We can detect a nascent self- possession the east has not known for many centuries. That is what is new among Asians – elusive, unannounced and unmistakable all at once.
– Patrick Smith, Somebody Else’s Century: East and West in a post-Western World
Asense of “the great shift east” could be found this month on Station Parade in the London suburb of Ruislip. At Bainbridges auction house, an anonymous bidder with a Beijing accent stumped up £53m ($85m) for a 16-inch Qing dynasty vase. The purchase, for what is believed to be the highest price paid for a Chinese work of art, forms part of a trend: huge sums of Chinese money are being marshalled to bring the country’s heritage back home.