Vandalism in Beijing – Paul French – China Speakers Bureau

A fuming Paul French reports on his website about the upcoming destruction of the Beijing house of Liang Sicheng, a famous architect.

Paul French:

I cannot bring myself to write too much about the destruction at Chinese New Year of Liang Sicheng’s house. Liang (below) was an incredible architect famously offered a plan that would have held intact the ancient city of Peking. But no, Mao rejected it and we got the architectural destruction and horror of the Mao years and then the rampant philistine culture of the last 30 years. The destruction of the property also revealed, once again, that buildings supposedly under preservation orders still get regularly bulldozed (in Shanghai too) – if a government-linked property developer is involved then none of it means anything – if another apologistic foreigner in China tells me that the government is serious about heritage and preservation and points to these preservation orders I swear I will stab them! I obviously expect no more from rapacious, philistine and corrupt communist officials – that one said not to worry as they’ll build a replica just shows how ridiculous things are. “Soul removers” one Chinese preservationist called these vandal government-developers – absolutely correct.

More relevant links at Paul French’ weblog

Paul French is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.