All language subtitles for Stuff.The.British.Stole.S01E05.480p.x264-mSD.Eng

these fists were
supposed to stop bullets.

They were meant
to withstand empires.

This is the story
of a century of humiliation.

And a warrior

Who's been hiding for years.

In the days
of the british empire,

Things were taken.

They usually ended up
in museums

And galleries
with polite plaques.

My name is marc fennell

And this is
the not-so-polite story

Of how they really got there.

you ever read something

Someone wrote
like 100 years ago,

And you think,

"that is so relatable."

That's the experience
that I got when I was...

xiran jay zhao

Is a best-selling author
and youtuber

Who's on a mission to educate
people about chinese history.

particularly about
the sheer amount

Of stolen chinese artefacts

In galleries and museums
around the world.

There's a lot that has been
looted from china.

All of these western powers
came to our country

And then just, like,
ruthlessly stole from us,

And looted so much treasure

That I'm surprised that
there's any left in china.

xiran is in some ways

Part of something much bigger.

A movement among
the global chinese diaspora

To reclaim, not just the past,
but how the past is told.

it's because, like,

The western powers came in
and did all of that,

And then they didn't really
pay reparations ever.

And they didn't really, like,
ever try to make amends,

And that is a source
of national shame and anger.

So, I think the western powers,

They have forgotten
about this history,

But china certainly
has not forgotten.

Whenever I am in a museum

And I see an artefact that is
not native to the area,

I question,

Why is this artefact here,

And not in china?

Like, explain.

but the real
reason I'm here

Standing in a makeshift
youtube studio

Is actually because of
something from here.

My hometown.

Welcome to sydney,
australia.

See, this is a saga
of the high seas,

A gallery of martial arts,

And a precious object
that almost no one

Seems to know even exists.

Well, I certainly
didn't, anyway.

That is, until one day

I got a message
from this woman.

- hello.
-Hello.

- how are you?
-Good to meet you.

-It's nice to meet you too.
-Yeah.

Thanks so much
for talking to me.

Hi. Pleasure.

I'm joanna mendelssohn,
and in 1972,

I got this amazing job.

Very badly-paid amazing job.

It was a very badly-paid
amazing job

At the art gallery
of new south wales

As curatorial assistant.

and in that job
way back in the 1970s,

There was something on display
that jo has never forgotten.

I'd like you
to have a look at this.

That is the object
that most fascinated me.

this is why we're here.

A bronze and gold
buddhist statue.

A warrior.

so, chinese
ming dynasty, weituo,

From the palace
of 10,000 years, peking,

Which is peking now, beijing.

it's gold.

And it's very aggressive.

It looks as though he's very
angry and he could stop you.

He could stop you
in your tracks.

-Right.
-It was so wonderful,

And it really was
a beautiful piece of work,

A beautiful sculpture.

And then when the gallery
management changed...

-It vanished.
-It vanished?

It just wasn't on view anymore.

so, you've got
an ancient golden warrior statue

That at the moment is
nowhere to be seen.

But, how did it end up in
australia in the first place?

We know it came from china.

How do you think
it left china?

I'm assuming it was looted.

Why does it matter to you
that people know the truth

Of where these things
come from?

Probably because of
the kind of person I am,

The kind of art history
I've always researched,

Which is, I want to find out
what's at the bottom of things.

Me too. That's why
I'm doing this.

Yeah. This is fun.
This is like,

This is like art
as a detective novel.

so, a little digging
around art gallery records,

And by "records"
I do mean their website,

Shows that he's been
on and off display

For years at the art gallery.

But the only real clue
as to how it got there

Is that it was a gift.

Somebody by the name
of francis hixson.

It seems captain francis
hixson was a navy man,

Which is why
I'm meeting this guy.

- hello.
-Hello.

Afternoon, marc. How are you?

Good.

meet james hunter,

The curator of naval
heritage and archaeology

At the australian
national maritime museum.

So I have this problem.

There is a statue that
is in the vaults

Of the art gallery
of new south wales.

It is chinese.

We don't quite know
how it got to australia.

The only piece of information
I have is a name.

That name is francis hixson.

Does that name
mean anything to you?

It does, yes.

He was born in the 1830s,
in England.

So, he's in the royal navy

And he goes on his first
overseas voyage,

Which, incidentally,
happens to be australia,

And I guess he decides
to throw down roots here.

But ultimately,

Francis hixson was
the commander

Of the new south wales
naval brigade.

Francis hixson
has this incredible career.

Does he ever go to china?

Francis hixson does
go to china.

A situation around
that time had occurred,

And there was immense poverty,

And the peasants
banded together.

They armed themselves

And they laid siege to beijing.

this siege was huge.

For some reason, multiple
nations felt the need

To send tens of thousands
of troops into china

To put it down,

Including the british

And their distant colonies
in australia.

So, francis hixson
is responsible

For getting together
one of those brigades

Of volunteer soldiers
and sailors

To go to china.

but what was
going on in china

That required a bunch of
british colonial soldiers

To cross the ocean?

And how did it lead

To a golden statue

Landing in the hands

Of a british-born sailor?

Well, that uprising
had a name.

It was known as
the boxer rebellion.

And the most hixson and his men
would likely have heard

Was that chinese peasants
were murdering foreigners.

But that wasn't quite
the whole story.

Bre music playing]

To find out what really sparked
the boxer rebellion in china

At the very end
of the 19th century,

Weirdly, I've come to
a church in ireland.

-Hello, marc, nice to meet you.
-Hello, nice to meet you too.

This way, please.

so I want
to show you this.

This is the whole
reason I'm here.

-Okay.
- this is the statue

That was taken.

Yeah, many buddhist monasteries,

They have this, um,
dharma guardian

In their temples, yeah.

dr zhouxiang lu
lives here in dublin,

But he has been digging
into the history

Of this uprising in china
for years.

And the first thing
you need to know

Is that the china of 1900

Is not the superpower
it is today.

For centuries, the qing empire
ruled this vast land.

But things were not going well.

They'd lost wars against
western colonial powers

And been forced to sign
damaging treaties

That ceded territory
and control.

actually, china was
defeated in every single war

Against the colonial
and imperial powers.

The country was losing land,
the country was losing money,

To foreign powers,

And it was regarded as
a total humiliation.

That shaped
chinese people's worldview.

and that
sense of humiliation

Starts to permeate
the culture.

But the trigger
that changes everything

Seems to be religion.

As european powers
took hold of parts of china,

Christian missionaries,
particularly british ones,

Try to convert the chinese

From, well, amongst
other faiths, buddhism.

Missionaries that come
from places like this.

And the missionaries are trying
to convert the chinese people.

So there were...

Started to have
an increasing number

Of religious conflicts.

there's no question
lots of other factors

Fuelled this uprising too.

There was poverty. Famine.
Natural disasters.

But these missionaries

Coming in pushing
this new faith...

The chinese people
in these villages,

They snap.

The movement was started
by farmers in villages.

since at least
the 10th century,

There had been a tradition
in rural regions of china

Of martial arts societies.

Many villagers, especially
young male villagers,

They would practise martial arts
for self-defence

In case bandits tried
to loot their village.

except now,
they had an enemy

Who they felt was looting
their very culture,

And you see these
martial arts societies

Banding together,
growing in power.

They feel that their suffering

Is all because of
the arrival of westerners.

If there's no westerners,

Then their life
will return to normal.

the violence escalates.

The qing dynasty
backs the boxers.

And suddenly,
tens of thousands of people,

Chinese and foreign,

Are killed.

This is why the british
and other forces

Are called into china.

Only, they face something
there unfamiliar.

How is it that this conflict
gets the name boxer rebellion?

Actually, the chinese name
is not boxer.

The chinese name is
righteous harmony.

It's a righteous harmony fist.

That's the fist.
So in chinese--

-Oh, right! Okay, yes.
-Yeah, the fist.

So they went straight from
the word "fist" to "boxer."

-Yeah, yeah, that's the fist.
-Right, okay.

and to be
a member of this

Righteous and harmonious
fists group

Had an almost spiritual
quality to it.

So, there are two parts.

One is physical training.

It's this martial arts training.

Another part is this ritual.

They believe that
the ancestors and the gods

And the angels will help them,

And so the knife
or the bullet won't hit them.

They will become bulletproof.

And then by doing so,

You will able
to defeat the foreigners.

After years of exploitation
by imperial powers,

This civilian
martial arts force,

Believing themselves
to be invulnerable

To foreign weapons,

Came face to face

With an alliance
of eight national forces.

this might seem like
an obvious question, but,

What happens when

Warriors who believe that
they're bulletproof

Come up against guns?

It's a massacre.

there's no way they can win.

the chinese fighters
were defeated.

And the ruling qing empire,
who supported them?

They capitulate
to the foreign powers

With horrific results.

The qing government,
the obligation is

To arrest and execute
all the boxers, publicly.

And that's the end to it.

it's in this aftermath

That a boat arrives

From the british colony
of new south wales.

Except, francis hixson

Is no longer on board.

Yes, francis hixon did
go to china.

He just didn't make it
all the way there.

He's considered
too old for combat,

And he turns around
at hong kong.

However, his son,
also a navy man,

Does make it to beijing.

now,
I have a very interesting

Piece of information for you.

It is an article

Talking about captain hixson

Bringing a piece
of bronze statuary

That he was donating.

okay, so it says
"the following additions

To the national art
collection were made

During the past month.

Presentation
by captain hixson.

An ancient bronze statue

Found beneath the ruins

Of the palace of 10,000 years
near peking

By a detachment of the
new south wales china contingent

From 1900 to 1901."

there you go.

it could've
been his son

Or another soldier,

But either way,

Hixson got that statue.

This is that connective tissue.

This is how he collects it.

I would certainly say that's
a fairly compelling

Line of evidence, yeah.

Spicy question.

Is this looting?

- well...

Looting's in the eye of the
beholder, I suppose.

From my perspective?
Yes, it is.

Whether you're collecting it
from an archaeological site,

Or you're literally
walking into a museum,

Smashing the glass
and taking it off the shelf,

And carting it home,

It doesn't belong to you.

So, yeah,

I would call that looting.

so, you have
a centuries-old chinese statue,

Likely looted
by british colonial soldiers,

Which ends up in the british
dominion of australia.

This is wild.
Well, to me at least.

If I was to tell you that
there is a golden statue,

A buddha statue,

That's been sitting in the
vaults of an australian museum

For literally decades

That I've managed to track back
and work out

Has come from
the boxer rebellion...

-Yeah?
-Would that surprise you?

-Not really.
-Why?

This is a topic that's
always just lingering

In chinese culture.

So, so people generally
know about it in china?

It's definitely very alive
in the cultural consciousness.

And, yeah, people are aware,
and people are mad about it.

Do you think that
shapes the way

China views
other countries now?

Do you think
it still has an impact?

It definitely does.

Just imagine, like,
you were the--

You were the dominant power
in the region

For, like, 2,000 years.

Then, suddenly, in
the span of, like,

A hundred years,

You lose, like,
so many wars

And you get your territory,
like, taken

By a bunch of white people.

And the japanese too,
let's not forget them.

And it is just, like, so much--

It's a whole trauma conga line.

this boxer uprising

Ultimately becomes
one brutal chapter

In a period that china
now literally calls

The "century of humiliation"

At the hands of other nations.

now, I'm not
saying this to excuse

The chinese government's
current actions,

But I do feel like
chinese people

Still suffer from a lot
of lingering colonial trauma.

in truth, if you see
a piece of chinese art

In a western museum,

Then there is a decent chance
that it is there

Because of some british
or other imperial sailor

Pulling a francis hixson.

And to millions of
chinese people,

Each piece is a reminder

Of that century of humiliation.

There's no shortage
of countries

That have been looted
exactly the same way,

But the difference is this.

China is one of the few
nations in the world

That can actually do
something about it.

-Hello.
- hi.

-Hey, how are you?
-It's so great to meet you.

-Nice to meet you too.
-Hi.

this is
dr emmeline smith,

And even though we're meeting
in glasgow, scotland,

Her main job is
as a criminologist

Travelling through asia

Looking for looted
and trafficked art.

the objects
that come from china

That are sprinkled all
throughout the global north,

How are they viewed
within china?

Are they viewed as
problematic within china?

Culture objects are
very much seen as symbols

To establish this new
national identity.

So yes, obviously,
china wants them back.

They're definitely trying
to get those back.

I hear stories
all the time about, like,

Really rich chinese people

Who go to these auctions
to buy the artefacts back.

what china is doing
is really exceptional

Because it doesn't take
the long route

Of perhaps court cases
and ethical claims

To repatriate its heritage.

Instead, it's buying it back

Because it has
the political willpower

As well as the financial power

To restore
these cultural objects.

And in that sense,

It is perhaps
a little bit threatening

To the european foundations
of the antiquities trade,

Because china is redefining
the rules of engagement.

so this is from
the art gallery

Of new south wales.

So, this is a bronze object

That was taken from rubble
in the boxer rebellion.

In the tail end of
the boxer rebellion.

They've had it in their
collection since 1905.

The thing is, they haven't
had it on display.

A lot of the times
when I work in asia,

Communities ask me, "well,

How are you taking care
of our gods?

Are you at least feeding them

Or displaying them properly
with respect?"

But instead, we've created
a museum culture

Where thousands of people
ogle at these objects

From behind glass.

The fact that it goes
into museum storage,

It's not even
being worshipped...

It's not right.

according to the
art gallery of new south wales,

It's now been
at least eight years

Since the statue
was last seen in public.

-Mm-hm.
-Not many people know about it.

Like, the only reason
I know about it is

A former worker who worked at
the art gallery in the 1970s...

Yeah. Oh my god.

...Reached out to me,
and she's like,

"hey, they've got this thing."

Do you think it's plausible

That they've kept it off display
because of that reaction?

I think definitely.

And I think, well,

That definitely
speaks to guilt.

we've actually found
at the museum,

We've had things
get donated to us

From the boxer rebellion
and from other conflicts.

And in many cases,
we turn it down.

We won't take it.

So, for example,
if it came from china,

Our belief is that
it should go back to china.

And it-- we certainly
won't accept it.

Like is there a way
of honourably

Hanging onto something
that was looted

In the wake of a war?

No.

I don't think so.

after months
of negotiating,

The art gallery
of new south wales

Has asked me to come
to a storage facility

At an undisclosed location.

Yes, it is an actual
secret vault.

I'm here to meet someone

That I never thought
I'd get to meet.

I can tell you
from experience,

Most art galleries and museums

Would never do this.

They would never invite me
and put you guys here

To talk about this.

Why? Why did you agree
to open this up

Out of the vault and show me?

it seems pretty obvious

And straightforward to us.

We're a public art museum.

The works in our collection,

They belong to the people
of new south wales.

Our-- our goal is to,

To display art for enjoyment,

For discussion, for research.

So, we're always happy
to show a work

And to talk about it.

Is this loot?

I think it's best not to use
words like that right away.

But, again, we wouldn't deny
that that's not a possibility.

So in 1905,

Francis hixson gave
an interview to a newspaper,

And he said it was found
in the rubble

Of the boxer rebellion.

Would that qualify to you?

I don't think
it really matters

How you describe the process,

Whether you call it acquisition,
loot, theft, whatever.

The fact is, if it was
coming out of rubble

In the middle of a war zone,

That sort of raises
red flags, I think,

In terms of how...

How an object moves.

I think it's fair
to say it is,

It's a sort of
a problematic history.

Has anyone ever
asked for it back?

-No.
- no?

This statue hasn't been
on display for a little while.

When I leave here today, what
are you going to do with him?

Well, actually,

We're planning a huge rehang
of our asian collection.

And this sculpture will be

An important part
of that display,

And you'll be able to see it
in the gallery.

it's good
to look at the object

And almost think,

"what story is the object
trying to tell?

What would it tell
if it could?"

what would he say
about those sailors

From that tiny corner
of the british empire?

it's entirely possible

That you would've had
palaces that had been looted,

Burned to the ground,

And cultural bits
laying around

That people probably have said,

"ooh, look at that, nice statue.

I'll pick that up
and take it home

As a keepsake."

or would he speak
of the farmers

Who raised fists
against empires?

the boxer rebellion
was regarded as a movement,

Not from the top level

But from a grassroots level.

It was the awakening
of the general public.

or, a story
of rage and humiliation.

it makes me feel
angry just because

All these western powers,

They liked chinese artefacts
and art enough

To, like, take all that stuff,

But they didn't care for
the actual chinese people.

They like the culture
that we create,

But they don't have any respect.

if one day,
you walk past this warrior,

Ask him,

Whose story are you telling?

we need to know
about our past.

We need to know
how things happen.

We can't understand
the present

Unless we understand the past.