Proud of his collection of 12 ancient bronze drums which are hundreds of years old, 73-year-old Wei Wanyi does not mind being called the Bronze Drum Collector King.

When he was born, Wei inherited four bronze drums from his ancestors, all famous bronze drum players in Donglan County in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, widely acclaimed as the World's Bronze Drum Home.

Since buying a bronze drum using cattle from his farm, the most valuable things in his home in the 1970s, Wei has been saving every penny to buy ancient bronze drums and has bought seven more, one after another.

Chinese southern minority groups traditionally regard bronze drums as symbols of power and status. The drums were mostly used for relaying war signals, as sacrificial utensils or as talismans.

Bronze drums are still popular in the southern minorities' culture. They are still played on important occasions such as traditional festivals, marriage ceremonies, or funerals.

About 2,400 bronze drums are preserved in museums around the world, and Donglan County has a private collection of 500 bronze drums with the oldest dating back 1,000 years, according to statistics.

"I am willing to carry on Chinese culture by collecting ancient bronze drums because they are historic treasures and I love them," Wei Wanyi said.

Wei's ancient bronze drums feature various shapes and designs, and have an average weight of 15 kilograms. Some of the decorative patterns have been rubdown and some of the drums sparkle with copper light caused by hundreds of years' beating.

The biggest drum in Wei's collection is 22 kilograms in weight and 0.5 meters in diameter.

(Xinhua News Agency January 21, 2002)