The exhibit discusses the Opium Wars that took place in the middle of the nineteenth century.

VOA: special.2010.03.03

This was booty seized during the opium wars and then the Boxer uprising of 1900.

ECONOMIST: Chinese cloisonn��

Russia took the region 140 years ago while China was too busy fighting the Opium Wars to object.

FORBES: When worlds collide

But the Opium Wars are always there, lurking in the Chinese subconscious, perpetuating the tension between pride and victimhood.

ECONOMIST: A time when the West clamoured for free trade with China