It used to be illegal to keep cultural relics under private ownership in China until October 2002. But since then, the Chinese individuals can not only obtain relics and trade them, but are encouraged to run private museums, according to the amended Cultural Relics Law.

"It made me excited for several days," said Luo Shusheng, a 52-year-old museum owner, "because my relics could finally come to light." Luo is a farmer in southwest China's Sichuan Province. After hearing about the amendment of the Cultural Relics Law, he decided immediately to set up a museum of his own to show his collections.

The result is the Shusheng Museum located on the riverside of Minjiang in Wujin Town of Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province. It is only one of the 1,000 private museums in China and family collections which have been sprung up after the Cultural Relics Law was amended.

Now Luo's museum boasts over 600 pieces of cultural relics, including wooden furniture of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, porcelain of the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasties and even Qin (221-206 BC) bricks and Han (206 BC-220 AD) tiles. All of them were collected by Luo in the past 20 years.

Luo said an accidental incident led him to collecting folk cultural relics. One day when he visited a fellow villager's house, he was surprised to see what they were burning for the cooking fire was a carved wooden window frame from the Qing Dynasty. "I felt extremely sad at the moment, for I knew cultural relics were irreplaceable," Luo said. "Due to lacking relevant knowledge, countless cultural relics have been destroyed."

Luo only finished junior high school when he began to work as a bricklayer in a construction team. Later, step by step, he became a team leader, a person responsible for contracted projects, and the head of a construction team specializing in ancient architectural projects. As his income increased, he said, he put more and more money on cultural relics collection.

"The setting up of the museum and my earlier collection cost all my savings, about 1 million yuan (US$121,000)," Luo said, showing no sign of regret. He renovated his wife's restaurant and tea plantation and sent his daughter to learn professional knowledge on museum management.

However, the Shusheng Museum did not go as smoothly as it had been expected. Since it opened in the end of last year, it has attracted a lot of visitors, but still, the income from entry tickets is far from enough to maintain its daily operation. For this reason, Luo has opened a new bar so as to use the money made to support his museum.

"I built the museum to share my collections with the public," Luo said. "The museum now faces difficulties, but I will continue, as long as there is a ray of hope ahead of me."

(China.org.cn by Li Jinhui August 4, 2003)