Losing their heads
A couple of heads - one of a rabbit; the other of a rat - are making quite a racket. The heads used to be part of a display at the Old Summer Palace here in Beijing. But in 1860, this palace was looted by French and British forces. The two bronze heads eventually ended up in the collection of the French designer, Yves Saint Laurent. Now they're in Paris.
China believes that the two bronzes belong right here in Beijing - at their former home in the Old Summer Palace in the north of the city.
Earlier today, a colleague and I went to have a look at the ruins of the Palace. A 25 rmb ($3.65) ticket allows you to wander through the grounds, past frozen lakes and fallen columns. We bumped into several tour groups, doggedly making their way around in the cold (each tour leader had a loudspeaker and a green flag; many tour members had identical orange baseball caps).
Everyone we spoke to believed that the bronzes should be returned to China. It's worth saying that the entire way in which this country views the West is coloured by the looting and destruction of the Old Summer Palace in the 19th century. Many here feel that a failure to return the figures almost 150 years after they were taken away shows a (continuing) lack of regard in the West for China and its heritage.
We had been planning to meander about the ruins for a little longer in order to track down the exact place in which the bronzes used to be displayed. But we got word that three men had set themselves on fire in some kind of protest in downtown Beijing - so we had to get back into town. For a reporter, breaking news has to take precedence over archaeology.
±õ’m 
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