Old palace, new status (2)

Preserve or restore?

Debates over whether to preserve or renovate the Old Summer Palace begin in the 1980s when China implemented its opening up and reform policy.

There have been four major debates about the fate of the site so far, says Yao. The first one started in 1980 and lasted until 1988, and revolved around whether the site could be used for other purposes and have other buildings, or should be maintained as a historical site. The second debate had two phases: from 1995 to 2000, over whether to restore it or not, and from 2003 to 2004, over how best to protect the site's environment. The proposed ecological protection measures soon triggered the third debate in 2005 over appropriate drainage for the artificial lakes throughout the grounds. The fourth debate, which went on between 2006 and 2009, was about whether the Old Summer Palace could be moved and rebuilt in other places or not.

During those debates, many proposals were put forward. One involved rebuilding the Old Summer Palace in Zhejiang Province. A Beijing People's Congress commission proposed rebuilding the palace in its original splendor.

On February 18, 2006, Hengdian Group announced it would rebuild a replica of the Old Summer Palace in Hengdian, Zhejiang Province. This triggered another wave of debates. Hengdian's plans failed to materialize in the end.

In 2010, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage named the Old Summer Palace an archaeological park, which ended the debate over restoring it temporarily. But last year, a Beijing People's Congress commission proposed restoring the Old Summer Palace, opening the debate again. But the proponents of rebuilding were not universally popular. A Sina online poll showed that 77 percent of people disapproved the deal.

Ye Tingfang, a notable Western literature expert and expert in the history of the Old Summer Palace, is one of the experts who oppose rebuilding the Old Summer Palace. "The Old Summer Palace remains serve as a place where people can know that part of a miserable history. It is the crime scene. If you rebuild it, it would be another catastrophe that we do to the Old Summer Palace," he said. "Rebuilding the Old Summer Palace is actually using the prosperity of the past to satisfy some people's vanity. It's more important for a country to remember its shame than yearn for its glorious past."

From 2010 on, people that approved of rebuilding the Old Summer Palace remained few, and those pushing to make the Old Summer Palace a World Heritage site became mainstream.

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