong of three precious antiques from the Yuanmingyuan
Antiques are peculiar stuff and their price tags usually exceed their real value. The worship and pursuit of antiques reflects a fetishism, or, in psychological terminology, narcissistic transference.
Antiques are symbols of social status and celebrity which is why millionaires like to show off their antique collections.
In the west, the merchant class prospered during the late middle ages. Dissatisfied with their social status, upstart merchants built luxurious houses and purchased antiques from impoverished aristocrats in order to fulfill a need for status. They bought antiques to show off their wealth and taste and to balance a psychological need for celebrity.
People in the post-colonialist age have mixed feelings about antiques. The symbolic celebrity and narcissism reflected in their feelings are consistent with a psychological need to resolve a perceived injury to the popular sentiment by seeking symbolic revenge.
Antiques are the instruments for people in power to justify their grand statements and orthodox ideologies. But they are also good material to use to educate people about the sufferings of the populace. Antiques taken away by colonialists represent the incompleteness of an entire nation and this psychological narcissism can only be satisfied after the missing valuables are retrieved amid a self-pitying hubbub.
This has happened in China as well as in other parts of the world. The exchange of antiques between Germany and Russia, as well as China's purchase of antiques, all signify a smoothing over of past traumas. This is a good thing. But China needs the wealth created by capitalism to afford such purchases, which shows that sometimes nationalism can not thrive without capitalist support.
Pu Ta-chung is the deputy chief editorial writer of the China Times.
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