Last night, when I posted the article, the Nanjing Museum's announcement came out. I had written about this hot topic before, so I'm just adding to it to wrap things up.
Many people have been watching too many short videos, and their reading comprehension has declined; they can no longer understand long and dry official announcements. Let me summarize for you: of the five paintings, one is still missing and under investigation, one was found in storage, and the other three were taken back to the museum from their buyers—the details of how they were taken weren't explained.
Some netizens said that these people who stole and sold cultural relics should of course have them confiscated! But these cultural relics were sold in the 1990s, and some of them had been resold three or four times. The later buyers were unaware of the origin of the cultural relics, so this matter… I can't explain it either.
Furthermore, it wasn't exactly illegal resale. The director (Xu Huping) signed off on the sale at the Nanjing Museum's own antique shop, priced between 10,000 and 20,000 yuan. Customers bought it legitimately. Only the most sought-after painting, Qiu Ying's "Spring in Jiangnan," was involved in a fraudulent scheme. The salesperson altered the price from 25,000 yuan to 2,250 yuan, allowing her boyfriend to secretly buy it. Therefore, the invoice information was deliberately left blank. The two resold "Spring in Jiangnan" to an antique dealer, making tens of thousands of yuan, but their scheme was exposed in 2026, leading to a lawsuit.
What I find a bit funny is the painting that was found in the warehouse. The Pang family descendants wanted to reconcile accounts with the Nanjing Museum, but after all that trouble, the painting wasn't on the list. Now that the government's special task force came to investigate, they found it in the warehouse. The warehouse is quite sensible.
According to the announcement, Xu Huping bears primary responsibility for this incident. He is still alive, 82 years old, and was taken away for investigation at the end of last year. A total of 29 people were dealt with in this incident, and 5 people were no longer being pursued due to their deaths.
The timing of this incident is somewhat coincidental; it was only after the Pang family saw their donated paintings being auctioned off that the controversy escalated. It's hard to imagine whether similar cultural relics have been sold off to museums across the country without such a public outcry. Statistically speaking, it's unlikely that Xu Huping is the only bad person in this industry.
Today's A-share market was incredibly soporific, with trading volume continuing to shrink to 2.1 trillion yuan. Even a further drop of 2 trillion yuan wouldn't be enough. I suspect many investors have lost their will to continue trading and are packing up for the Lunar New Year. The market median today was -0.21%, with individual stocks generally experiencing slight declines.
The film and television sector was the only one booming, surging 11.3%, which also dragged down the cultural media and gaming sectors. It seems that some funds are betting on the Spring Festival films in advance, given the precedent of "Ne Zha 2" last year, and the fact that the Spring Festival holiday is particularly long this year. They probably think the box office is worth looking forward to and want to replicate the hype.
I've checked the current most anticipated films for the Spring Festival season, and they're mainly Han Han and Shen Teng's *Pegasus 3*, Zhang Yimou's *The Silent War*, Wu Jing's *The Swordsman*, and *Boonie Bears*. I predict these four films will dominate the box office. If there are any films you'd really like me to review, leave a comment below this paragraph, and I'll pick the two you most want to see.
The main investors in *Pegasus 3* are Hengdian Pictures and Bona Film Group; *The Silent Awakening* is backed by Alibaba Pictures and Enlight Media; and *The Swordsman* is co-produced by Zhejiang Literature & Art Pictures and China Film Group. A reader previously asked if it's possible to invest in the film sector, but I'm not interested in that because it's a classic case of information asymmetry. People within the industry know the quality of a film much earlier than the general public, which is unfair.
Judging from the current situation, *Pegasus 3* is likely to be the biggest winner. With 1 and 2 having a combined box office of 5 billion yuan, it has a huge audience base. As long as *Pegasus 3* follows the previous direction, it shouldn't go too wrong. *Silent Awakening* is a patriotic film about national security; this kind of film isn't likely to be a box office hit. I was quite looking forward to *The Swordsman*, but Wu Jing's online reputation has been terrible in recent years, and he's recently faced boycotts from Han Chinese due to his Manchu identity. Unless the film is exceptionally good, it's likely to flop.
As I was writing this, I glanced at Hengdian Film & Television's stock price. Well, it was 21 yuan at the end of January, and now it's 40 yuan. This is already priced in advance based on 5 billion yuan in box office revenue. Please be aware of the risks. If this trend falls slightly short of expectations, it will backfire.
Today, the worst performers were precious metals and liquor. Precious metals have been fluctuating wildly these past few days, but liquor stocks have lost half of their rebound from the previous days. The road to a consumer rebound is long and arduous, and there's no use rushing it.
1. Today, a friend forwarded me a picture with the title "The Culprit Behind Hang Seng Internet's Slump." After reading it, I couldn't help but burst out laughing. 
Honestly, ByteDance is absolutely the primary responsible party. A company that's not publicly listed yet amasses so much traffic and operates such a huge market is incredibly repulsive. I've already started consciously limiting my Douyin (TikTok) viewing and switching to Tencent Video for short videos. Unless ByteDance goes public soon so I can buy shares, I will continue to boycott them. Making a fortune behind closed doors is the most despicable thing. I hope Zhang Yiming will soon share some of the profits with everyone; otherwise, all the suffering my Hengsheng Internet company has endured is entirely ByteDance's fault.
2. Seedance 2.0 continues to escalate. Today I saw even more videos generated by netizens, and I feel like LeBron James is the biggest victim. So many netizens are beating up and humiliating him; I saw over twenty videos today. Five years ago, these videos would have fooled everyone with their realism and smoothness. We used to say "a picture is worth a thousand words," and "seeing is believing," but in the future, neither pictures nor videos may be reliable. The advantage is that the barrier to entry for graphic design and video production has been lowered, but cybercrime targeting images and videos will become a new problem. I hope everyone will pay attention.
Now, when I encounter sensitive information, I usually call or use WeChat voice to verify the identity; otherwise, I really don't feel at ease.
3. I saw a statistic from Hurun a few days ago that said high-net-worth individuals in China most frequently use Xiaohongshu, Douyin, and WeChat Video Accounts. I was wondering why WeChat Official Accounts weren't mentioned. Perhaps people now find watching videos easier. After all, from an information intake perspective, short videos are passively consumed; you don't have to do anything, the content is presented and played automatically. WeChat Official Accounts, on the other hand, are text-based, requiring active reading, which may demand more user engagement, but is more efficient in terms of information intake.
So it's not that I write on my public account because I expect everyone to read it. From a learning perspective, reading on public accounts is a better way to absorb information. In fact, a higher level of learning than active reading is writing for yourself, and I truly understand this deeply. Many people say they've learned a lot from reading my public account for 10 years, but writing for 10 years is equivalent to maintaining 10 years of high-intensity intake and learning, so my gains are even greater.
That's all for tonight, launch!
Original Article: View Chinese Version
