Social media buzz around TV series on Chinese museums that could highlight country’s 1.67 million ‘stolen’ objects
The TV series, that uses a variety-show format to look at various treasures in nine Chinese museums, has generated more than a billion conversation threads and may turn its attention to more than a million Chinese cultural objects held in museums around the world
A new Chinese television series on cultural heritage could help raise awareness of ancient Chinese artefacts that are still being kept outside the country.
The Nation’s Greatest Treasures is a 10-part series that features 27 significant historical objects from nine major museums including the Palace Museum in Beijing, the Shanghai Museum, Hunan Provincial Museum, Shaanxi History Museum and Liaoning Provincial Museum.
Aired on China Central Television (CCTV) between last December and February, the show has created quite a buzz on social media, generating 1.7 billion discussion threads on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, and 800 million views on the internet, according to the state broadcaster.
The station says it now plans to feature Chinese artefacts that remain on foreign soil, with many considered to have been stolen.
While the total number of objects abroad are not exactly known, an estimate by Unesco states 1.67 million Chinese relics are held by more than 200 museums in 47 countries.
