He describes how his eyes once glittered when he saw some porcelain bowls in a simple brick farmer's house. The farmer said the bowls had belonged to his deceased grandmother.

He paid 500 yuan (US$60) for the bowls, and made tremendous efforts to hide his happiness because he believed the bowls were made in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

The farmer then helped him take the bowls to his home, and after noticing the man's shabby clothes, Li asked him to stay for dinner.

After the meal, the farmer said, "This is the best meal I have had for months, and I have to confess, I made the bowls myself."

Li's experience is common in today's cultural relics market, said Shan Jixiang, the head of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) who calls the industry "booming yet somewhat disorderly."

The disorder is partly because relic circulation among individuals was once illegal, said Zhang Deqin, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and former director of SACH.

"The 1982 Law on Cultural Relics Protection strictly forbade the circulation of cultural relics among individuals. What's more, it encouraged authorities to purchase relics from individuals rather than encourage private collection," said Zhang.

The revised law has, for the first time, given a legal status to private collections and to relic circulation among individuals. "The new law encourages private collection in the hopes that private collectors can help protect the cultural relics," said SACH head Shan.

The 50th part of the amendment states that individuals, legal persons or private organizations can obtain cultural relics through inheritance, bestowal, purchase from an antique shop or auction, exchange or transfer among individuals.

Besides private collection, the amendment allows the existence of private museums using the term "non-State-owned cultural relic collecting unit", Zhang Deqin said.

The amendment also allows for the existence of a cultural relics market that includes circulation of relics, stores, and auction houses.

"The mass popularity of cultural relic collecting, the prosperity of the cultural relic market and the emergence of private museums are inevitable results of the rapid economic development in China," Zhang said. "The public enthusiasm simply cannot be hindered."

Detailed regulations on private collections will be offered to private collectors, Shan said.

(China Daily November 15, 2002)