Understanding the Zodiac Saga in China: World Cultural Heritage, National Humiliation, and Evolving Narratives

The Yuanmingyuan Zodiacs, a set of twelve bronze-plated animal heads designed by Europeans for a Western-style section of the Qianlong emperor's private gardens, sparked an international controversy in 2000 when three of them emerged for auction in Hong Kong and their sale was protested by Chinese authorities as deeply humiliating to the Chinese nation. Since then, the Zodiacs have become central figures in a national campaign for repatriation and the most widely recognized objects of China's national cultural heritage. Many have followed the Zodiac saga closely and have offered diverse opinions about the Zodiacs' meaning, whether and how they should be repatriated, and the motives of would-be repatriaters. However, no one has yet to adequately answer the question, Why Zodiacs? What about these pseudo-European statues enabled them to become the centerpiece of a campaign for the repatriation of Chinese cultural heritage? In this article, by situating the Zodiacs within a history of shifting values and examining them in relation to the development of two intersecting discourses, national humiliation and world cultural heritage, I address this question directly.