新聞轉貼: Preserving China on his own dime

新聞轉貼: Preserving China on his own dime

這是一篇關於加拿大華人Jeffery Huang自費保護中國大陸古建築的文章，對於這樣的新聞，我除了羨慕華人世界有人願意做這樣的事情外，也感嘆台灣的文化遺產是否也有這麼一天可以受到我們自己的重視與關心，並且不靠政府的力量由下而上的去保護我們的文化遺產。 
-------------------------------------------
Preserving on his own dime

A Canadian millionaire is saving history, but getting little sympathy from Beijing

 GEOFFREY YORK

 TONGLI, -- Canadian millionaire Jeffrey Huang didn't get much sympathy from Chinese authorities when he rescued dozens of historic buildings from the threat of demolition and decay.

The former Toronto-based textiles trader has spent the past seven years on a hunt for ancient architecture on the verge of destruction. Scouring the towns and villages around

Shanghai , he has rescued more than 150 historic structures -- everything from 400-year-old temples and mansions to wooden bridges and tea houses and even a gangster's faux-Roman villa from the 1920s.

Nobody in the Chinese government has offered any help. "They think it represents the backwardness of ," Mr. Huang says. "Some of them say, 'Why are you keeping these ugly old things to show to foreigners? is a modern country now.' "

He might never get the government's gratitude, but the retired businessman could be one of the saviours of 's heritage. With millions of dollars from his own private fortune, Mr. Huang is buying and preserving whatever he can salvage from the wrecker's ball.

Brick by brick, window by window, he dismantles them and stores them in warehouses on a sprawling patch of farmland near the town of Tongli, west of

Shanghai . When he moved his collection here in 2002 and 2003, it took four months of effort and an estimated 1,600 truck trips. Now he is reconstructing several of the houses at a nearby site as a future museum or artist's colony.

"To me, it's so interesting -- it's like a jigsaw puzzle," he says. "My passion is for the architecture itself. It's the beauty of the architecture and the history behind it. From my first house, I fell in love with it."

He gazes proudly around a once-swampy tract of land near Tongli, where he has hired more than three dozen craftsmen to rebuild five of the houses. As he strolls around the site, he admires their work.

"I treat them as artists," he says. "They never had any professional training. They're getting old and there's no demand for them. There are fewer and fewer of these craftsmen -- it's really sad."

Without amateur enthusiasts such as Mr. Huang, the ancient legacy of could soon disappear. From the courtyard homes in the alleys of Beijing to the Art Deco buildings of Shanghai and even the guardhouses of the Great Wall itself, the authentic architecture of has been tumbling under the pressure of urban development and industrial expansion.

By some estimates, has about 400,000 historical structures in need of protection, yet fewer than 100,000 have any official protection, leaving the vast majority at risk of demolition or neglect.

"As 's economy booms, the shortcomings of the government's preservation policies are becoming more obvious," says Lu Jiansong, a professor of cultural heritage at

Fudan

University in

Shanghai .

In many cases, historic structures are demolished and replaced by reconstructed copies in an ill-conceived effort to attract tourists. Even

Shanghai 's famed Jingan temple was replaced by a concrete replica. The original temple is now in Mr. Huang's collection.

"It's becoming more and more like

Disneyland ," Mr. Huang said. "These officials are not interesting in preserving old architecture unless they can get money from it. If you develop a site, you can have all this money, you get a car, you can go overseas to see other developments -- they get all these benefits."

A few years ago, he learned that a town in the


province of

Zhejiang had decided to demolish a 480-year-old building where a famed Qing Dynasty poet once lived. He negotiated a deal to purchase it.

"I sent my team over and they took it down slowly, tile by tile. It took more than four months," he says.

A year later, he went back to the street and found it filled with replicas of Spanish villas. "They had demolished the last old street in the town, with a thousand years of history. They didn't see any value in it."

Later, the town officials approached him and asked to buy back the poet's house. Mr. Huang asked them to show him a plan for preserving it. They never returned.

While private collectors might be the best hope for preserving 's architectural legacy, they are far from the ideal solution. Mr. Huang, for example, lacks the expertise to document or catalogue his acquisitions. He sometimes modifies the interiors of his historic houses -- adding a modern bathroom and shower, in one case. If he decides that a house is too damaged to be reconstructed, he sometimes cannibalizes carved wood for furniture.

"I'm not an expert in preservation," he acknowledges. "I'm just doing the best I can. I hope my craftsmen will live long."

Prof. Lu, at


Fudan

University , says the cultural value of Mr. Huang's houses is "partly damaged" when they are removed from their original locations and taken to a place like Tongli, which has nothing to do with their history.

"The best way to protect them is certainly to protect them in their original sites," he said in an interview.

But when the houses are faced with demolition, in a country where official protection is lacking, Mr. Huang's rescue efforts are "better than nothing," Prof. Lu says.

"It's worthy of being encouraged, because what he does is for the public welfare." 

上述文章引自http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070108.ARCHITECT08/TPStory/