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Structures of fancy

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-09-04 07:34

Culture can be a kind of resource to be used for attracting attention as well as investment for local economic development. But when many local governments turn the exploitation of cultural resources into some sort of a gold rush, the absurdity of it becomes too obvious. That makes it difficult for others to believe that such governments have even common sense.

The municipal government of Huai'an is constructing a huge ball on an ancient bridge as a landmark demarcation line between southern and northern China.

It is reasonable and acceptable to say that the city is along the geographic and climatic watershed between the two parts of China. But it is simply ridiculous to select a particular place in the city as the exact point where the two parts of the country stand geographically divided.

The Huaihe River and Qinling Mountain are generally accepted as the watershed in geography and climate between the southern and the northern parts of this country. Based on this, any city along this river and mountain can be said to be on the watershed, and therefore are entitled to build a similar landmark structure.

In fact, at least two cities are involved in a row with the city of Huai'an about which one should be the right place for the construction of such a landmark structure.

Almost all of some 150,000 netizens involved in an online survey are against the construction of this watershed structure. And so are many scholars.

It is really hard to tell how many similar cultural landmark structures have been built across the country in the past two decades and how many culture-related festivals have been launched in different cities or counties nationwide in the same period. But very few have established fame for these localities and neither have they created economic benefits for local residents.

These useless structures have proved to be wastes of money and resources.

The attention and energy that local government leaders have devoted to the exploitation of such cultural resources should be diverted to down-to-earth studies of specific problems that hinder the development of local economy. And the money wasted on such structures should be invested in projects that will help improve the livelihoods of local residents. The principle should be what is taken from the people is used for the good of the people.

We should applaud the latest document on supervision of government leaders by the Gansu provincial government. It stipulates that officials held responsible for projects that are meant to promote their names or show off their achievements will be dismissed.

Hopefully, more local governments will have similar rules to prevent local government leaders from making arbitrary decisions on such stupid projects as the landmark watershed structure in Huai'an.

What is even more important is that major construction or industrial projects should never be launched without public hearings.

The suspension and finally cancellation of a chemical plant project in the city of Xiamen because of strong opposition from local residents should serve as a good lesson.

(China Daily 09/04/2008 page8)