{"id":153455,"date":"2013-03-22T13:16:15","date_gmt":"2013-03-22T20:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=153455"},"modified":"2013-03-22T13:30:32","modified_gmt":"2013-03-22T20:30:32","slug":"false-historical-consciousness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2013\/03\/false-historical-consciousness\/","title":{"rendered":"False Historical Consciousness"},"content":{"rendered":"

After scuttling plans in 2010 <\/a>to redevelop Beijing’s historic Bell and Drum Tower neighborhoods, demolition of a nearby square has now begun. The government has announced plans to restore the tangle of hutongs back to its Qing Dynasty layout<\/a>, but some suspect that the true motivation is economic. From the New York Times<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n

Because of relatively recent renovation, few of the homes can claim to be more than a few decades old. But they are in crooked alleyways known as hutongs, which formed around courtyard houses and date back centuries.<\/p>\n

Along their lanes and within their mended walls, an old way of life is still visible – mahjong rooms, shared courtyards, clothes hanging to dry – against a more distant backdrop of skyscrapers.<\/p>\n

The plan to redo the neighborhood has raised the ire of those who see it as swapping a real and living piece of Beijing’s history for a recreated artifact.<\/p>\n

“They want to restore the Drum and Bell Tower square to the time of the prosperous Qing Dynasty,” but in doing so they will destroy a “rich accumulation of cultural heritage,” says He Shuzhong, founder of the Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center, a nongovernmental organization.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For more, see the Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center’s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Photos of the Drum Tower neighborhood (Click on photo to launch a slideshow):
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