Op-Ed Contributors

Heritage for the future

By Bai Gengsheng (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-03-26 07:31

A major problem that cultural heritage sites and relics face today is profit-minded officials. Such officials' only aim is to make money. They are not bothered about preserving cultural heritage. I once met one such official who asked me what were the (monetary) benefits of protecting cultural heritage. Such views lack foresight and, if put into practice, can only shred the rich cultural tapestry of China.

The uneven distribution of economic returns from tourism and other cultural heritage-related fields is the other major problem. Years ago, I proposed setting up a shareholding company in Lijiang, which would have offered material assistance to the city's original inhabitants according to the location of their houses, and encouraged them to wear their traditional dresses and speak the Naxi dialect. Such an arrangement would have brought them benefits as well as motivated them to protect their culture.

But guided by the laws of utility, the local government encouraged real estate developers and other speculative industries to move into the center of the town to make money.

The resultant tourism boom has raised the living cost in Lijiang manifold and forced the town's original residents to rent their houses to non-Naxi people and shift to other places. The outcome is the decline of traditional culture and the influx of an alien culture into Lijiang.

Yunnan province is now planning to seek World Cultural Heritage tags for the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway, the Ancient Tea Route and some very old tea gardens. But before local governments apply to UNESCO they have to change their old practices and take transparent decisions that will help preserve the heritage sites in the long run. Besides, they should be open to the views of the people and the media.

Yunnan has a rich and diversified culture and many historical and natural sites. These sites - and the relics they preserve - can propel the development of the province and its people if handled properly.

Local governments in Yunnan and other provinces should learn from their mistakes if they want to build a better cultural future. They have to be doubly cautious not to repeat the mistakes that are now threatening the Old Town of Lijiang. A culture cannot be preserved without protecting the people who practice it.

The benefits of a World Cultural Heritage site has to be shared by the people to prevent it from getting ruined.

The author is a member of China Federation of Literary and Art Circles.

(China Daily 03/26/2011 page5)