THIS WEEKPEOPLE & POINTS

THIS WEEKPEOPLE & POINTS

↓FATHER OF RURAL REFORM DIES Du Runsheng, a well-known economist and one of China’s most influential experts on rural issues, passed away in Beijing on October 9 at the age of 102.

Du was born in 1913 in a village in Taigu County, north China’s Shanxi Province. He worked as a military officer and revolutionary leader in the 1930s and 1940s. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, Du’s work was mainly concerned with rural policy-making.

In the early 1980s, Du played a key role in the establishment and promotion of the “household contract responsibility system,” under which farmland was leased to rural families. Previously, farming was done under state planning with farmers working in production teams.

One of his best-known quotes was: “China’s biggest problem is the problem of farmers, and the biggest problem for farmers is the issue of land.”

Nanjing Massacre Becomes World Memory

People’s Daily October 12

On October 9, UNESCO announced that documents related to the Nanjing Massacre had been inscribed on the Memory of the World Register. This is redolent of the fact that the tragedy that befell the city of Nanjing 78 years ago has gained recognition worldwide.

The evaluation criteria for the Memory of the World Register are the authenticity, rarity and universal value of the nominations. The 11 sets of documents submitted on this occasion all met the aforementioned conditions, representing firsthand evidence bearing testimony to wartime atrocities committed by Japanese invaders. Among the documents are films and pictures taken by U.S. priest John Gillespie Magee (1884-1953) using his movie camera.

Nonetheless, the listing of the Nanjing Massacre documents represents belated international acknowledgement, given that the facts of the event were recorded as far back as shortly after World War II at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo, the verdict of which devoted two chapters to the tragedy. The Auschwitz-Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp and the A-Bomb Dome of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial were inscribed on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1979 and 1996, respectively.

The Japanese Government has tried to hinder the application of the documents, demonstrating its reluctance to face up to history. In sharp contrast, groups of Japanese civilians have participated in memorial services in Nanjing over the past 20 years to express their remorse and contrition.

Parks Lacking Individual Character

Oriental Outlook October 15

Some 150 million visitors spend over 12 billion yuan ($1.9 billion) in China’s theme parks every year, portending great market potential, according to the Shenzhenbased consulting firm Qianzhan Industry Research Institute.

There are four types of theme parks in China: amusement parks such as Happy Valley, film studios such as Hengdian World Studios in east China’s Zhejiang Province, sightseeing theme parks such as Window of the World in Shenzhen and parks featuring a specific theme such as ocean parks.

Since the first theme park in the real sense of the phrase, Splendid China Park, was established in Shenzhen in 1989, a glut of similar brands have become popular among the public. Although Chinese theme parks are global leaders in terms of scale and number of visitors, the industry is beset by problems, with about 75 percent of Chinese theme parks struggling to reverse losses.

Compared with their foreign counterparts, which have distinguishing characteristics and amenities, domestic parks are rather similar to one another.

“The two countries could make full use of their respective advantages, such as China’s equipment manufacturing and funds, and Britain’s technology, management and financial services, to explore markets in third-party countries.”

Zhang Ji, Assistant Minister of Commerce, speaking at a press briefing ahead of President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Britain from October 19-23, the first by a Chinese president in 10 years

“Over the past 20 years tobacco deaths have been decreasing in Western countries, partly because of price increases. For China, a substantial increase in cigarette prices could save tens of millions of lives.”

Richard Peto, a professor at Britain’s University of Oxford who co-led a study on smoking in China, speaking about the findings of the study on October 12Many have been built to drive up the prices of surrounding land and commercial properties.

The construction of theme parks should be more prudent with a view to both environmental protection and economic development. The goal should be providing premium entertainment facilities for tourists and improving people’s quality of life. The government should plan and manage the development of the parks while the parks develop their own distinctive identity.

Supervision Over Poverty Alleviation

The Beijing News October 13

China will work to lift about 70 million people in rural areas out of poverty by the end of 2020, the Central Government announced on October 12.

However, many are questioning whether such an ambitious goal can be achieved as the National Audit Office has recently found out that more than 3,000 well-off residents in impoverished Mashan County, southwest China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, have “mistakenly” qualified as eligible to receive aid from the local poverty alleviation fund.

In the process of implementing poverty alleviation policies, many local governments have made similar errors. For instance, some locales have used their poverty alleviation fund for urban construction. This runs the risk of rendering the Central Government’s promises invalid.

So how can the new plan be implemented in a way that prevents misappropriation from thwarting the government’s grand designs? The key lies in inviting supervision from people at the community level. The targets of poverty alleviation policies should be informed of these policies, and records of how poverty alleviation funds have been used should be maintained. On-the-ground feedback should be solicited from people actually living in impoverished areas.

Poverty alleviation funds are not a source of welfare for local governments or special interest groups, but rather a lifeline for people living in genuine deprivation. Information should be made more transparent to the latter to allow them to play their role in supervision.

↓YOUNG DIRECTOR VYING FOR OSCAR

Movie director Han Yan recently came under the spotlight as his romantic comedy Go Away, Mr. Tumor became the only film representing China to vie for the foreign-language feature award at the 88th Academy Awards next February.

The film was on a list of 81 submissions published by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on its website on October 9. It is about a cartoonist called Xiong Dun who bravely fights against her cancer and lives life to the full before she dies.

The submission of the film has come as a surprise to Han. “There are so many excellent movies. It’s extremely lucky of the film to be selected,” he wrote on his Weibo microblogging account.

Han, 32, graduated from the Central Academy of Drama majoring in directing. His first feature film First Time was released in 2012 and Go Away, Mr. Tumor is his second work in this genre.

“This is a big opportunity for New Zealand, given our major exports are in softer commodities like dairy, beef and lamb, and also for our services companies, whether they be in tourism, technology or business services.”

New Zealand’s Finance Minister Bill English, applauding the transition of China’s growth model from an investment-driven one to one driven by consumption and services, in a speech to business leaders in Wellington on October 15

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China will gradually postpone its statutory retirement age, as its workforce retires the earliest in the world.”

Yin Weimin, Minister of Human Resources and Social Security, revealing on October 15 that his ministry is set to publicize a reform plan postponing the retirement age

BEHIND PALACE WALLS

New artifacts and areas open to the public draw huge throngs to former

Visitors crowd the Palace Museum waiting for their turn to enter

‘What’s to do? Shall we go see the reliques of this town?”

This quote, taken from playwright William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, was the idea many history enthusiasts had on October 10, as visitors crowded the gates of Palace Museum in the heart of Beijing. Yu Jian, a 35-year-old businessman from Zhengzhou, central China’s Henan Province, came all the way to Beijing, three and a half hours by express train, on October 10 in the hopes of visiting an exhibition of ancient calligraphic works and paintings at the Palace Museum in the heart of Beijing. To be more specific, he traveled far and wide to view the painting Along the River During Qingming Festival, a masterpiece dating back to the Song Dynasty (960-1279) that he has yearned to see for years.

The last time the painting was shown to the public was 10 years ago. “At that time, I was still a young man and didn’t get detailed information about that exhibition,” Yu said. “Now I won’t miss my chance.”

The Palace Museum opens at 8:30 a.m., and Yu arrived at the gate just before 9 a.m. on October 11. But he was told by the museum’s staff that he had to wait a minimum of 10 hours in line to see the famous painting that he admires.

Obviously, Yu’s goal was the goal of countless others. “I thought I was early, but the line stretched from the entrance all the way down to the Wuying Hall, where the painting is on display and is several hundred meters away from the gate,” he said.

Compared to other visitors, whose painting vigil outside the Palace Museum began at 4 a.m., Yu was tardy. Xu Xiaolu, a sophomore student from Beijing Normal University, arrived at the gate around 5:30 a.m., but there were already many people waiting in front of her.

“I knew what the situation would be like because some visitors shared pictures of the long waiting line online,” Xu said. “I got up at 4:30 a.m., but it seems I was still late.”

Massive draw

The exhibition that has attracted the crazy long line is the Masterpieces From the Qing Imperial Catalogue The Precious Collection of the Stone Moat, considered to be the royal catalogue of calligraphy and paintings. It opened on September 8 as part of celebrations for the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Palace Museum.

The masterpieces were successively compiled during the reign of Emperors Qianlong (1736-96) and Jiaqing (1796-1821) of the Qing Dynasty by 31 officials under imperial command.

They selected more than 10,000 of the finest paintings and calligraphy samples from the imperial collection of the Qing court.

The Palace Museum selected more than 100 art pieces from the precious collection for the 90th anniversary display.

“The items are all remarkable historical pieces. It is such a great opportunity to have so many treasures displayed together,” said Zeng Jun, Director of the Palace Museum’s Calligraphy Department. “The whole scroll of the painting Along the River During Qingming Festival, the highlight of the exhibition, will be shown for onemonth at this exhibition, and people won’t be able to see it again in at least three years.”

The painting depicts the city of Bianjing (modern-day Kaifeng in Henan) and people from all walks of life in exquisite detail. It is a window into the world of prosperity then present in Bianjing and the economic power of the northern reaches of the Song Dynasty.

The superb skill of the artist, the grand scale of the scene and the historical and cultural value of this painting make it a national treasure. Even high-end copies can sell for several million yuan in the art market.

Along with the paintings and calligraphies, items from Ru kiln produced in the Song Dynasty, have also been displayed for the celebration.

With a light sky-blue glaze, an elegant shape and the great difficulty involved in its firing, the Ru kiln was ranked first among the five great kilns by later generations. In those days they were produced exclusively for imperial use.

“The Song Dynasty is my favorite dynasty in China’s history,” said Zhang Yi, a movie maker at the exhibition. “It is the dynasty for the arts, and I want to make a movie about this dynasty, as well as the awesome porcelain.”

The enthusiasm for Along the River During Qingming Festival far exceeded the expectations of Zeng. After all, the painting had been shown before. “It was not the first time the masterpiece was on display at the Palace Museum,”he said. “Ten years ago, at the 80th anniversary of the museum, we also exhibited it, but there were far fewer visitors at that time.”

However, considering the sharply increasing number of visitors in recent years, the“Palace Museum fever” may be less inexplicable than it seems at first glance. Seven million visitors came to the Palace Museum in 2002. That number rocketed in 2014, more than doubling to 15.34 million. For a further comparison, October 1, 2005, marked a previous record for Palace Museum visitors—a number a little over 56,100. On October 2, 2012, more than 182,000 visitors swarmed the museum’s halls, setting the highest record ever.

The visitor numbers were so high that the Palace Museum had to take action to control the admission of tourists. Since 2014, the museum has closed on Mondays for renovation and maintenance work, and since June 13 this year, visitors have been limited to 80,000 daily. On this past October 2, the 80,000 tickets were sold out shortly after the doors had opened, and all ticket windows were shut down at 10:10 a.m.

Crates containing artifacts from the Palace Museum are packed and prepared for the move to Nanjing in Jiangsu Province in 1933

Piece of history

The Palace Museum is housed in the Forbidden City, an ancient imperial complex, in downtown Beijing. Now, those two names refer to the same place. In 1987, the Forbidden City was included in the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s World Cultural Heritage list.

As home to most emperors of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and all emperors of Qing dynasty (1616-1911), the Forbidden City witnessed royal family intrigue and turmoil from 1420 to 1911. Following the Revolution of 1911, which ended the reign of the Qing Dynasty, the last emperor, Puyi, remained in the complex until 1924.

After Puyi was expelled, a special committee was formed by the then national government in 1925 to catalog the artifacts. On October 10, the Palace Museum was established and survived wars and social unrest in the coming years.

From 1933 to 1945, the museum was on the road for 12 years during the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against JapaneseAggression. The majority of items—19,600 crates of treasures—traversed the country, from Beijing to Nanjing in Jiangsu Province and then other safer places further inland.

In 1948 and 1949, the Kuomintang authority led by Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan and shipped 2,972 crates containing national treasure there, where it built the “National Palace Museum” in 1965, resulting in the two Palace Museums today.

Liang Jinsheng’s grandfather Liang Tingwei was among the team protecting the transferred collections of the Palace Museum from 1933-45. During the years, the whole family moved with Liang Tingwei to many places in the country. In 1949, Liang Tingwei went to Taiwan with some family members, and Liang Jinsheng, who was only 1 year old at that time, came back to Beijing with his father.

This temporary separation of the family turned permanent. Liang Tingwei passed away in Taiwan in 1972. In 2008, Liang Jinsheng’s father passed away as the last person that witnessed the odyssey of the ancient items of the Palace Museum.

Liang Jinsheng spent his childhood mostly in the Palace Museum, where his father worked, mainly collecting artifacts that were geographically scattered by war.

In 1979, Liang Jinsheng also started his work in the museum. Now, he is director of the Collection Management Department at the Palace Museum.

“It is an honor to follow the footsteps of older generations,” said Liang. “My grandfather transferred national treasures out of Beijing during the war, while my father was responsible for putting them back. Now, I am in charge of putting them in order.”

Doors to the future

Realizing the significance of keeping the collection together, in 2004, Zheng Xinmiao, Curator of the museum between 2002 and 2012, began the long process of organizing and arranging display items logically. After more than six years, thousands of artifacts had been sorted, giving an exact count of the items in the Palace Museum—1,807,558.

“This number is the result of years of hard work from 2004 to 2010,” said present curator Shan Jixiang.

Among the 1,807,558 items, there are 53,482 paintings, 75,031 works of calligraphy, 159,734 items of copper, as well as 603,000 ancient books and documents, 367,000 pieces of porcelain and 11,000 sculptures, some of which date back to the Warring States Period (475-221 B.C.).

It’s an overwhelming amount of history. “If we display 18,000 items each year, we’ll need 100 years to show all the items in the museum,” said Shan.

On October 11, four new sections in the Palace Museum were opened to tourists for the first time, making 65 percent of the complex accessible to the public.

“We opened more areas to allow the public to see more of the Palace Museum,” said Shan. “In 2002, only 30 percent of the Forbidden City was open. In 2014, it expanded to 52 percent. In 2020, at the 600th anniversary of the Forbidden City, we will open more than 80 percent of the complex.”

For Shan, many visitors now still view the Palace Museum as a tourist destination, especially in recent years with the rising popularity of the TV series on the ancient royal life in the Forbidden City, such as The Legend of Zhenhuan.

“Those plays are fictitious,” Shan said.“Museums are more for education. I hope, in the future, our museum can show an authentic and original picture of ancient life here.”

Shan, appointed to head the Palace Museum early in 2012, has worn out more than 20 pairs of traditional cloth shoes patrolling the 9,000 rooms of the Forbidden City. He runs a tight ship.

“We have taken thousands of photos of buildings and other trivial things. Whenever we find something wrong, we show the pictures to the staff, which has made them much more alert to encroaching imperfections.”

To make the time-honored Palace Museum more fashionable and accessible to the young and educated, Shan has been responsible for a number of recent products, such as the museum’s mobile app, which shows the museum’s items in great detail and with 3D effects.

A public account of the Palace Museum called Micro Palace Museum was launched on social networking app WeChat in 2012, releasing exhibition information and introducing masterpieces with cartoons and humorous expressions.

An online shop, registered in 2010 on the leading online shopping website Taobao.com, also made available odds and ends with cartoon characters like ancient princes and princesses.

“Integrity is the key to a sustainable and fascinating museum,” Shan said. “I hope that we can maintain the integrity of the museum for another 90 years.” ■

Copyedited by Kylee McIntyre

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