OPINION> Commentary
Profiting from culture
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-06-16 07:35

Is cultural heritage a burden on or a contributor to economic growth? The first blue book of its kind on the development of cultural heritage published by the Development Research Center of the State Council by the weekend suggests that it is a contributor. The statistics in the report indicate that the contribution from cultural heritage to economic growth is eight times as many as the investment in its protection and management.

The message is obvious that the cultural heritage of a country or people should be protected even if only from the viewpoint of making a profit, to say nothing of its cultural value, which can never be measured by money.

Then why does it become a frequent occurrence that some cultural heritages are vandalized even with the tacit approval from local governments when they are in the way of some economic projects?

This is because some local governments are too short-sighted. Dictates of expediency prevent them from seeing the long-term profits that a well-protected cultural heritage can bring about.

The profit from cultural heritage is realized mainly through tourism and auction of cultural relics, according to the report. The fact that more than 50 percent of the profit is from tourism sends a message that some cultural heritages can be a stable source of income for a local economy. What's more, the industry based on it is environment-friendly.

However, not all cultural heritages make money. And they do so only when they are protected and managed well. They must be presented to visitors as they are, and should never be used only as a source of profit.

There are examples that some local governments unnecessarily build fake cultural heritages with the intention of adding to the cultural connotation of the real heritage. The result is mostly a strange mix in which the value of the real one is lost in the glitter of the fake.

The more a cultural heritage is treated as it is, the more profitable it is. This is becoming increasingly true. This is because people's aesthetic judgment has been improving with their rising living standards. They want to see the real things, well-preserved real objects of cultural interest, and they want to learn something through visiting a cultural heritage site.

So vision is needed when it comes to the protection of cultural heritage. Preserving a cultural heritage as it is may be good enough to generate a profit. Overstressing the profit motive may, in fact, be counter-productive.

(China Daily 06/16/2008 page4)