China boy, 14, acts like ancient scholar, turns bedroom into museum of historic artefacts

A 14-year-old Chinese boy who turned his bedroom into a small history museum and spoke like an ancient scholar has attracted an army of followers online.\nThe secondary school student from central China’s Henan province, Xie Zhaoyutong, loves ancient Chinese history and literature and has filled his bedroom with his antique collections.\nA recent video of Xie passionately introducing his collections went viral online. It attracted 837,000 likes and 40,000 comments.\nXie collects pottery, china, bricks and coins from Chinese dynasties, stretching back over 3,000 years of Chinese history.\n\nHe is able to randomly pick up any item from his collection and tell its story.\nIn a video he shared on his account with 56,000 followers, Xie said one of the “treasures” of his collection is a pottery model of a stove, a funeral object from the Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD).\nAnother treasure is the first coin from the pre-Qin dynasty period that Xie has ever collected. It is a spade coin from the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period (771-221 BC).\nThis type of coin can fetch hundreds or even thousands of yuan each. Xie said his coin was of average quality.\nXie used his pocket money to buy the collections and does not buy new socks even if his existing ones have holes in them.\n\nHis museum also has antiques he collected for free, such as bricks from the Han dynasty (206–220 CE) that he recognised and picked from some grassland while travelling with his family in Luoyang, a city in central China with a rich history.\nXie’s enthusiasm for ancient Chinese culture began at the age of six, when his mother took him to the Zhengzhou Museum.\nZhengzhou, now the capital of Henan province, used to be the capital city of the Shang dynasty (1600-1046 BC), and is where Xie grew up.\nEvery inch of his bedroom, which he calls a museum, is filled with artefacts except his bed.\n“The bed is the container of my flesh. All the rest in the room is the container of my spirit,” said Xie.\nThe idea of setting up his own museum came from a friend he met while attending the TV programme The Chinese Poetry Competition, produced by China Central Television.\nApart from Chinese history, Xie said he is also passionate about oracle bone script, the oldest form of Chinese writing.\n\nHis collections also include fake oracle bone scripts that Xie engraved himself.\n“He is not like a 14-year-old. It is like his body was possessed by an ancient soul in the museum he once visited,” one online observer said.\n“Such an outstanding child, finding his passion at such a young age and shining in the field he pursues,” said another.\nSome said Xie’s eloquence was like that of an experienced university professor, while others said he “has no childhood”.\nBut Xie replied: “It is unfair to say a person does not have childhood because of a hobby. I will stick to my passion.”\n