PS COLUMN ARCHIVE

June 25, 2008

Harmony between modernization and preservation of cultural heritage

I visited Beijing on business last week for the first time in seven years. What first surprised me was the newly built Beijing Capital International Airport. It was such a huge modernized construction that no one would be surprised to have been told this was Chicago or New York only if there were no Chinese announcement.

Everywhere in the city was construction rush with Olympics just around the corner. Big buildings were under construction here and there. Other than the popular bird-nest-shaped Olympic Stadium, ultra-modern designed, so to say, strange looking buildings were under way in many places. A number of hotels and Olympic related facilities were still under construction, which seemed to me to take another half a year before completion. When I pointed out this to a taxi driver, he said “They will be definitely completed in time for Olympics as they work all around the clock.”

Subway stations were all renewed with automated entranceways installed to serve tourists’ convenience. Passengers’ clothes were so much westernized, no difference from those of Tokyo subways.

Alongside those modern constructions, the cityscape of old houses called “Hutongs” since Yuan Dynasty was being rapidly torn down. They say Hutongs built in “siheyuan” style have thick brick walls to keep inside cool in summer and warm in winter. True indeed, the siheyuan styled house of my friend where I visited on a hot day was really comfortable as I felt my sweats all drained out. In the courtyard was cool water well and fruits were growing on grape trees. This is truly an energy-saving house, which is a real good example we must follow to learn, nevertheless they are rapidly disappearing in Beijing.

What’s going on in Beijing today reminds us of those days of Tokyo forty-four years ago before the Olympics. In Tokyo back in those days, grounds were rooted up everywhere with new things having replaced the old. Many moats and canals of legacies from the Edo Era, which were saved from war damage, were filled in to have made express highways. Overhead Nihonbashi (Japan Bridge) that could be said the symbol landmark of Edo is now running the city freeway to have totally destroyed the historical image of the Edo Era.

It might be reasonably unavoidable to have to destroy anything old in order to modernize the city. But it is a sad thing to me indeed that construction works are being kept on rushing only for modernization without thinking of alternative solution for saving old legacies. I said to my Beijing friend, “I truly wished Chinese people might have learned an important lesson from what we lost at the time of Tokyo Olympics”. He replied, “I really agree”. His answer made me feel relieved to have known that there are large numbers of people in China who so much regret losing so many good old things.

Please send your comments, if any, to pscolumn@planetary.or.jp

(Translated by The Planetary Society of Japan)