Jackie Chan's planned ancient buildings donation sparks controversy (3)

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The official microblog of Heyuan Garden, an ancient garden estate in Yangzhou City of east China's Jiangsu Province, reposted Chan's message on Sunday and hoped Yangzhou could become home for the buildings.

"The owner of Heyuan Garden was also from Anhui and there are many Hui-style architectures in Yangzhou," it said. "If Jackie Chan thinks it is better to leave those buildings in China one day, please come to Yangzhou."

Officials in Huangshan City, located in Anhui and known for its Hui-style ancient buildings, also want Chan's ancient buildings.

"We are willing to provide the best place, most experienced craftsmen and funding to welcome those ancient buildings home," said Wang Henglai, director of the Huangshan municipal government's cultural commission.

The preservation of Hui-style architecture has been inadequate in the past decades as the government was not financially capable of putting all ancient buildings onto the protection list, said a cultural heritage expert on condition of anonymity.

Loose protection and supervision has provided room for some businessmen and collectors to trade the Hui-style buildings. Some of them have been removed from their original village and transported overseas, he said.

In 2003, Yin Yu Tang House, a late 18th century house from Anhui Province was dismantled into 700 pieces of wood, 8,500 pieces of tiles and 500 pieces of stone and re-erected in the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts.

The third national cultural heritage census, which started in April 2007 and ended in December 2011, discovered that more than 1,000 ancient buildings need to be fixed in Huangshan City.

To better protect ancient architecture, the Huangshan municipal government has introduced private capital for the preservation of ancient heritages since 2009.

Huangshan's efforts in protecting ancient buildings is the best ever, in terms of technology support, human resources and funding, said Wu Zhenyu, head of the Huangshan municipal cultural heritage administration.

Huangshan has invested a total of 4.4 billion yuan (702 million U.S. dollars) in protecting ancient villages and buildings by the end of 2012, said Wang Henglai.

If Chan is willing to donate those Hui-style ancient buildings, Huangshan is confident of restoring and protecting them, said Wang.

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