China Focus: Headless Buddha in China’s hit video game renews debate on art repatriation

BEIJING, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) — A headless Buddha in a Chinese blockbuster video game has unexpectedly renewed discussion on a topic that is of great interest worldwide — art repatriation.
The Buddha in the video game “Black Myth: Wukong” wanders around with no head on his neck, but sporting various necklaces, and ultimately reveals himself to be the Bodhisattva Lingji.
Considered the first Chinese-developed “Triple-A” title, “Black Myth: Wukong” draws inspiration from the classic Chinese novel “Journey to the West.” The story follows the adventures of a monk and his three disciples, with a particular focus on Sun Wukong, the legendary Monkey King known for his supernatural powers and mischievous nature.
The depiction of Lingji has triggered discussions linking the fictional narrative to real-world issues. Some people have suggested that the Buddha’s head was looted and is now housed in the British Museum. This has reignited debates over the repatriation of cultural treasures, with netizens comparing the game’s imagery to actual headless Buddha statues from Chinese grottoes and museums.
However, Bodhisattva Lingji is actually a fictional character in “Journey to the West,” and no reliable historical documents or archaeological findings prove that he existed in reality, according to an article posted by the Chinese Academy of History on China’s microblogging site Weibo.
Nevertheless, the history of Buddha statues and many other precious Chinese cultural relics being stolen or looted is very real.
According to the Chinese Society of Cultural Relics, more than 10 million Chinese artifacts have been displaced overseas since the Opium War of 1840, due to warfare and illicit trade.
“There are too many heads taken by the Eight-Power Allied Forces and the war criminals that invaded China. Many of the Buddha statues sites in our country do not have Buddha heads and arms,” posted a netizen under the username dongyin373 on YouTube under a video of the Buddha’s cutscenes.
“One day, our cultural relics will come home, which are left to us by our ancestors,” another netizen named Huochetou wrote on WeChat.
A video interview with British aristocrat Lord Nicholas Monson, posted by a user named XiaominggeDonLee on the popular social media platform Douyin, shows his attitude toward art repatriation. “The way it should be designed is through diplomatic overtures so Britain offers and China graciously receives all its artifacts back. I think that would be splendid,” he said.
Over recent decades, China has employed a multipronged approach to reclaim its lost artifacts, consisting of law-enforcement cooperation, diplomacy, lawsuits and negotiations.
These unwavering efforts, coupled with intensified global cooperation, have yielded major gains, with over 150,000 artifacts retrieved through more than 300 repatriation missions since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.
“The return of each cultural relic tells a story that appears calm on the surface but reveals a journey full of twists and turns upon closer examination,” posted a netizen named Shuishui on WeChat.
Experts have pointed out the difficulties in the repatriation of art and cultural artifacts. “International conventions are only effective for contracting parties, but many European and American countries, as importers of cultural relics, are outside the conventions,” said Wang Kaixi, a professor at the School of History, Beijing Normal University.
“Commercial repurchase is seen as an expedient that has played a huge role in the return of Chinese cultural relics from overseas,” said He Yun’ao, head of Nanjing University’s cultural and natural heritage institute. “But the cost is high and the repurchase is likely to encourage the international community to drive up the price of looted cultural relics.”
He suggested investment in digital restoration. “Digital technologies can be used to put together the fragments of Chinese cultural relics scattered overseas, so as to restore their complete appearance and prove the origin of the cultural relics,” he said. ■