By DAN LEVIN

BEIJING - Some four decades after the Cultural Revolution, when many of the country’s centuries-old treasures were defaced or destroyed as a result of Mao’s command to eradicate “the four olds” - old ideas, old culture, old customs and old habits - China has reversed its attitude toward antiques.

Ming dynasty porcelain vases, 19thcentury hardwood furniture and even early 20th-century calligraphy ink pots have become popular status symbols for an emerging middle class eager to display its new wealth and cultural knowledge. The antiques market has become so hot, in fact, that it has given rise to a new category of must-see TV here.

In recent years, a dozen shows with names like “Collection World” and “Treasure Appraisal” have been luring both serious collectors and armchair enthusiasts, offering information on collecting trends and appraisal techniques, and encouraging a new wave of treasure hunting.

Zhou Yajun, a long-distance truck driver and collector from Hebei Province, near Beijing, said he watched “Collection World” and other antiques shows every week, testing his appraisal skills against those of the judges in the hope that he could learn to outwit the counterfeiters who prey on the country’s amateur antiquarians.

Mr. Zhou, 38, said he began collecting antiques four years ago, and his hobby quickly became all-consuming. “For a week after I bought my first antique, I would hug it to sleep, I was so excited,” he said during a morning of poking around Panjiayuan, Beijing’s vast antiques market.

Mr. Zhou said he had spent the equivalent of $12,000 so far feeding his addiction, a hefty sum for a man who earns less than $18,000 a year. But spending so much time alone on the road takes an emotional toll, and collecting has become a way to fill the void.

“If I don’t see my antiques for a few days, I miss them,” he said.

“The problem is, everyone wants to collect now, so there’s not much of the real stuff left,” he added, eyeing some rusty coins advertised as 100 years old before shaking his head and moving on to the next vendor.

Mr. Zhou has come up with his own way of evaluating authenticity: “After I buy something, I put it in my home for two days,” he said. “If I start to like it, it’s real. If not, it’s counterfeit.”

Roger Schwendeman, founder of ACF China furniture company in the Gaobeidian market on the outskirts of Beijing, is an American who has worked in China’s antiques trade for eight years. “Western buyers ask about history, while Chinese are interested in the value of the material,’’ he said as a trio of workers restored an ornately carved rosewood cabinet .

Many of those same foreigners who bought up troves of China’s antiques in the 1980s and ‘90s are now seeking out the increasingly wealthy mainland Chinese buyers, Mr. Schwendeman added. “They know the money and passion are in China.”