Historical objects in museums all over the world should be returned to their country of origin. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Whether

antiques

should be returned to their original

countries

has been controversial. From my perspective, on the one hand, these historical objects ought to be sent back as

this

conforms to modern justification;

on the other hand

, the original

countries

had better bring their claims out of respect and affection for their own cultures, not resentment towards once colonisers.

Firstly

, I clearly support the

claim

of returning these

antiques

, since these plunders were the unfortunate reminders of an age of Social Darwinism. During that period, science had just repelled religion and thereby people did not believe the punishment from God any more.

As a result

, what ruled our society was blood and fire. Thrilled by the new reality and the power brought about by the development of science, the

West

cruelly and greedily plundered the ancient oriental

countries

, including the Qing Dynasty, Japan, Korea, and Egypt. Large amounts of mummies, porcelains, and scenery paintings were transported to the

West

.

However

, that bloody age has gone and any government with consciousness should actively redeem their ancestors' crimes by returning these

antiques

blasphemed by blood. The opinion above may make me sound like an extremist motivated by patriotism.

However

,

this

is exactly what I want to criticise. In an age facing serious de-globalisation, many exponents who enthusiastically

claim

these

antiques

do

this

more out of resentment towards colonisers than affection for their traditional cultures.

For example

, in 2017, a group of Chinese filmed a documentary called The Lost Treasures, in which the director has always emphasised the ownership of these

antiques

, but seldom referred to the cultural and historical value of them.

This

has forced me to suspect that he does not really care about these

antiques

, merely utilising them as an approach to express anger towards the

West

. I doubt if

this

will help retrieve "treasures", but I am sure that

this

will

further

elevate the tension between China and the

West

. To summarise, I support the

claim

that historical objects be sent back to the

countries

of origin.

However

, at the same time, I sincerely hope these

countries

once bullied in the 19th and 20th centuries could treat

this

claim

more as an opportunity to retrieve their lost cultures than revenge towards colonisers.