The farce of building a 'love city'

Southeast the Peacock Flies is the first long narrative poem in Chinese literary history and tells the tragic love story of Jiao Zhongqing and Liu Lanzhi, presenting the young couple's desire for true love and free marriage. But now Huaining county, Anhui province, where the classic love story took place, plans to spend 2.7 billion yuan ($429 million) to build itself into the "Chinese capital of love" through the Southeast the Peacock Flies Cultural Industry Base Project, whose conceptual plan has passed experts' evaluation. Though the poem enjoys an unmatched position in Chinese literary history, building a so-called love city is no way to honor it, says an article on gmw.cn. Excerpts:

If we start turning every place where a historical or mythical love story has taken place into a "love city", China will have innumerable love cities vying with each other for people's attention.

Besides, man-made attractions have become less attractive to tourists. The tragic love story of Jiao and Liu may have unfolded in Huaining, but few cultural legacies or historical documents survive there. The recently passed project has provisions for building artificial scenic spots such as a love square. This is ridiculous, people will be enriched by reading poems like Southeast the Peacock Flies and other immortal works on love rather than by visiting the places where the love stories took place.

Such a craze among local authorities reflects their fickleness and desire for quick success, and exposes the lack of effective supervision in investment. Every penny a government spends is contributed by taxpayers. Therefore, a government is duty bound to invest it in a way that improves people's welfare, not on fanciful projects.

(China Daily 10/08/2012 page9)