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Home » Opinion » Chinese Views
Gaudy ersatz relics stain imperial history
By Ni Tao |
September 2, 2010, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
ONE of the ramifications of China's building binge is that people have become inured to reports of newly constructed edifices going under the wrecking ball and newly paved roads being ripped open, often for no good reason.
Not when the project is unfinished and costs tens of billions. Visitors to the Daming Palace Heritage Park in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, which is still under construction, were stunned in mid August to find that some newly erected statues and scenic spots were being removed from the park, scheduled to open on October 1.
Ordered by officials who found it "gaudy" to have motif carved in stone slabs covering a slope, construction workers had to knock them out and lay no-frills pavement in their place.
Authorities have pinned high hopes on the park - built on the site of the palace that served as the seat of power for the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) - to restore and exhibit the grandeur of Imperial China at its peak.
Earlier estimates put its cost at 40 billion yuan (US$5.88 billion), including construction and relocation of residents. But this figure was dismissed by Zhou Bing, head official in charge of the relic's "preservation," who said at a press conference last month that the whole project costs 12 billion yuan.
Asked whether the dismantled statues have ended up in a scrap yard, Zhou replied that they were "relocated," not "demolished." However, he would not disclose their exact whereabouts.
Facelift
Although the project is labeled a necessary step toward securing world cultural heritage status for the palace, the official justification of the "facelift" (demolishing and relocating newly installed statues) - for which the public is charged at least 10 million yuan - fails to explain why several statues and other tourist attractions were reduced to a heap of rubble shortly after their completion.
Officials' flimsy excuses can only do so much to quell the public outcry over this wanton waste of taxpayers' money.
The true reason that some structures were torn down before the park could open is that they were considered too modern to fit in with surrounding relics, according to archaeologist An Jiayao, a fierce critic of the park.
One such modern eyesore was an ancient city gate, done up in the fashion of an abstract sculpture that was clearly out of place in a Tang Dynasty setting, An said.
As a result, they were ordered to be demolished at the behest of the State Administration of Culture Heritage.
Despite vigorous attempts by those responsible to explain away the park's design flaws, often using grandiose words as if they knew best, official unaccountability is so glaring it can hardly be glossed over.
In building the ill-designed and ill-fated venues, the authorities in Xi'an never sought consent from the state heritage watchdog as customarily required.
Fetishism
The frenetic, often costly development of ersatz historic sites as seen in Xi'an is playing out nationwide while obsession with the commercial value of history grows more intense, sometimes to the point of fetishism.
The title of world-class heritage is believed to have the effect of raising a locality's visibility and improving its tourism prospects.
Hence it's earnestly sought, especially in, though not restricted to, areas where economic growth is constrained by lack of natural endowment and development funds.
Xinning County, a place little known outside Hunan Province, recently made the world heritage list with its unique Danxia landforms. It paid over 400 million yuan for this honor, more than double its annual fiscal revenues.
Motivated solely by the money factor, the blind quest for world heritage status has degenerated into a gamble involving ever higher stakes.
"To protect relics like Daming Palace, money should never be an issue," said Zhou, the heritage chief in Xi'an.
But as with every gamble, there are risks.
It's not hard to see that such projects, though carried out in the name of preserving history, have belied their stated purpose.
"History is like a girl's face, subject to makeup as one sees fit." Never has this maxim - apocryphally attributed to prominent thinker Hu Shih - been more aptly applied than to how history is treated today, when thick makeup applied to relics conceals a naked, ugly intention to repackage history for sale.
Not when the project is unfinished and costs tens of billions. Visitors to the Daming Palace Heritage Park in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, which is still under construction, were stunned in mid August to find that some newly erected statues and scenic spots were being removed from the park, scheduled to open on October 1.
Ordered by officials who found it "gaudy" to have motif carved in stone slabs covering a slope, construction workers had to knock them out and lay no-frills pavement in their place.
Authorities have pinned high hopes on the park - built on the site of the palace that served as the seat of power for the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) - to restore and exhibit the grandeur of Imperial China at its peak.
Earlier estimates put its cost at 40 billion yuan (US$5.88 billion), including construction and relocation of residents. But this figure was dismissed by Zhou Bing, head official in charge of the relic's "preservation," who said at a press conference last month that the whole project costs 12 billion yuan.
Asked whether the dismantled statues have ended up in a scrap yard, Zhou replied that they were "relocated," not "demolished." However, he would not disclose their exact whereabouts.
Facelift
Although the project is labeled a necessary step toward securing world cultural heritage status for the palace, the official justification of the "facelift" (demolishing and relocating newly installed statues) - for which the public is charged at least 10 million yuan - fails to explain why several statues and other tourist attractions were reduced to a heap of rubble shortly after their completion.
Officials' flimsy excuses can only do so much to quell the public outcry over this wanton waste of taxpayers' money.
The true reason that some structures were torn down before the park could open is that they were considered too modern to fit in with surrounding relics, according to archaeologist An Jiayao, a fierce critic of the park.
One such modern eyesore was an ancient city gate, done up in the fashion of an abstract sculpture that was clearly out of place in a Tang Dynasty setting, An said.
As a result, they were ordered to be demolished at the behest of the State Administration of Culture Heritage.
Despite vigorous attempts by those responsible to explain away the park's design flaws, often using grandiose words as if they knew best, official unaccountability is so glaring it can hardly be glossed over.
In building the ill-designed and ill-fated venues, the authorities in Xi'an never sought consent from the state heritage watchdog as customarily required.
Fetishism
The frenetic, often costly development of ersatz historic sites as seen in Xi'an is playing out nationwide while obsession with the commercial value of history grows more intense, sometimes to the point of fetishism.
The title of world-class heritage is believed to have the effect of raising a locality's visibility and improving its tourism prospects.
Hence it's earnestly sought, especially in, though not restricted to, areas where economic growth is constrained by lack of natural endowment and development funds.
Xinning County, a place little known outside Hunan Province, recently made the world heritage list with its unique Danxia landforms. It paid over 400 million yuan for this honor, more than double its annual fiscal revenues.
Motivated solely by the money factor, the blind quest for world heritage status has degenerated into a gamble involving ever higher stakes.
"To protect relics like Daming Palace, money should never be an issue," said Zhou, the heritage chief in Xi'an.
But as with every gamble, there are risks.
It's not hard to see that such projects, though carried out in the name of preserving history, have belied their stated purpose.
"History is like a girl's face, subject to makeup as one sees fit." Never has this maxim - apocryphally attributed to prominent thinker Hu Shih - been more aptly applied than to how history is treated today, when thick makeup applied to relics conceals a naked, ugly intention to repackage history for sale.
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