OPINION> Commentary
Hell of a controversy
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-29 07:35

It was miraculous for Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) and Chinese novelist Pu Songling (1645-1715) to create their imaginary hells for later generations. But when Fengdu, a county in Chongqing municipality, came up with the idea of building one with an investment of 700 million yuan ($101 million), it stirred a hell of a controversy.

In Chinese mythology, Fengdu is exactly the name of the capital of the hell. And there used to be legends about the hell in this place and there are ancient structures built according to the legends. For such reasons, the county has been well known as the city of the hell.

For the ancestors of locals, superstition could be the best explanation for their construction of such structures as the palace of court judge in the hell and the dwellings of ghosts. But today it would be ridiculous to cite the same reasons for such a huge investment in building a hell.

However people think about ghosts, spirits or the hell either as atheists or theists, the creation of the imaginary hell or ghosts was of realistic and moral significance at the time. As far as the Chinese mythology is concerned, the evil anyone does in this world without being punished in his or her lifetime would certainly be punished in another world.

When very few believe in the existence of the hell, a huge investment in turning such an imaginary place into real structures is undoubtedly for economic purposes. Local authorities did say that they hoped that the hell to be built would promote local tourism.

But if the structures of the hell built by ancient people as sites of historical significance under State protection are not as attractive as they wish, why do they believe that the new buildings will appeal to tourists?

For a county with a revenue of 250 million yuan ($36 million) in 2006, 700 million yuan is not a small figure.

Have the authorities ever calculated how the hell to be built will promote local economy? Should a decision on such a huge investment be made only with wishful thinking, who is going to take responsibility if this sum of money is just squandered without making a difference to the local economy?

Compared with the proposed investment of 30 billion in the construction of a cultural city in East China's Shandong province, 700 million can hardly be said to be a huge sum.

That ridiculous project also met with strong criticism about its feasibility. It seems that the reasons given by local authorities for launching such huge projects are easily refuted as not holding water.

This has pushed some to associate the motivations behind them with the fact that construction projects are major sources of corruption. Even if no corruption is involved, the waste from such huge projects will be tremendous if they cannot make the expected profits.

So decisions on such huge projects must never be made in haste before deliberations by relevant watchdogs.

(China Daily 08/29/2008 page8)