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COLLECTING LIKE AN EMPEROR
from left Wang Gang, Xu Qiming,
Cai Wei, Qian Weipeng
BEHIND CHINA’S
PORCELAIN FEVER
PhotograPhs by xia binru
the surging demand for imperial Chinese porCelain
has spurred reCord-breaking priCes and headlines
around the world. Chiu-Ti Jansen interviews four
PhotograPhs by xia binru (left). courtesy xu qiming (right)
Chinese ColleCtors at the epiCentre of this phenomenon.
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COLLECTING LIKE AN EMPEROR
QIAN WEIPENG
THE TREND
ultimately, the bidding smashed through the yiyiyuan (one hundred million
yuan) mark and the vase eventually sold for hK$141 million (us$18 million,
with buyer’s premium, far above its hK$60 million estimate.) bidding for
another qianlong vase went even higher. there were six auctions of fine
chinese ceramics and Works of art that week at sotheby’s hong Kong, which
together brought an amazing total of hK$1.63 billion (us$209 million).
these days, the chinese media have equated a newly coined term – Yiyuan
shidai (age of hundred millions) – with the latest outbreak of collecting fever
in china. the tremendous prices generated by antique chinese porcelain,
particularly pieces produced during the reign of the qianlong emperor (17361795), have raised the possibility of a paradigm shift.
to track this important segment of the art market, mei Jianping and michael
moses, the duo who created the highly regarded mei moses all art index,
recently launched the mei moses traditional chinese Works of art (tcWa)
index in beijing. the index reveals a 225% increase in the three years ending 2010;
the compound annual return of tcWa since the end of 1999 far outperformed
CAI WEI
A blue and white scholar brush
pot, Qing Dynasty, Yongzheng
Period, from the collection of
Cai Wei
collector cai Wei is the Vice chair of beijing
university’s laboratory for archaeology,
and considers educating and nourishing
collectors to be his life’s mission.
that of the standard and Poor’s 500, hong Kong’s heng seng stock exchange
index and the shanghai stock exchange index over the same period. in a recent
press release, mei moses stated, “since 2002 [the tcWa index] has had an
explosive rise. We believe that this might be explained as follows: until the early
2000s most of the demand came from worldwide collectors but in the last few
years, as high net worth wealth grew substantially in china, local collectors started
to focus on their own history and their accumulating wealth added a sufficient
increase in demand to radically move a market with somewhat fixed supply.”
A wucai dragon and phoenix dish,
Ming Dynasty, Wanli Period, from
the collection of Qian Weipeng
in 1993, the china state
administration of cultural
heritage sent mr qian to
london, where he established an
office specializing in the recovery of looted
and dispersed ancient artefacts.
howard-sneyd puts this notion very well: “collecting chinese porcelain has
become one of the most elegant ways of investing in the country itself.”
for centuries, Japanese, europeans and americans alike were in awe of the quality
and innovation that has always characterized china’s porcelain; so thoroughly
did one country dominate the industry, that porcelain is commonly referred to
as “china” in english. hong Kong and taiwanese collectors entered the market
in the late 1980s and 1990s, with mainland chinese collectors joining the scene
in the middle of the last decade and quickly dominating the market. according
to nicolas chow, sotheby’s international head of chinese ceramics and
Works of art, “mainland chinese buyers are currently taking up 50% of the
market share, with the trend continuing to go up.”
but who, exactly, is behind this new paradigm, and what is motivating the surge
in interest in imperial porcelain? recently, i visited four leading mainlandbased porcelain collectors, who represent diverse backgrounds and collecting
experiences. i asked them to recount the different paths that led them to
collect in this dynamic area, and share their insights on current trends.
PhotograPhs by xia binru
L
ast october in hong Kong, during the historic sale of masterpieces of
qing imperial Porcelain from J. t. tai & co, auctioneer henry howardsneyd was at the rostrum, taking bids for a highly coveted floral medallion
vase, and prices were soaring. he called out each bid in hong Kong dollars,
first in english, then in mandarin, as he always did: “eighty million . . .
baqianwan . . . ninety million . . . jiuqianwan . . . . one hundred million . . .” – and
then he paused. as howard-sneyd later recounted, he had momentarily
forgotten the chinese word for “one hundred million,” which he was not expecting
to use at this auction.
THE COLLECTORS
M
r xu qiming, a regular on hurun report’s annual ranking of china’s
richest men, is the chairman of xulong group, with business interests
ranging from inland fisheries to real estate. the “King of eel,” as he is
popularly known, caught the collecting bug in 1994, when a trove of
antique ceramics was unearthed during highway construction in his
hometown, cixi, a city in Zhejiang Province, about 147 kilometers from shanghai.
he started to frequent local antique shops, returning home with truckloads of
his purchases. During numerous business trips abroad he visited the british
museum, the metropolitan museum, tokyo’s national museum and the louvre.
a visit to the Palace museum in beijing brought mr xu to the realization that he
should aspire higher: to collect national treasures. “i came to an understanding
that ‘relishing one bite of the best peach is better than devouring a bucket of
inferior ones!’ ” mr xu described this as the turning point for him to start to
focus on superior-quality porcelain with distinguished provenance, with an
emphasis on the blue-and-white pieces from the yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) and
the decorative objects displayed at the imperial courts of the yongle (14031424) and xuande (1426-1435) periods of the ming Dynasty and the Kangxi
(1662-1722), yongzheng (1723-1735) and qianlong periods of the qing Dynasty.
mr xu was determined to accumulate at least one hundred objects that met
or exceeded the standard of class two classification as applied by the Palace
museum. his strategy has led to a very distinctive honour: in 2006, Zhejiang
museum featured 68 artefacts from his collection in an exhibition, marking the
first time that a government-run museum has showcased a private collection
of this calibre. the national museum of china followed suit, and is currently
showing 100 pieces of porcelain from mr xu’s collection as part of a special
exhibition. mr xu is planning to permanently display his collection on the
ground floor of his company’s new headquarters.
collector cai Wei is the Vice chair of beijing university’s laboratory for
archaeology, and considers educating and nourishing collectors to be his life’s
mission. he started collecting porcelain in the wake of china’s rediscovery of
its cultural artefacts in the mid-1980s, acquiring his first piece after a two-year
stay in hong Kong, where he was a regular visitor to international auction houses
such as sotheby’s. mr cai focuses his collection on brush pots made of porcelain,
including those that are in the blue-and-white style (popular in the late ming
period) and are influenced by literati aesthetics. mr cai plans to establish a
museum for his own collection before he reaches the age of 60.
mr qian Weipeng is one of china’s top connoisseurs in a wide range of
antiquities. he cut his teeth at antique stores in his hometown, yangzhou, in
Jiangsu Province in southern china. “We formed a study group in yangzhou at
that time. We learned about ceramics every morning, participated in archeological
expeditions in the afternoon and studied the unearthed porcelain relics in the
evening ,” mr qian recalls. in 1993, the china state administration of cultural
heritage sent him to london, where he established an office specializing in the
recovery of looted and dispersed ancient artefacts; four years later, still in london,
he founded his own antique company. currently, he runs the tianwuguan art
fund, which specializes in chinese antique porcelain, and serves as an advisor
to many cultural institutions and collectors. his recently opened private museum
of heavenly objects (tianwuguan) in beijing displays carefully curated porcelain
works, accompanied by a splendidly illustrated catalogue. his approach is to
marry old style connoisseurship with modern style capital management.
mr Wang gang, a versatile actor, is a household name in china; his “antique
show” has been a popular television programme for more than four years. a
native of changchun, the capital of Jilin Province, mr Wang did not seriously
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COLLECTING LIKE AN EMPEROR
his television show, acknowledges that “while some subconscious factor may
have induced certain mainland chinese buyers to buy back artefacts from
overseas,” he himself and many of the collectors he knows have not been
motivated by patriotism in making buying decisions. similarly, mr qian, who
has been involved in the repatriation of more than 10,000 cultural relics over
the years, does not believe that it is the primary driver behind the heightened
interest from the mainland buyers. in fact, many collectors would first consider
their own intra-family estate planning and asset-transfer strategies before acting
on any nationalistic instinct. mr qian also thinks that “whereas the government
has a vested interest in seeing the ‘recovery’ of objects from overseas, it is typically
difficult for it to act fast enough based on the consensus of a group of experts.”
for mr cai, “regardless of whether great chinese works of art are in the hands
of chinese or Western collectors, so long as they are well-preserved and
accessible, they retain their ability to represent chinese civilization.”
WANG GANG
A ruby-enamelled bowl, Qing
Dynasty, Yongzheng Period, from
the collection of Wang Gang
Wang gang tends to favour works
produced in the imperial kilns but that are
imbued with literati aesthetics and
scholarly subjects.
although mr Wang gravitates towards the literati tradition, he feels that one
cannot be oblivious to the court tradition that is currently driving the market. he
tends to favour works produced in the imperial kilns but that are imbued with
literati aesthetics and scholarly subjects. a self-taught connoisseur, mr Wang
told me that “i spend all of my spare time studying for, and building up, my
collection.” even though he is very much a hands-on collector, he consults a
coterie of experts who have practical experiences in buying for their own or
other collectors’ accounts. looking back, mr Wang observes that very often
the objects for which he has paid full prices turn out to be the keepers, while
more often than not bargains end up being poor buys.
THE ANALYSIS
I
n light of the different focuses of these collectors’ pursuits, i was curious about
their reaction to the headline-grabbing, record-smashing prices at auction
realized by works produced during the reign of the qianlong emperor.
the aesthetics of the qianlong Period is commonly described, in short, as
Jinshang tianhua (literally, adding flowers onto brocade). it can be paraphrased
as “more is more” and is typically associated with the ruler’s flamboyant personality.
many observers have noted that the qianlong’s aesthetics appeal to china’s
new rich and perfectly fits in with their supposed propensity to show off their
flashy acquisitions. its newly found popularity is a reversal of the trend in the
With many novices, investors and speculators getting into the game, these
seasoned collectors believe that the entire field must be elevated through
education. to foster a new generation of connoisseurs, mr cai runs an education
programme, accredited through the venerable beijing university, called the
Whooping crane collectors club, which currently boasts 31 members. While
the speculators who focus on short-term profits have garnered most of the media
attention, many young dealers and collectors have come to mr cai’s attention
for their eagerness to learn. over the long haul, observes mr cai, it is a positive
trend for a category of collectibles to attract mounting interest from new entrants,
past few decades, when Western collectors dominated the classical chinese
ceramics market and prized nuanced workmanship and the literati aesthetics
of the scholarly tradition.
for many chinese, qianlong is considered the quintessential “celebrity emperor.”
before he died at the age of 89 (he was the oldest emperor in the chinese
history), he had been in power for 64 years. a voracious collector, the emperor
was a major patron of the arts, especially pottery, ceramics and the applied arts.
his reign signified the final glory of the qing empire.
mr cai believes that the recent vogue for works from the qianlong Period
does not necessarily represent a permanent paradigm shift, but is a function
of multiple factors: the availability of objects in the market, the relative
closeness to our time and their accessibility. he told me that “even though i
think the making of brush pots reached its apex during the first three qing
emperors, i also appreciate the subdued beauty of the porcelains from the
song and Jin Dynasties.”
mr qian told me that “the kilns under imperial patronage from the hongwu Period
[1368-1398] to xuantong Period [1909-1911] represented an unprecedentedly
long-lasting ‘brand,’ with 500 years of history.” for mr qian, it is a matter of
time that the pricing of the porcelain produced in ming Dynasty and earlier
periods will equal or even exceed the early qing works. “a true collector,” he
continued, “should be first and foremost a discoverer of the hidden meanings
and the cultural value of an artwork, ahead of the prevailing trend. too many
art buyers are collecting with their ears, rather than with their eyes,” he laments.
interestingly, when asked about whether repatriation (so-called “porcelain
patriotism” ) is the primary driver for the current record prices of porcelain –
a view commonly found in Western media reports – all four collectors expressed
the belief that this motivation is vastly exaggerated. mr Wang, who has come
into contact with many experts, collectors, investors and speculators through
PhotograPhs by xia binru
pick up collecting until the late 1990s, as he scouted for porcelain first in flea
markets and then progressed to antique shops and finally auction houses. he
still remembers the extraordinary excitement he experienced in 2002 when he
won the bidding for a pair of monochrome porcelain blush-red bowls made by
the imperial kiln of the yongzheng emperor. Pieces produced under the
yongzheng emperor (father of the qianlong emperor) reflect their patron’s
personality – rigorous and precise – which particularly resonate with mr Wang.
these collectors all are mindful of the latest trend – viewing art as an investment
vehicle. given mr xu’s background as a successful entrepreneur, it is not surprising
that he would apply portfolio analyses to his own art collection; however, he insists
that he makes buying decisions ultimately based on his own liking. While his
annual art acquisition budget could easily afford him a fleet of private jets, mr
xu would rather spend money on collecting than on pure materialist gratification.
XU QIMING
despite their arguably mixed motives. given that the market for chinese works
of art is just experiencing its first big “break,” mr cai believes that the field
could become more dynamic with many newcomers.
the success of mr Wang’s “antique show” is closely tied to his own interest in
connoisseurship. it is no exaggeration that he is one of the important influencers
on china’ collecting scene. after debating the authenticity and value of an object
presented for evaluation, each episode of his show climaxes with the smashing
of any object identified by the experts as a forgery. the show has its critics, who
argue that even a poor imitation deserve a space on the shelf, but mr Wang
defends his risky, emotionally charged approach: “among all categories of
chinese works of art, porcelain requires the lowest cost basis and therefore a
forgery easily commands the highest profit margin.” for mr Wang, greed
inspires risk-taking and short-term flipping and is the greatest impediment to
true connoisseurship. he wants the act of smashing the forgery to be a wakeup call for his audience, driving home the message that a forged object, however
well made, is worth nothing.
mr xu is also wary of “rampant forgery,” calling it, along with runaway prices,
the main reason holding back newcomers to the field. “many of china’s newly
wealthy people would be interested in entering the market,” he observes, but
“collecting porcelain can be intimidating and challenging.”
for these four collectors, the rewards of a deeply held commitment to the
field are tremendous. When the fever for qianlong-era porcelain has subsided,
these collectors will still be enjoying the pleasures befitting an emperor. as
mr Wang puts it, “after a hectic day, i can go home and feel and touch the
beauty of antique porcelains. it is history and it is calming and restoring.”
Chiu-Ti JAnsen is The founDer of ChinA hAPPeninGs, A MulTiMeDiA
AnD ADvisorY PlATforM ThAT foCuses on The CulTurAl AnD
lifesTYle inDusTries in ChinA. her ColuMn APPeArs in The neW York
observer’s NYO MAGAZINE.
A blue and white and underglaze
red dragon meiping vase, Qing
Dynasty, Yongzheng Period, from
the collection of Xu Qiming
mr xu was determined to
accumulate at least one hundred
objects that meet or exceed
the standard of class two
classification as applied by the
Palace museum.
sothebys.Com/Chineseworksofart i �