Historical values fade under fakes

Chairman Mao Zedong would be alarmed if he knew how his countrymen were interpreting some of his words.

In 1964 Mao came up with the principle of making the past serve the present and foreign things serve China.

So instead of conserving historical buildings local governments prefer to tear down the not-so-perfect and the not-so-new buildings and construct replica historical buildings that fit their modern needs and which are supposed to appeal to tourists.

The Ming (1368-1644) and Qing dynasty (1644-1911) "streets" and the palaces in the style of the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) in many cities are a false past created for material gains.

Datong, a city in Shanxi province with a history of more than 2,300 years, is ambitiously trying to restore its historical face, it invested 10 billion yuan ($1.59 billion) in a "conservation and restoration" project in 2008.

Shanhaiguan of Hebei province started restoring the section of the Great Wall within its territory in 2006, and the city has built 150 structures in the styles of the Ming and Qing dynasties in its old part. These "old" buildings were opened to tourists in 2008 when Beijing hosted the Olympic Games.

Many city planners seem to be nostalgic for the past but choose to glamorize their heritage in such irrational ways.

Is it because the historical elements in our communities disappear so quickly, or because people need historical and cultural heritage?

Governments at all levels have published their regulations on protecting old cities and historical buildings. But in the hands of many city planners, it seems history is something they feel free to dress up. They knock down old buildings and replace them with new structures that are intended to look old.

A real estate company reduced the house of the famous architects and intellectuals Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin to rubble in January, despite the fact the former residence of the couple was listed by Beijing's bureau of cultural relics as immovable.

The outcry from preservationists pushed the bureau to fine the company for 500,000 yuan ($79,345) and request it build a replica at the original site.

As early as 1933, the International Congresses of Modern Architecture passed a document on city planning, in which it made clear that the use of past styles for new buildings in historic areas under the pretext of aesthetics has disastrous consequences. "The continuance or the introduction of such habits in any form should not be tolerated."

In addition to the past, some city planners have turned their eyes to foreign models.

Last year Huizhou in Guangdong province copied Austria's village of Hallstatt, complete with artificial lake. The small village with 900 inhabitants attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists each year and some Chinese real estate developers have seen this with envy.

The developers believe that even if Chinese buyers don't snap up the villas in the Huizhou replica of Hallstatt, they might well appeal to homesick Europeans. But even though Hallstatt Mayor Alexander Scheutz describes Huizhou's plan as a compliment to their village, a fake is a fake.

With nearly five millennia of architectural heritage, China boasts the longest continuous architectural lineage in history. But a period of modernization is revolutionizing the country's architectural language and urban fabric. Since the country began its policy of reform and opening-up, its urban landscape has been transformed completely. The ancient traditions of its past are giving way to the high-rise, glass-clad, lust-for-wealth that characterizes its 21st-century architectural aspirations.

The revival of "traditional" architecture in many cities is as much destruction as preservation.

During the later stages of World War II, the Americans began to bomb the Japanese homeland. Liang Sicheng recommended that the Americans spare the ancient Japanese city of Nara. In his words, "architecture is the epitome of society and the symbol of the people ... Once destroyed, it is irrecoverable." The US Army accepted Liang's proposal and Nara remained intact with its original scenery unaffected by the war.

Japan sent envoys to China in the Tang Dynasty, now Chinese architects go to Kyoto to see the old Tang-style buildings. Their paint is peeling, but at least they are not fakes.

The author is a senior writer with China Daily.

(China Daily 02/18/2012 page5)