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Official order to paint tombs green is desecration
By Frank Jiang |
July 27, 2010, Tuesday
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Print Edition
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RESIDENTS of Yiliang County in Southwestern China's Yunnan Province were recently ordered to paint their family's tombstones green, to make them more "aesthetically pleasing" and blend into green hillsides.
This was in anticipation of a visit by high-ranking officials and the village cemetery needed sprucing up to get rid of eyesores.
For hundreds of years the white and weathered tombstones have been scattered over the mountain towering over Yiliang Village.
According to numerous news reports, officials ordered residents to paint them or lose them - dynamite would remove tombstone eyesores.
Subdistrict staff claimed that "higher level officials" commanded the paint job so the mountain area would look pleasing when even higher officials came on an inspection visit.
It didn't occur to them that painting is actually desecrating tombstones, which hold deep symbolic value. It's vandalism.
Who is supposed to buy the paint?
And who says the tombstones are an eyesore that needs to be painted over? Do all officials hold that view?
It's "lose-lose."
Painting tombstones is considered blasphemous, disrespectful to the deceased and all those people who take religion and Chinese culture seriously.
This whole scheme hurts government credibility and gives the lie to the notion that government is supposed to serve the people.
It's another egregious example of government-ordered cosmetic surgery and face-lifts in cities and towns to make them look new, harmonious, uniform and prosperous.
In another notorious example, officials in a small county ordered villagers to disguise themselves as sheep on a hillside by draping themselves in white and walking on all fours or bent over - giving the impression to high-ranking senior official that the village was prosperous having so many sheep.
These fakes are preposterous and officials who came up with the ideas should be disciplined.
Both local officials and high-ranking officials should pay attention to the real issues, such as poverty alleviation.
When I visited the small village of Yangshan tucked deep into Anhui Province, I found many problems requiring urgent attention.
Infrastructure such as school facilities, roads and running water are desperately needed. Government funds and agricultural subsidies should be used to raise the standard of living.
The problems in Yangshan village are common in many, small remote villages.
Most families I visited were buried under debt, partly because of medical fees for older family members.
These are the kinds of issues - not painting tombstones and not making villagers pretend to be sheep - that government officials need to address.
(The author is an Australian student living and studying in Shanghai.)
This was in anticipation of a visit by high-ranking officials and the village cemetery needed sprucing up to get rid of eyesores.
For hundreds of years the white and weathered tombstones have been scattered over the mountain towering over Yiliang Village.
According to numerous news reports, officials ordered residents to paint them or lose them - dynamite would remove tombstone eyesores.
Subdistrict staff claimed that "higher level officials" commanded the paint job so the mountain area would look pleasing when even higher officials came on an inspection visit.
It didn't occur to them that painting is actually desecrating tombstones, which hold deep symbolic value. It's vandalism.
Who is supposed to buy the paint?
And who says the tombstones are an eyesore that needs to be painted over? Do all officials hold that view?
It's "lose-lose."
Painting tombstones is considered blasphemous, disrespectful to the deceased and all those people who take religion and Chinese culture seriously.
This whole scheme hurts government credibility and gives the lie to the notion that government is supposed to serve the people.
It's another egregious example of government-ordered cosmetic surgery and face-lifts in cities and towns to make them look new, harmonious, uniform and prosperous.
In another notorious example, officials in a small county ordered villagers to disguise themselves as sheep on a hillside by draping themselves in white and walking on all fours or bent over - giving the impression to high-ranking senior official that the village was prosperous having so many sheep.
These fakes are preposterous and officials who came up with the ideas should be disciplined.
Both local officials and high-ranking officials should pay attention to the real issues, such as poverty alleviation.
When I visited the small village of Yangshan tucked deep into Anhui Province, I found many problems requiring urgent attention.
Infrastructure such as school facilities, roads and running water are desperately needed. Government funds and agricultural subsidies should be used to raise the standard of living.
The problems in Yangshan village are common in many, small remote villages.
Most families I visited were buried under debt, partly because of medical fees for older family members.
These are the kinds of issues - not painting tombstones and not making villagers pretend to be sheep - that government officials need to address.
(The author is an Australian student living and studying in Shanghai.)
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