Chinanews, Hong Kong, April 25 - An international conference will be held in London to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of Dunhuang studies, and also the 100th anniversary of the expedition of Marc Stein, who discovered Dunhuang. Wang Jiqing and 4 other Chinese scholars from Lanzhou University will attend the conference, at which they will seek to claim back the Dunhuang artifacts in Britain.

 

Wang started researches of Dunhuang studies in 1979, based on the notes and journals of Stein. He even went to Britain in 1989 to look for documents about Dunhuang. Now, he is the director of one of the most important Dunhuang studies institute in China, the Institute of Dunhuang Studies of Lanzhou University.

 

Stein arrived in Dunhuang in 1907 for the first time, and took away many precious cultural relics. "It was illegal for Stein to take away cultural relics in Dunhuang, and UNESCO has approved that all cultural relics should belong to their own nations, thus China has the right to claim back the relics in Britain," said Wang.

 

Wang also states that Stein's expedition was of great importance to archaeological researches and business value. "But it was still illegal for stain to carry off Dunhuang's cultural relics,," emphasized he.

 

Actually, quite a few British scholars believed and perhaps still believe it was right for Stein to come into position of those relics, for the activity was, to quote some of them, "the victory of wisdom and justice". Some of them have just changed their minds recently.

 

Britan promises that it will return the relics in the future, and BBC has hosted several dozens of academic debates and telephone surveys over the matter, and 92% of respondents think Britain should return Dunhuang cultural relics to China.

 

At present, the scrolls and other cultural relics from Dunhuang are well preserved in the British Library and British Museum respectively.