Killer collection

Alex J. Huangfu holds a sword he designed for TV series Romance of Three Kingdoms. [Photo/Zhang Tao / China Daily]

China's sword culture is one aspect of its history that has received little attention from researchers but thanks to a private collector that is fast changing. Zhu Linyong reports.

Alex J. Huangfu is a man of many hats. The 42-year-old is a columnist who appears frequently in highbrow lifestyle magazines and on TV shows, is China managing director of International Federation of Spirits Producers, an internationally certified appraiser of imported wines and spirits, connoisseur of luxury goods, philanthropist, animal rights activist, and a veteran boxer. But the title Huangfu cherishes most is No 1 private collector of Chinese swords and knives.

Huangfu was first drawn to the beauty of these ancient weapons in 1994 when he saw and bought an antique sword in Guangdong province.

Since then, he has traveled around the world, hunting for swords and knives from private collectors, on antique markets, and at international auctions in Asia and Europe.

Huangfu's home collection in Guangzhou, southern Guangdong province, now has at least 5,000 items.

China's sword culture is not widely known but is very intriguing, he says. The iron and steel swords of yore occupy an important place in Chinese history, dominating the weaponry of many dynasties. But for a long time, this aspect of Chinese culture was ignored by museums, academia and private collectors.

With China's economy booming, more attention is being focused on ancient culture, including weaponry, Huangfu says.

He opened the nation's first online forum devoted to ancient Chinese knives and swords in 1998, adding the original intention was to exchange tips on how to find authentic ancient weapons.

But it soon developed into, reportedly, the world's largest online resource on ancient Chinese weaponry, with at least 50,000 registered members, mostly collectors in and outside China.

Even so, Huangfu found that there were very few books and papers written about ancient Chinese weapons, especially iron and steel ones. Chinese museums too were found wanting.

"I found many ancient Chinese weapons in the museums of foreign countries and articles in their publications; but local experts and collectors were focused on bronze weapons, not iron and steel ones," Huangfu recalls.

So, he decided to write his own books.

Two swords and scabbards from Huangpu's collection. Photos provided to China Daily

Two swords and scabbards from Huangpu's collection. Photos provided to China Daily

The most popular of these, Iron and Steel Swords of China, published by Tomorrow Publishing House in 2007, has sold at least 200,000 copies.

It introduces more than 300 different types of Chinese swords and contains over 2,000 pictures.

In 2008, Huangfu was appointed guest professor in ancient weaponry at the School of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage Conservation, Zhejiang University. Private collectors began to make a beeline for him to appraise the weapons in their hands.

He has also served as weaponry advisor for films and historical TV dramas such as, the top-rated Romance of Three Kingdoms, directed by Gao Xixi.

It would take Huangfu and his team of skilled craftsmen several months to make one of the many swords seen in the series. And they had to make eight similar versions at the same time, so the best could be picked.

But Hunagfu's efforts and fame have also come back to bite him.

At a recent auction in Hong Kong, he lost the bid for a Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) sword to an amateur collector who admits to have learned about ancient Chinese weapons from Huangfu's books and blogs.

"I now face more competition as a collector," he says.

He also acknowledges he has played a big role in taking the market forward and raising prices for ancient Chinese weapons.

He puts the trade volume of the local ancient weapons collection market at more than 200 million yuan ($30 million).

In the mid-90s, Huangfu says, he could buy a well-preserved ancient sword for less than 100 yuan but now he must fork out thousands of yuan.

"But I take pride in my contribution to the revival of sword culture in China."

He expresses distress at the growing number of fakes appearing in the market, saying this will hurt beginner collectors.

Some of the newly rich are also looking at weapons collection not out of any interest in ancient culture but to make money, he notes.

"People are pouring money into ancient Chinese art and weapons nowadays, but how many of them can tell the difference between a Song (960-1279) and Qing Dynasty sword?" he asks.

He says many wealthy Chinese will not spend on something expensive unless it can be shown off, like a Mercedes sedan or a Louis Vuitton handbag.

The Guangdong-based collector says his love of Chinese sword culture goes back to his teenage years.

"I memorized many poems about ancient warriors and swordsmen, and dreamed of lofty battlefield achievements," recalls Huangfu who remains an avid fan of classic literature and has recently published his collection of essays and poems.

A voracious reader of kungfu novels, he won many kungfu and boxing championships during his university years.

Huangfu has donated part of his collection to several museums specializing in ancient knives and swords, in Hangzhou and Longquan, in eastern Zhejiang province.

The next recipient of his largesse may be a museum in Beijing, he says.