There is a great show on on BTV (Beijing TV) called “Collection” which I happened to stumble upon late one evening while flipping though the Chinese channels. Normally I avoid the Chinese channels like the plague since about 90% of the time they are eiter a) boring b) lame c) boring and d) lame and boring. But collection caught my eye as right at the minute my clicker landed on that particular channel, they were smashing up a ming dynasty porcelain vase!

“What? What? What? Huh? Why? How?”

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=3695420

Which is exactly what I was thinking too. Basically it turns out to be a “Chinese Antiques Roadshow” with a bit of a twist. People bring in items which they honestly believe to be of value and/or genuine for assessment and appraisal. Experts then assess the value and authenticity of the piece. Now this is where the twist comes in. At a certain point in the show the piece is formally valued by the panel of experts and is done in front of an audience and the other contestants. If the piece is real, its smiles, “oh my god!” and all is well and good. BUT if the piece is assessed to be a fake, out comes the golden mallet (I kid you not) and the piece is smashed and destroyed right there on the spot in front of everyone.

Classic! Check out the video on ABC News or read more about it here on Danwei
(If you know how to use a machine translator (like Google translate), check out the shows homepage on BTV. )