Chinese Treasure Hunter in Japan

Changxing, a city in northern Zhejiang, a coastal province in eastern China, has sent nearly 2,000 people over years to Japan for the purpose of studying and working in Japanese businesses. Li Yunbing is one of the 2,000-plus chosen for the purpose. He is very special, not because of his background. The son of a local farmer’s family and graduate of a local junior high school, Li Yunbing looked exactly like his 14 fellow workers when they went to study and work in a factory in a suburb of Nagoya, Japan. He spent three years there without visiting his parents back in China and without sending money back home. When he came home at the end of 2007, he did not bring much money back while his fellows each had a bulging purse of 300,000 yuan.

It turns out that the 31-year-old Li Yunbing spent almost all his income on buying Chinese antiques on Japanese markets. Unlike business tycoons in Zhejiangwho have spent fortunes buying back big Chinese treasures on overseas markets, Li Yunbing has brought back small Chinese treasures.

Li grew up with a passion for antiques. He visited an antique market named GovernmentTemple in Changxing frequently before he went to Japan. It was in the local market that Li Yunbing ran into Liu Jiaping, an expert who has become Li’s mentor on ancient coins. Recommended by Liu, Li joined the Huzhou Collectors Association.

Li began to buy antiques during his three years in Nagoya where there are many antique shops and markets. It took him only fifteen minutes to travel by the factory’s shuttle bus from the factory to Nagoya. So he went to Nagoya every weekend.

Li Yunbing was profoundly impressed by what he saw in Nagoya. InMay 2005, he andsome Japanese friends visited the Tokugawa Art Museum, the third largest art treasure of Japan. The museum has a huge of collection of valuable things once owned or used byGeneral Tokugawa Leyasu, a powerful figure in the Edo period. Li noticed 20 Chinese antiques amongthe exhibits, some of which he thought were absent even in the collections of the best Chinese museums back home. On another occasion he visited a local museum in Nagoya which collects and displays tiles from all over the world. One part of the museum is devoted to the Chinese tiles and bricks, including the bricks and tiles made in the Qin Dynasty (221-206B.C.) up to those made in the years of the Republic of China (1911-1949).

After seeing what Nagoya holds and sells through auctions, Li Yunbing could hardly control his impulse to buy. He attended many auctions and forums on coins and banknotes. To his amazement, many Chinese students, business people and workers like him were active in bidding for the lost Chinese treasures. Chattingwith them, Li found he was not alone in thinking that Chinese things shouldcome back to China. Although his resources were low, he tried his best.

Li Yunbing often called Liu Jianping the mentor back in Huzhou, reporting what was on the market, comparing prices, analyzing values and authenticity. What he bought in Japan include some very valuable things: some ancient banknotes, some banknotes issued during World War II by Jianghua Bank, an imperial edict of the Manchukuo, a small kingdom founded by Japanese invaders in China, a waterbowl madein the SongDynasty (960-1279), and some banknotes issued by communists in different base areas.

He bought the imperial edict at an antique market in Nagoya in August, 2007. He spotted a batch of pictorials published for the Japanese invaders during WorldWar II. He thought these could serve as the evidence of Japan’s war crime committed in China. He called his mentor before he decided to buy. The price was okay and the things were valuable. Li recalls that many Japanese collectors decided to sell when they believed their treasures had greatly appreciated and that experienced treasure hunters would sometimes spot some precious treasures. However, Japanese people like porcelains from China, which they understand and they are most reluctant to sell.

Duringhis three-year sojourn in Japan, Li Yunbing met with quite a few Japanese numismatists, artists, journalistsand editors. The courtesy of the Japanese collectors impressed him profoundly. A story well explains his point. He met a Japanese coin seller at a market in January 2007. The antique seller spent half an hour explaining a Chinese coin to Li. Li did not buy the coin in the end because of the condition of the coin. He thought the Japanese would lose his temper and utter some angry words, but instead, the vendor apologized politely and profusely.

While still in Japan, Li Yunbing began to write on his collection and his experiences in authenticating antiques. Some of these have been published in national and provincial publications.