Authenticity and the Disney-fication of China's Cultural Heritage

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Why are so many cultural heritage sites in China fake? Why is the architecture all the same? And why does no one care that all these 'old towns' were actually built in the past 20 years? Let's take a deep dive into the history of the cultural heritage industry in China, the role of the CCP party-state, the agency of local actors, and try and figure out why Chinese tourists love fake reconstructions of mini European villages in the middle of their megacities.
*Diary of the visit to Furong was in 2022 no 2002!!
Chapters
(00:00) Introduction
(03:45) Attitudes to cultural heritage around the world
(06:45) The destruction of China's cultural heritage
(11:11) Reasons for rebuilding China's cultural heritage sites
(12:38) Defining authenticity
(17:00) Examples of Disney-fied heritage sites
(40:25) What tourists want
(44:45) Does authenticity matter?
Buy me a coffee: www.buymeacoffee.com/sinobabb...
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#China #culturalheritage #unesco #culturalrevolution #chinesehistory #chinatourism

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28 май 2024

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Комментарии : 127

@wfarer 13 дней назад

I agree with the problematic of performative heritage but I think all this East vs. West notions of authenticity misses the material point (pun intended). Western notions of authenticity derive in large part from the origins of archaeology with the stone / concrete ruins of ancient Greece and Rome which translates well to other (similarly slave-based) societies that build out of stone (many examples in S. America, Middle East and India). However the common building materials in East and SE Asia are wood and "organic"-based plaster, both of which are susceptible to tropical climates and insects, and therefore need to regularly renewed. It is impossible to adhere to "purist" / Western notions of authenticity. This is part of the reason why despite records of kingdoms in SE Asia, there is little archaeological evidence in way of ruins as they have long decomposed.

@davidjgill4902 13 дней назад

That is part of the story in Japan, less so in China but that does not explain the short shrift given to history and authenticity in much of the rest of the non-Western world that is largely politically authoritarian and where historic buildings are destroyed and false cultural heritage is manufactured to serve the agendas of the authoritarian elite in these countries.

@doeixo 12 дней назад

I would say that the difference has more to do with: -the context in which preservation/conservation was developed in the west, a moment of drastic change with the industrial revolution and the world wars destroying a lot of monuments. -the fact that the west has been rich and thinking about these things about its heritage for way longer. -the CCP. Its economic and legitimacy interests and its systemic incapacity to produce anything better When reading about the begining of architectural restoration thought, you do see things similar to this disneyfication mentioned in the video. Viollet Le Duc. And with time other postures, more nuanced and thoughtful, became prevalent. And we have not solved it yet either.

@Peleski 12 дней назад

I don't think there's little evidence in SE Asia, there's Borobodur, Ayuthaya, the Angkor complex, most of Bali for example. Bali often uses porous degradable volcanic stone but manages to renew the structures in an authentic way. The problem is really unchecked development by mostly money hungry enterprises. They just build a lot of ugly stuff with no cultural consideration.

@abyrupus 12 дней назад

I get where you're coming from but I would disagree. In many eastern cultures, when a wooden building is repaired, new wood is placed in a way that retains the shape of the original building. In other words, if the building retains its plan and structure, but only the material is updated small parts at a time - like the Ship of Theseus, it is still authentic (Most temple complexes and palaces in Japan are like this) - and the same rules are applied even to western buildings (which have had past restorations). However, if an old building is completely demolished, and a new building is in its place from scratch and not with gradual changes, then it is not authentic - and even Japanese or Korean scholars would say that. Conversely, even in Western world, academics understand that many buildings have had different stages of development and there is no one single "original point" of restoration. So there is no very large conceptual difference here just because of building materials or east vs west. (and here I disagree with the original video as well, because even in the west, restoration is done to a specific time-period, and not in a purist way or only the "original" - otherwise all castles in Europe would be demolished to their "original" primitive stone and wood keeps). Also, SE Asian kingdom ruins still exist today. A small exception could be swamp-cultures near deltas with wooden stilt houses or floating boat-houses, but that's the exception and not the rule. There are a huge number of archeological sites for ancient kingdoms, from Angkor Vat and Cham architecture in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam to Borobodur and other gigantic temples in Malaysia and Indonesia, as well as whole cities of palaces in Bagan, Myanmar. They use stone, not wood.

@wfarer 12 дней назад

@@Peleski The examples you cited are still stone and brick - not wood or organic materials which is precisely my point. There are many more SE Asia kingdoms documented than those.

@euroschmau 12 дней назад

When I visited Nanjing, I was walking along the old city walls. I saw a wall pavilion tower in the distance and thought I'd walk up close to it so I can get a nice closeup photo. The closer I got however, I noticed something strange, like the tower didn't have any three-dimensional depth to it. When I got right up to it, I noticed it was made of styrofoam, LOL!

@luongo7886 10 дней назад

LOL!!! That's funny. Everything about china and chinese is FAKE!!

@llamaalpaca5563 12 дней назад

While not in a position of judgement by any means, I personally very much dislike the "fakes" with no connection to their historical counterpart. It is one thing to repair and restore heritage sites in a ramshackle state, but entirely another to build a modern interpretation of them without the original context. I have also read about certain practices done by Chinese municipal governments, that they would demolish actual, authentic, and sometimes still occupied buildings of a latter age (say, late Ming Dynasty) to make way for a "replica" of what supposedly had existed prior to that time. This kind of practice is very contentious (read: vehemently hated by many) among Chinese academia and the general population alike, and in my opinion an outrageous abuse of the traditional Chinese understanding of cultural conservation.

@janetestherina7169 9 дней назад

what the fuck man, that sounds awful, destroying historical buildings like that

@tc2334 13 дней назад

I've been to all but about seven provinces since I moved here back in 2016 and I feel like you really captured the Chinese view of 'authenticity' quite accurately. Even on the introduction signs at the entrances of lots of these places the emphasis is firmly placed on the fact that this place on this location has existed in some way shape or form for x thousand/hundred years and whatever important events that took place there. The fact that the buildings aren't preserved is a total afterthought.

@MiddlePath007 13 дней назад

So, are you saying that I could point just about anywhere and call it a cultural heritage site? Because it had been there for a long time in some shape or form?

@tc2334 13 дней назад

@@MiddlePath007 If it’s still designated as that, then yes. This includes: temples, churches, government buildings, and squares. It’s not like England though where they’ll put a plaque on the building to indicate it’s an area where something happened. If the structure had totally been demolished and not rebuilt by the end of the Qing Dynasty, they don’t usually go out of their way to build it from the ground up again. At most it would survive in a street name, subway stop name or just on old map of the city. That’s how it is in Beijing, anyway. Loads of places are named after temples that have long since been destroyed.

@ChristianJiang 13 дней назад

Omg! I’m 7 minutes in this video and I’m sure it’s going to be one of the most interesting videos I’ll watch on this platform!! It’s really something that needs to be said. When I visited Huaqing Palace in Xi’an a couple of months ago, the tour guide kept saying “This is where, more a thousand years ago, this and that happened”… But the buildings looked like they were 20 years old at most. So many ancient sites I went to were actually brand new… and of course nobody seemed to mind or care!

@sinobabble 13 дней назад

Thank you so much! Hope you enjoyed it in the end, it was quite a long one 😅 I think I skipped Huaqing when I was in Xi'an, the only authentic thing I experienced there were the awesome mutton noodles

@ChristianJiang 13 дней назад

@@sinobabble I’m still not done watching your video! I watch YT videos in small chunks haha (maybe it says something about my dwindling, TikTok-influenced attention span)… But yeah, you really hit a nail with this video (at least what I’ve seen so far)! I was born in Italy and my whole family knows exactly what this is about - perhaps we’ve been influenced by the Italian, and thus Western way of looking at and preserving art. My mum in particular keeps saying that she doesn’t really like travelling that much in China, coz so many of the historical sites are “fake” (well, of course “fake” is a loaded term and it discredits non-European ways of looking at heritage preservation, but you get what I mean), and there are too many people, 人山人海 😂 Even some natural sites are artificial, with water courses being redirected to create spectacular sights… When we went to our hometown’s famous Baizhangji 百丈漈 back in February, I was super confused coz the waterfalls were the product of a dam built quite recently, yet all the signs were referring to ancient “legends”, like “This rock looks like a turtle. In ancient times, it was […]” This, coupled with the fact some of the waterfalls flowed into mesh drains (+ music playing from loudspeakers) made me feel like as if I was in Gardaland (a famous Italian theme park) or sth like that! Sorry this comment is already unbearably long but I have so many thoughts to share!! And whenever I bring it up to friends who are born and raised in China, they don’t even seem to grasp it (or see what the matter is), which truly shows how different we can conceive things… Like, a friend of mine kept showing me pictures of clearly new buildings and then said “They’re so ancient” 😭 I have so many thoughts about the stuff I’ve seen in China, and sometimes I feel like I have to tone it down coz I don’t want to be dismissive of China’s thousands-year-old heritage, and it’s very easy for this to turn into a childish “Europe-is-better” argument (which I have no intention of engaging in). But, so far, it looks like you’re tackling the topic masterfully and tactfully!

@sinobabble 12 дней назад

Love a long comment, never change. I had almost forgotten about the bloody speakers playing pseudo-classical Chinese music on repeat... if I never hear one again I will have lived a happy life haha

@ChristianJiang 12 дней назад

@@sinobabble I’m glad you answered! In the meantime, I was able to finish the whole video and watch a couple other videos from your channel too. You deserve way more views! You put it in the best way possible - “pseudo”-classical Chinese music. It’s almost as if our idealised view of the Chinese past is sold as Chinese history itself. As you said in your video, it’s a very sanitised, modern version of Chinese history… And that can be seen from the music that gets played as well, which is super modern but with “old” instruments. I bet that many people think that that’s what Chinese classical music sounds like… It would be akin to playing Game of Thrones music at a medieval castle! Of course, medieval music doesn’t sound like that… But it does in our collective imaginary. I often think that this is almost like a version of “self-Orientalism”. Instead of outsiders creating their own, idealised “Oriental”, it comes from within, and it’s equally made-up, reflecting modern sensibilities more than historical accuracy. And when this replaces the original artefact, we’re facing immeasurable loss… Another interesting story for you: when my grandma went to school in the 1950s, she said she had a couple of classmates from the Shē ethnic group (畲族). She lived in a town in the Zhejiang region called Xikeng (西坑), which has recently turned into an ethnic She town: 西坑畲族镇. Well, it sounds like a huge step forward in terms of minority heritage protection… But, as she told me, a lot of it is just for tourist money. Some of her (originally Han) acquaintances (who did not speak a word of She!) even had to change their surname into typically She ones to show tourists their different ways of life! But it’s all for show… Her hometown also has some beautiful natural scenery - rivers, canyons… all nature, basically. One of these spots is known as Longqiyuan, 龙麒源, which I visited back in 2019. My mum went again in 2022, and she told me that, in the meantime, it has transformed into the tackiest place ever. She said that, at one point, she saw a huge golden dragon on top of one of the peaks… And of course, there are new pagoda-style buildings with dance shows, a 鬼屋 💀 etc. When I was there, it was just nature, and I liked it a lot. So many places have become caricatures of Chinese culture!! When I went to Xi’an in February, I met a guy who showed me around the city. At one point he gestured at the pointed roofs and said: “Xi’an is turning into a Chinese city the way Americans imagine it”…

@sinobabble 12 дней назад

Such a shame that so many people are forced to partake in a pageant for the sake of making a living, mimicking their culture instead of being able to live it in its modern form. "we're facing immeasurable loss" truer words were never spoken

@DarkLordJabba 10 дней назад

I really appreciate this video! As a Chinese person who studied and has travelled abroad extensively, but only just recently travelled to tourist sites within China (ie, not the big cities like Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen) it was also very fascinating to me to see many of these newly developed tourist sites and "old towns/areas". Some reflections I had after watching your video: I think there's actually two separate discussions here. One is the discussion of "east/west cultural views of "authenticity"", which, as other commenters have pointed out, are not that clear-cut anyway. The other is the commercialization of culture/heritage. As you pointed out at multiple points in the video, everyone in China, from the tourists to the government, from the "performers" to the academics, know it's an act, know it's a reconstruction, know it's a facsimile of history. These "inauthentic" acts/disneylands have arisen due to commodification, private equity, etc. which do not fundamentally care about authenticity, but care about making profit. I don't think the press release by the developers of the Mu Residence, for example, should be taken as a statement on what's (in)authentic history/reconstruction, it's clearly just for marketing and PR of a real estate investment venture. To me, the core of your analysis is this commercialization point. If, say, that village that needed electricity could have simply been given government funding to have lights installed, they wouldn't have needed to "sell out" their own culture/village to profit-seeking motives/entities. This has no bearing on cultural attitudes to authenticity and is perfectly comparable to how many indigenous people in the rest of the world are essentialized and made to "perform" their traditions and sell their "traditional crafts" to survive in a capitalistic system. The issues of original village inhabitants not reaping the benefits of the commercialization of their culture and being exploited by outside entities is just an issue of capitalism. At the same time, there are genuine archaeological/conservation/preservation efforts throughout China, as well as better state run/funded programs for the continuation of traditions/arts that would otherwise die out due to internationalization of modern societies (I'm thinking of, say, the preservation of the Mogao caves in Dunhuang, or support for regional opera traditions like Yue or Sichuan opera, etc.) I think separating out the commercialization phenomenon from the "cultural attitudes" and conservation/preservation discussion helps interrogate the latter more clearly. For example, if the "historical theme parks" did not come at the expense of local people, are they philosophically "bad" at all? We can have both "authentic" archaeological sites for those that want to see those, and we can also have historical theme parks for other kinds of tourists. As a last note, would love to know how you compare this phenomenon to, say, Venice as an overtouristed/commercialized facsimile of history in Europe.

@cultphetus 9 дней назад

You pretty much summed up all of my thoughts on the subject. I don't need to post anything because this is exactly what I wanted to say!

@davidjgill4902 13 дней назад

Not just in China but also in the Arab/Muslim world. For instance, the historic structures in the City of Mecca, once known by Mohamed, have been utterly obliterated and rebuilt as a razmataz, money-making Haj-"Mecca" to exploit the massive potential income of religious pilgrimage business that only Saudi Arabia exploit. Many spoke out against this cultural and historical affront, but in an authoritarian country like Saudi Arabia, the ruling elite will do what is in their interest. It is likely that many of those on the Haj will not see culture and history lost but that a dusty old village has been replaced by a modern metropolis with the power and wealth that makes them proud. These are the sort of perverse values of today's world that will lead us to ruin.

@sarasarita8855 9 дней назад

It’s called evolution of a city ??? Saudi Arabia has never claimed historical authenticity. If that’s what you search in an Arab country, visit Oman, Palestine or Morocco. That’s like saying that New York has lost its authenticity (??)

@davidjgill4902 13 дней назад

I don't think museum curators put fig leaves over the naughty bits of classical sculpture because they had too little respect for the authenticity of these. There were other reasons. Similarly, in the early 20th century major art museums had large collections of plaster casts of great works of sculpture from Western Art. They didn't think these were the same as the originals, but they thought copies were worth a place in their galleries largely to educate the public about art. Later, a new conviction about authenticity took shape in the field of art history that displaced these copies. Also, many of these same museums were gifted the impressive collections amassed by Gilded Age industrialists sufficient to fil their galleries.

@Shanghai_Knife_Dude 10 дней назад

Chinese tourists hardly buy those fakes. Mostly bought by western enthusiasts. Also, if there were RU-vid back in 1890, you would say all Greece heritage were fake, by your term, too.

@obsidianstatue 7 дней назад

Such an Eurocentric view on on culture. Chinese culture has been in a state of continuous evolution since the dawn of civilization. To claim what Chinese builds today in the context of an industrialized society as "fake" completely ignores the need for China to maintain cultural heritage in a modern world, where traditional methods are not always appropriate, affordable or sustainable.

@Peleski 12 дней назад

I don't really understand how the Shaolin temple 20:00 got UNESCO world heritage listing in 2010. It's reported that all documentation of the temple was lost so they had no plans to rebuild with. Is this UNESCO stuffing up? I thought they were stricter than that.

@sinobabble 11 дней назад

I did have a section on UNESCO which I cut out due to length, but in short yes. The rules are not as tight as they should be, and there are a lot of internal debates about what constitutes 'authentic' cultural heritage, what's permissible, and of course there's a political element to it as well! There's an article called “World Heritage List: Does it make sense?” by Frey and Steiner that explains it a bit better

@Peleski 11 дней назад

@@sinobabble I'd be interested because UNESCO declarations have become like the Michelin star of historic sites

@jclplambeck 13 дней назад

This video is awesome. Thanks for digging into this subject so thoroughly. It's sharp work. And your pronunciation is very good

@ryanwuryan7584 11 дней назад

This is exactly something I have been wondering about recently! So glad this video was recommended to me

@TwoCentsOnTour 15 дней назад

Interesting topic. I've never visited full on villages like you described, but I've visited loads of sites which are modern reconstructions. One of them I visited last month In Wuhan was the Yellow Crane Tower. It's the most well known landmark in the city. It has been built, destroyed, rebuilt, burned down etc, numerous times throughout history. The current one: -Was built in the 1980s. -Is made largely of concrete and painted to look like an old wooden tower. -Has an elevator. -Is not on the original site (because the Yangtze River Bridge was built on that spot back in the 1950s). So there's not a lot about it which is "real" about it if you're thinking about it in a historical context. And yet it's amazingly popular. 70 yuan tickets are pretty steep, but every day thousands go there. On holidays you can't get in unless you've booked in advance. That being said, here in NZ we have at least one "Maori village" where tourists can come and see "authentic Maori culture". The "villagers" will paddle up on a traditional canoe, perform songs/dance, wear traditional dress, cook food a traditional way etc. But it's really just a show the same as some of those spots in China.

@sinobabble 14 дней назад

Not the elevator 😅 I think every country has their equivalent. In the UK we have Bicester Village, which unsurprisingly is very popular with Chinese tourists for the 'traditional English houses'. I think we'd draw the line at a fake Buckingham palace though

@xoxxxoooxo310 9 дней назад

I was in Lijiang a couple of months ago. Our guide for the day was a Naxi man in his 40s or 50s, and he told us that if we'd been to the Forbidden City in Beijing, we needn't bother with going inside the Mu mansion, though we did go in anyway. Of course we knew that it wasn't the original building, but now that I know that it's not even a faithful reconstruction, his ambivalence towards it makes a lot of sense.

@aeolia80 11 дней назад

So like in Korea, many if not all heritage sites are reconstructions. But, the Korean government clearly labels those things, they don't hide it. The original sites had been destroyed and or burned down and rebuilt several times over the centuries because of invasions and wars and occupations, then dictatorships, until the early 90s when they fully gained democracy, they really pushed to start rebuilding or restoring a lot of the sites. I'm not saying all the sites in Korea are reproduction, but you'd be surprised how many are. But it's not hidden, they don't deny it and pass it off as the real thing, there are signs everywhere if it is a restored site or a reproduction site, and they say why.

@AlexVictorianus 11 дней назад

The Chinese would probably say, the Basilica San Paolo outside the Walls in Rome is completely original Late Antique, because after its destruction by fire in the 19th century it was rebuilt as it had been before.

@DarkLordJabba 10 дней назад

you've totally missed the point. would it have been "better" to leave the ruins there and point people to the authentic stones that once made up a significant church? or rebuild it so people can experience it as it was? it's the experience of you being in that space that is brought close to what it was in history and more "authentic" than a pile of stones. sounds like you're just being willfully uncomprehending.

@benjaminvictor8767 10 дней назад

I just visited china. I was very impressed by the Shanghai temple. It was beautiful and I wondered why it wasn’t more famous. I was shocked to learn it was rebuilt in the 80s.

@joaovitormendescerqueira6985 8 дней назад

At least the new buildings respect fire codes, so they dont burn down all of a sudden, stay closed for a whole decade and require a billion dollars to be rebuilt all in the name of ``authenticity`` like some french churches

@anonimosu7425 11 дней назад

Japan is literally more old China than China right now

@joaovitormendescerqueira6985 8 дней назад

They do the exact same thing she talks about in the video lol. Thats what happens when countries build their stuff from wood, lol

@edwardsnowden8821 8 дней назад

Japan is even worse than china

@anonimosu7425 4 дня назад

@@joaovitormendescerqueira6985 Wood can last around for centuries, Scandinavian churches are good examples of that. It comes down to not demolishing everything in the name of revolution

@joaovitormendescerqueira6985 4 дня назад

@@anonimosu7425 Youre leaving out a huge chunk of the facts. Wood can last for centuries only under the right circumstances. Scandinavian is much, much colder and dryer than China or Japan. Wood doesnt last long in places with hot and humid climates and typhoon seasons. Also, fun fact. The famous Osaka castle burned down so many times the current version had to be rebuilt in 1931 with concrete and steel

@anonimosu7425 День назад

@@joaovitormendescerqueira6985 yes and Japan generally does a better job upkeeping things compared to China

@hpsauce1078 13 дней назад

This was genuinely fantastic, as an architect who works in preservation of government buildings in the UK i find myself torn over this, I'm simultaneously hubristic and dissaproving towards Chinese methods of 'conservation', this is clearly an imbalanced approach, but I'm also very jealous. I often find myself grating against the restrictions we have placed on ourselves in the West against making things more functional or appropriate for usage in the modern day, we are designing for new office spaces that are far too small and inaccessible for modern tastes, but simultaneously we have to preserve the external and often internal snapshot of what it once was. I personally think there needs to be a balamce between authentic preservation and acknowledgement that buildings need to change and improve and sometimes expand. I could say a lot more but you get the jist, a lot to chew on here, thanks!

@davidjgill4902 13 дней назад

You work as a preservation architect, but you don't seem to believe in it. I'm an architect in the US, and I don't see outmoded historical structures being forced on any user or institution. Often, historic buildings are repurposed for less intensive uses. An obvious example is early 20th-century office buildings that could not support the data-tech infrastructure of modern business activities, so these buildings became housing. In the US, we don't have anything like grade-listed legal protections for historic and artistically important buildings. The restrictions placed on Grade I and Grade II listed buildings can be onerous no doubt. Nevertheless, Britain is fortunate to have these legal protections for buildings and to have such a profoundly important built environment. The US lacks these legal building protections but has almost nothing in the built environment that can compare to a Grade-I listed building. The Chinese approach to historic preservation is not really about making anything more modern, safe and functional, even when they make that claim. Is much more about cow-towing the interests and purposes of government and business interests who believe their agendas are vital and historic preservation and cultural authenticity are inconsequential in comparison.

@andycockrum1212 13 дней назад

This is fascinating! It seems obvious now that you’ve told me, but I never considered that different cultures have different standards for cultural preservation of structures

@davidjgill4902 13 дней назад

Not just historic structures but history itself. We can debate whether different cultures merely have different standards or whether some nations have no standards because such ideas don't serve the agendas of decision-makers in those countries.

@cchen6522 10 дней назад

中国人很清楚哪些是古迹哪些是重建的，很多仿古建筑只是为了美观和促进旅游。民用建筑的话很难保存千年，有人居住就会不停重建重修，除去火灾不说，古人也不会喜欢住几百年的老破房子。中国现在保存较好的古迹除了故宫这种，还有就是宗教建筑。西安的大雁塔，苏州的虎丘塔，云岗石窟，龙门石窟等等都是佛教建筑，历史也都超过千年。

@emmamlis927 12 дней назад

What a well timed video I’m in Taiwan and am traveling to mainland China in a few days haha! Thanks for educating me on this topic

@sinobabble 12 дней назад

Have fun! Lots of great things to do (and eat) in China, but don't expect Taiwan's old school aesthetic

@nigelralphmurphy2852 15 дней назад

Luckily this insanity is (at the moment) largely confined to the North. In the south, especially the far south east provinces the ability to see through the emperor's clothes still exists, largely due to the south east's long history of migration and return which meant the southerners were able to detect Beijing's BS when the Northerners couldn't. For example, southerners don't partake in the silly and adolescent Hanfu craze.

@sinobabble 15 дней назад

Yes from my stays on the mainland and HK I would agree. I cut this bit because it was too long, but for the course I taught we visited an old town in Guangdong overnight and it was the true, "negative" authenticity most tourists would hate. Chickens in the yard, old commune style kitchen, crumbling village wall, I loved it 😅

@christopherd.winnan8701 15 дней назад

@@sinobabble - Did you manage to get to Shaxi during your visit?

@sinobabble 14 дней назад

@@christopherd.winnan8701 No I've never been to Yunnan unfortunately, I've heard it's lovely but never had the time to go!

@tingtinggao8755 12 дней назад

History is a series of records keeping. If a building is burnt down then you dob't consider it's part of history, then you won't know any history

@nos8141 12 дней назад

I don't see any issue with hanfu development. The fact the youth are interested in history is great. Developing upon cultural heritage over western brands will take time to refine, but many are treating it proffesionally. The modern ones are fine, I even purchased some which fit great for everyday use. In terms of the overly fantasy ones, I think they should stop. For complete historical clothing, i would restrict wearing it for festivals or special events, like Japan

@Multiverse678 9 дней назад

Not just an Asian thingy , in the West, French government has bulit an exact replica of the prehistoric paintings in Lascaux. That is what tourists are going to see.

@andreabianchi9656 7 дней назад

That replica has been built for completely different reasons (i.e. to preserve the very frail original while still allowing people to get a feeling of how it looks like)

@Multiverse678 7 дней назад

@@andreabianchi9656 Precisely, just like terracotta replica too, so people can continue to appreciate them. The original is too fragile for public display after all, it was buried for more than one millennium.

@asdisskagen6487 13 дней назад

Thank you so much for this; as someone who works in construction, the only conclusion I have drawn from videos of these locations is that either: a) they had recently re-built historic buildings, or b) they were just 're-creations' of collapsed infrastructure. I'm very glad to know someone is addressing this because I couldn't understand why all these travel videos keep saying "historic buildings"

@clamm150 15 дней назад

I appreciate your pronunciation. It actually makes it easier to follow what you're saying

@jarekzawadzki 9 дней назад

I hope the pandas they send out are not fake.

@mudra5114 10 дней назад

This is true of India too. It were the British who did the most to preserve India's cultural heritage. Fortunately we Indians have picked up this good trait from the British and today our Archeological survey of India (started by the Brits) does a decent job of preserving our heritage. However I am hearing horror stories from our National Library where various heritage books are rotting away with little care.

@BalambHuang 10 дней назад

Very interesting and educational video. I would love to hear your thoughts on the Disney-fication of Venice, which is the most obvious example of western city experiencing the same issue of tourism and struggle with the balance of authenticity and economic.

@shinbi6009 10 дней назад

As long as they hate Chinese tourists but will at last begrudgingly take their money out of need, they will continue to disneyfy. Ideally, what they should do is to create a fake replica just for the Chinese tourists to keep them separate from the “civilized” tourists.

@theoblincko18 10 дней назад

This is so sad, Órbán is doing the same in Hungary, destryoying what real heritage has survived in favour of stupid theme parks(Hollókői Vár, Diosgyőri Vár, ect). This is what happens when you mix capitalism and nationalism.

@lexuanhai6999 9 дней назад

Just to note, Hội An is a city, and the UNESCO site is more like Hội An Old Town, not a village

@Rugged-Mongol 13 дней назад

Come to Mongolia and experience authentic Ur-Asian culture.

@jacku8304 8 дней назад

Mongolia is more like a Russian satellite frontier town. The sign boards and building were typically Russian of the 50s-60s.

@MrMineHeads. 5 дней назад

I really enjoyed this video. Thanks so much for this. What a great introduction to your channel, will definitely be checking out your other stuff.

@Rikard_A 10 дней назад

Moving art collections and cultural heritage to different countries are a weird practies.

@jacintochua6885 12 дней назад

Parts were reconstructed. Notbevrrthing is original. But they're not all fske. You're 9ver blowing it .

@mamborambo 12 дней назад

Just discovered your channel, you're amazing. I already know most of China's heritage venues are not authentic and now I feel better knowing I won't ever spend my tourist dollars on these shlocks.

@gregorystevens6540 6 дней назад

The west does this all the time! Greeks and Roman ruins have mostly been rebuilt.

@peterwu8471 14 дней назад

Fantastic presentation and discussion!

@doeixo 12 дней назад

Thank you

@hongjian3714 10 дней назад

Go to Osaka castle. Looks good from the outside, but literally everything. EVERYTHING inside is modern and rebuild, including the elevator and the staircase. Not even the traditional room layout has been even attempted to recreate. But it's ok. It's Japan. The good dog of the US. So everything they do is good.

@andreabianchi9656 7 дней назад

I don't think she's saying this is only a China problem. But maybe, for a number of reasons, nowhere else now this is as much of a systematic problem as in China. No need to bring geopolitics into this.

@hongjian3714 7 дней назад

@@andreabianchi9656 wow previous comment was expectedly deleted. Nowhere as systematic as China? What do you say about the entire Japanese Bushido Culture that western zoomers love so much being a wartime creation of the Showa era to legitimize their invasions of Asia by declaring themselves to be racially superior? Samurai and Bushido is literally a 20th century creation, not historical at all! Doesnt matter? Not systematic? Yep, geopolitics again, because modern Japan literally banks on this lie and attracts tourists and gains sympathy with their popular culture based on this genocidal lie that allows them to hunt endangered whales and pollute the ocean with radioactive isotopes. In the end, only China needs to legitimize every aspect of its existence, not the Japanese and not the Westeners who themselves have based their traditions on lies and imagined communities that are as ahistorical as they come. Mayhap the only difference here is that you successfully colonized and r-a-p-e-----d the world and now get to set the standards for what's right and wrong, what's authentic and what's a fake? What keeps China from doing this? We are building a huge navy and expanding our nuclear arsenal as we speak? One day, maybe we get to decide what's fake and whats real. And then you are maybe not on the right side of history anymore...

@hongjian3714 7 дней назад

@@andreabianchi9656 @andreabianchi9656 wow previous comment was expectedly deleted. Nowhere as systematic as China? What do you say about the entire Japanese Bushido Culture that western zoomers love so much being a wartime creation of the Showa era to legitimize their invasions of Asia by declaring themselves to be racially superior? Samurai and Bushido is literally a 20th century creation, not historical at all! Doesnt matter? Not systematic? Yep, geopolitics again, because modern Japan literally banks on this lie and attracts tourists and gains sympathy with their popular culture based on this genocidal lie that allows them to hunt endangered whales and pollute the ocean with radioactive isotopes. In the end, only China needs to legitimize every aspect of its existence, not the Japanese and not the Westeners who themselves have based their traditions on lies and imagined communities that are as ahistorical as they come. Mayhap the only difference here is that you successfully colonized and r-a-p-e-----d the world and now get to set the standards for what's right and wrong, what's authentic and what's a fake? What keeps China from doing this? We are building a huge navy and expanding our nuclear arsenal as we speak? One day, maybe we get to decide what's fake and whats real. And then you are maybe not on the right side of history anymore...@andreabianchi9656 wow previous comment was expectedly deleted. Nowhere as systematic as China? What do you say about the entire Japanese Bushido Culture that western zoomers love so much being a wartime creation of the Showa era to legitimize their invasions of Asia by declaring themselves to be racially superior? Samurai and Bushido is literally a 20th century creation, not historical at all! Doesnt matter? Not systematic? Yep, geopolitics again, because modern Japan literally banks on this lie and attracts tourists and gains sympathy with their popular culture based on this genocidal lie that allows them to hunt endangered whales and pollute the ocean with radioactive isotopes. In the end, only China needs to legitimize every aspect of its existence, not the Japanese and not the Westeners who themselves have based their traditions on lies and imagined communities that are as ahistorical as they come. Mayhap the only difference here is that you successfully colonized and r-a-p-e-----d the world and now get to set the standards for what's right and wrong, what's authentic and what's a fake? What keeps China from doing this? We are building a huge navy and expanding our nuclear arsenal as we speak? One day, maybe we get to decide what's fake and whats real. And then you are maybe not on the right side of history anymore...

@hongjian3714 7 дней назад

@@andreabianchi9656 delete delete delete as always Anyway, go visit Japan and see that 99% of their castles and temples are newly built and often not historical at all. The entirety of Asakusa, where tourists flock from everywhere, is literally built for tourism and is as ahistorical as it can get. Tell me about the systematic problems. You just dont want to see it.

@SimonSozzi7258 12 дней назад

Very interesting.

@kzm-cb5mr 10 дней назад

No wonder when I see these Chinese displays of culture, part of me thinks it's tacky.

@patrickwilson2475 10 дней назад

I CAN'T BREATHE

@Jumpoable 11 дней назад

Is everything in Kyoto Japan FAKE?!?!? You know they rebuild those beautiful temples every 20 years or so, right?

@TheGetout04 11 дней назад

quiet incredible commentary

@tombouie 13 дней назад

Quit Interesting

@ProjectMirai64 9 дней назад

Nice video!

@PhryneMnesarete 10 дней назад

I think the difference is one of motivation. In the west, historical sites may become tourist attractions, but that is not the main motivation behind their preservation and conservation. It’s to allow academics to learn about these sites and to understand the people and cultures that produced them. In China, understanding the past doesn’t seem to be a motivation at all. Their main motivation seems to be making money from tourists, with no actual interest in learning about the past. One approach centres the cultures that created the sites, the other approach centres modern visitors to the sites.

@Rickyrab 9 дней назад

Pennsbury Manor, eh?

@user-ou5qt9ew2i 10 дней назад

以色列的哭牆，只有最下面二層自當年原基石，以上都是加建上去的

@davidjacobs8558 9 дней назад

Most Chinese don't know this, probably because CCP doesn't want it known, but CCP sent people over to South Korea in 1990's, to learn about Confucianist rituals. because they themselves completely destroyed their confucianist culture during the Cultural Revolution. And even South Korea was barely able to preserve National level Confucianist Rituals, thanks to US Armed force intervention duing Korean War. otherwise those would have completely disappeared from the surface of earth.

@icantfindit008 12 дней назад

im subscribing just cause you sound smart and the world needs smart people... i went to china and everything looked fake and nothing like the photos however i would say that everything looked very communisy which itself is worth a note.

@doeixo 12 дней назад

Its objectively evil that the state determines what is authenticity and build theme parks of the past. No matter how much people like it

@user-ou5qt9ew2i 10 дней назад

以經比日本“古跡”好很多了，保留建筑技術，拆掉重建

@nigelralphmurphy2852 15 дней назад

There's a southern Shaolin Temple as well which has entered the southern culture and mind as a means to separate the southerners from the northerners. The south is the king of Chinese martial arts and for this reason the southerners have reclaimed the place where Chinese martial arts began from Henan to Fujian. The truth or otherwise of the claim that the southern Shaolin Temple is the real source of Chinese martial arts is irrelevant, as the southerners' claim is a means to retain 'true' Chinese culture remains where it belongs, in the south. As Wikipedia says "The Southern Shaolin Monastery is considered by some to be a construct of fiction and folklore. Shi Yongxin, the abbot of the Shaolin Monastery has said "In all the records of the Shaolin Monastery, I have never seen the words 'Southern Shaolin'." In response, the abbot of the Shaolin Monastery at Quanzhou said "Shaolin is definitely present in Fujian, it is not up to anyone to say it does or does not, its history can be found, its history can be proven, in this kind of argument these are of no consequence."

@luongo7886 10 дней назад

BRILLIANT!!! This is one of the BEST videos I have ever seen. Not only was it very well researched but you are extremely articulate. I always knew everything about china and chinese culture is FAKE but I didn't realize the extent of the damage. Thank you for making this eye-opening video. Please make more such videos.

@baohuawu805 10 дней назад

Many of the historic buildings like the Summer Palace had been burned down a long time ago by the Eight-Nation Alliance. The replica ones just remind us of that kind of history!