On September 26, 2022, a special exhibition titled "Return in Full Bloom" opened in Shanghai, featuring 47 exceptional objects from the Poly Art Museum and the Beijing Yuanmingyuan Administration, all of which were returned from overseas. Since the Opium War in 1840, over 10 million Chinese cultural assets have been lost abroad due to looting, excavation, theft, and illegal trade. However, only a small fraction of these artifacts have been returned to China. This paper explores China's efforts to reclaim its lost cultural heritage and examines the ongoing debates surrounding the restitution of cultural property. It focuses on the research project "Traces of the 'Boxer War' in German Museum Collections," initiated by seven German museums in 2021, which aims to trace and investigate objects looted during the Boxer Rebellion. The study also compares China's approach to restitution with European perspectives, highlighting the key debates within colonial provenance research and postcolonial studies. Ultimately, the paper seeks to address whether there can be an open dialogue and collaboration or if direct return is the preferred solution for the restitution of cultural heritage.

Ning Yuan. Open Dialog and Cooperation or Direct Return? Debates about Cultural Assets from Colonial Contexts Using the Example of China's Lost Objects. International Journal of Social Sciences and Economic Management (2025), Vol. 6, Issue 1: 88-100. https://doi.org/10.38007/IJSSEM.2025.060109.

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