Ma Weidu knew little about antiques when he was a child in the chaos of 1960s' China. He wondered why people hated beautiful old things so much, watching them smashing china, tearing paintings and dismantling old constructions.
The 53-year-old now has his own museum filled with antiques. He has been in the profession for almost three decades. Ma recently became a household figure after giving lectures on antiques and traditional culture on national broadcaster CCTV.
"I watched how China's antique collection boomed. Now two places are most crowded in Beijing before sunrise everyday: Tian'anmen Square where tourists are craning their heads to watch national-flag raising; Panjiayuan (a curio fair) where people are lowering their heads to hunt for treasures."
Ma believes three indexes attest to antique collection prosperity: extra money in folk pockets, governmental permission and perusing books on curio knowledge.
When Ma began collecting antiques, they were cheap. "It was like picking up treasures littered on the ground."
Most people were throwing out old things to equip themselves with modern products such as "a collapsible chair, a TV set, sofa or a bike" in the late 1970s and early 1980s when China just opened its door to the outside world and launched economic reforms.
"Everyone was in a hurry to upgrade their lives, but I was not. It's obvious that technology is moving forward and modern gadgets can only grow cheaper, but not the traditional artworks," said gray-haired Ma at his Guanfu Museum in suburban Beijing.
"I doubted everything when I was young. I'm not the guy you told me something and I will buy it all. I have to prove it myself. Such skepticism sent me on a path to antique collection.
Ma dropped out from school at 11 when the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) began. He became an editor for a literature magazine after publishing a novel. He once joined with writers such as Wang Shuo and Liu Zhenyun in producing China's early TV comedies in the 1990s.
"When I was young, literature was my ultimate dream. But I ditched it when I found the circle corrupted -- some writers could bribe judges for a prize."
He turned to antique collection. "It's like when you drank quality wine, you can't go back to common wine; or when you smoked a quality cigar, you can't go back to common cigarettes."
"In antique collection, there is a definite answer on whether an object is genuine or not."
When Ma got a treasure, he enjoyed showing it to his friends. "Once, when I rushed into a friend's home, people inside were embarrassed and quickly turned off the TV. When I found they were watching porn, I said nothing exciting to watch porn, let's look at the bowl I just collected."
Ma named his museum after a word from the Taoist classic "Tao Te Ching, Guanfu," which literally means "watch it again and again." "If you watch an object again and again, you are either in love with it or studying it." His 3,500-square-meter museum mainly display furniture and china, Ma's two favorites.
"A museum is a place for you to enjoy culture. China's museums have improved a lot. When I visited museums in the 1980s, they were badly equipped with broken lights and women were knitting sweaters at the door."
Ma plans to leave his collection to the society when he passes on."Antiques belong to the society. We are just temporary keepers. When staring at antiques, I often felt it was not I who was staring at them, but they were staring at me. Most have been passed on by at least 10 generations or up to 50 generations. We are passengers before them."
He describes himself as a "passionate" and "diligent" man who "perseveres" in doing what he believes in. A friend describes him as a "man with the most common sense." Wang Gang, an actor and anchorman for a TV show on antiques, called him frank in determining the authenticity of antiques.
Once when a collector took out a curio for Ma to judge on a show, he called "the object interesting, it's younger than me." The collector took out another. Ma said "this one is younger than my son." When another collector presented a cup, he announced "there are only three such cups in the world. You've got the fourth."
To make sure he get authentic antiques, Ma reads through basic theoretical books and takes every chance to study relics in museums, exhibitions or curio fairs.
Now he spends certain days a month to help appraise "treasures" brought by visitors. "It helps expose me under the pressure of market changes and to keep an eye on fake production technique changes. If you don't follow the market changes closely for one or two years, you are out."
Ma's advice on how to safeguard against fakes is "don't believe in stories." He's heard too many stories: the keepers' ancestors were eunuchs, maids or chefs in the imperial palaces and got the treasures as a prize or through theft.
"Collector wannabes have to prepare basic theories first, then do it according to their financial capacity and the last were admonishments such as don't be greedy. Traps are normal in this profession."
Ma's home is furnished with traditional hardwood furniture. "My son often cried when he bumped into them. But when he grew up, he could clearly remember a certain wooden chair that he had finished his homework on and had deep affection for it."
Though he received all his knowledge outside of school, he hoped he could have received "regular" education. He enjoys observing and talking on ominous topics such as literature, art and most importantly, all medicines and anthropology with unorthodox comments.
"In producing china, only 5 percent of firewood energy is used to produce china and 95 percent just flows through chimneys," Ma said.
His obsession in seeking authenticity in antiques and social phenomena may come from his Taoism studies. "I'm an atheist, but I study Taoism for its philosophy. Taoism doesn't have class differences. Many others have class divisions and discuss things in certain circumstances with time and space limits."
"Everything has a deeper cause under the superficial. It's just we don't understand it yet."
Curios were dubbed "adult toys" in the past, providing intellectual pleasure for collectors. "Today people put monetary value before intellectual enjoyment. There is too much knowledge covered under an antique."
Ma said he built the museum not to revive ancient culture, but to remind the offspring we once arrived at such cultural prosperity.
(Xinhua News Agency October 15, 2008)
