Thoughts About Summer Volunteer Work

This summer vacation, I participated in a volunteer activity of Spring auction at the China Guardian International Auction Company. My job was to help the national stone and seal cutting project by translating and modifying the English introduction of the author in the auction catalog; assisting in the arrangement and withdrawal of exhibitions; explaining the seals that the visitors are interested in during the preview; answer the commission call at auction. I looked forward to this activity because I will have had the opportunity to learn about the Chinese art of stone and seal cutting, and gain the opportunity to hold the rare stones and the seal cutting works and appreciate them.  

On the first day of the preview, many guests came to visit the seal exhibition area. They eagerly mentioned the auction items, which also helped me memorize the introduction words of the important seal works in this special session skillfully after the first day. The auction preview lasted seven days, a much longer span than the usual preview, but this did not dampen me and other colleagues' enthusiasm. Because it was very rare for the guests to stick to the exhibition during the pandemic, we were very moved and happy to provide the best service.

As I walked into the auction room on the day of the sale, I was still slightly worried. An auction room that could hold more than eighty people was only made for thirty or forty. Although stone and seal carving are not a public collection category, such a small number of bidders had never appeared before the pandemic. However, my worries disappeared when the auction began. Although the number of people at the scene was not many, they were interested in bidding and frequently raising signs. In addition, the client at the other end of the telephone line, as well as the client participating in bidding through network bidding (more and more clients choose to participate in bidding through the network since the pandemic), the total number of the clients who participated was actually a lot. Following Zhao Zhiqian’s self-used seal with the price of more than 6 million yuan, the auction reached its climax. In the end, 149 pieces of stones and seals were sold, with a total turnover of 29.07 million yuan.

I was honestly shocked by the outcome of the deal because the auction industry has been hit hard by the outbreak. The spring auction, which should have ended in May, was extended until mid-August. Fewer than 50 percent of the previously sold-out auction rooms were there because of "spacing" rules. In such a condition, even a small stone seal cutting project’s transaction volume reached close to 30 million yuan— this is a rare sighting. I was also curious about the reasons for this spring auction’s success and wanted to get some clues from my own observations.

First of all, during the preview, I noticed that many young collectors came to the scene, which was somewhat unexpected. Before the pandemic, I saw on the news that the antique market was gradually aging. Young people paid more attention to fashion and fashionable games, and their interest in traditional culture was waning. But this time, I saw the opposite. The younger generation was interested in stones and stone carving, and there were many young buyers at the auction, and they constantly added on to the prices. Secondly, this is the first large-scale auction of China Guardian in 2020. Many buyers have been waiting for a long time. When they come across works with reasonable prices and excellent quality, they act as if they are "waterfalls in a long drought," full of explosive power. I think these two reasons played the most important role in this spring auction’s success.

In addition to the special performance of stone and seal cutting, many other special performances also gained unexpected results, ancient calligraphy and painting being one of them. The spring auction of ancient paintings and calligraphy achieved a record sales rate of 92 percent. In particular, the young buyers I mentioned earlier have surprised many experts with their interest in ancient Chinese works. I think this is inextricably linked to the rise of China's national strength and the increasing recognition of Chinese values in young people’s minds. Although China is still a developing country, its huge market of 1.4 billion people and its rapid development in the past 30 years still accumulate considerable energy. At the same time of economic development, the national identity of self-cultural value is also gradually strong. Ancient Chinese works of art are exactly the best carrier for the continuation and inheritance of traditional culture. Even the strong rivalry between China and the United States may be another way to encourage the Chinese to pay more attention to their own traditional art than to western aesthetic values. At present, western buyers are not as interested in Chinese traditional culture and arts, but I hope to promote and spread awareness of Chinese art to western buyers through more and more cultural exchanges between China and the Western World.