Steve Kelman, Harvard Kennedy School prof, moderate Dem, pro free speech/anti cancel culture, pro tax rich, pro-Israel. Research improving gov performance, China interest. Blog reprints Facebook posts
When I traveled around China in October of 2019, I noticed similar Disneyland like areas in multiple locations. Instead of restoring and preserving old architecture, they make something fake like a movie set. It's not just the Uighurs that are the victims of this, even the Han are. Tourism in China was geared towards domestic consumers even before the pandemic locked everyone else out. The idea that fake is just as good as new pervades Chinese life & perhaps it is a hangover from the Cultural Revolution...or maybe the tendency was always there since much of Chinese art consists of emulating old masters and not doing original contemporary work.
When I traveled around China in October of 2019, I noticed similar Disneyland like areas in multiple locations. Instead of restoring and preserving old architecture, they make something fake like a movie set. It's not just the Uighurs that are the victims of this, even the Han are. Tourism in China was geared towards domestic consumers even before the pandemic locked everyone else out. The idea that fake is just as good as new pervades Chinese life & perhaps it is a hangover from the Cultural Revolution...or maybe the tendency was always there since much of Chinese art consists of emulating old masters and not doing original contemporary work.