A three-episode short video drama produced by Chinese vloggers featuring cultural relics at the British Museum have taken Chinese social media by storm.

The series, inspired by the Chinese cultural relics collection stored or on display in the British Museum, tells the story of a jade pot fairy's journey of returning homeland with the help of a Chinese journalist.

The series went viral soon after the news of the British Museum announced that around 2,000 artefacts were stolen in late August. The news triggered the latest round of requests from countries including China, India, Nigeria and South Africa urging the British Museum to return the cultural items.

The main character – a jade pot fairy sneaked out of the British Museum and met with a Chinese journalist in the UK. The journalist, spurred on by the fairy, becomes determined to bring her back to China.

The video series were inspired by fan comments to Douyin vlogger @Jianbingguozai , asking him to make a video of the items on display in the British Museum. It took the team three months to prepare the script and film in both the UK and China. The video series has already got over 1.6 billion views after being published on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.

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According to @Jianbingguozai, the series is aimed at "awakening the public memories of the cultural relics, and trying to bring them back home."

His thoughts were echoed by many Chinese internet users, who shared their experience of visiting the British Museum.

"While seeing the cultural relics on display at the British Museum, I can hardly express my bitter feelings properly. I'm full of regrets and sense of inability," said one of the comments.

Some dig deeper into the background story.

"The jade pot was purchased by the British Museum in 2017, so she is still young and was not kidnapped there with her eyes covered. She is the only one who remembers her way home," reads another comment with nearly 20,000 likes.

And there are many who took to Douyin to express gratitude to the producers.

"I didn't expect the ending to be like this. It is hard to believe that a production with such depth is filmed by a vlogger."

The video series is also part of the rising awareness of the traditional Chinese culture especially among the younger generations. In recent years, museums have become one of the most popular tourist destinations and traditional Chinese clothes Han Fu, featuring dressing styles of the dynasties, have also inspired many Chinese young people's pursuit of fashion. China also sees a number of designers, artists such as painters, dancers, singers, create their own works out of the Chinese traditions.

The British Museum Act 1963 forbids museums from releasing exhibits, ruling out the possibility to return any cultural relics acquired by the British since as early as the 16th century, a rising number of countries are demanding their national treasures be returned.

Greece insisted the British Museum return the Parthenon marbles in August this year, but it was turned down by British prime minister Rishi Sunak, who "vowed to protect the marbles from being returned," calling them a "huge asset" to the UK. 

In 2022, Egyptian archaeologists initiated a petition, urging the British Museum to return the Rosetta Stone and other treasures which ended in vain as well. 

In a statement to CGTN, a spokesperson for the museum said: "The British Museum understands and recognizes the significance of the issues surrounding the return of objects, and works with communities, colleagues and museums across the globe to share the collection as widely as possible."

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