Question

Twelve animal head statues(生肖兽首雕像) are well-known treasures from Yuanmingyuan, or the Old Summer Palace. After Anglo-French troops(英法联军) broke into the old Summer Palace in 1860, a large number of national treasures, including the 12 animal head statues, were taken away.

On November 13th, 2019, a red bronze(铜) horse-head statue returned to Beijing. It was donated by Macao collector Stanley Ho and handed over to the National Cultural Heritage Administration(国家文物局) in Beijing.

“The broken link(链接) of history memory is connected again in this way,” Liu Yuzhu, director of the NCHA, told China Daily when she was in an interview.

“The return of the heritage(文物) holds the Chinese’s collective emotion(集体情感). People’s cultural confidence can be strengthened. It will also encourage more compatriots (同胞), both at home and abroad, to better protect the cultural heritage of our country.”

In the past 70 years, the Chinese government and many compatriots have made a great contribution to getting back lost Chinese heritage from foreign countries. Because of their hard work, the horse statue is the seventh of the 12 animal statues to be returned from other countries. Now the search is on for the remaining five: a dog, a rooster, a dragon, a sheep and a snake.

1.When were the 12 animal head statues taken away from Yuanmingyuan?

2.Who donated the red bronze horse-head statue to China last year?

3.What does Liu Yuzhu do?

4.How many animal head statues have returned to China?

5.Why do so many compatriots try to get back lost Chinese heritage?

Answer 1