Monumental Mismanagement
Patching up the Forbidden City
Visitors are frequently shocked that such a major monument has been allowed to decay. In 1999 the Forbidden City received a long overdue but only partial touch-up, with some courtyards re-paved and roofs mown, but substantial vegetation left atop some buildings. Preparations for the 2008 Olympics brought about active rather than passive destruction with the replacement of several roofs in forbiddingly uniform and inauthentic yellow tile, and entirely without the approval of UNESCO conservation experts that accession to the World Heritage list in 1987 required. It was claimed by an unnamed insider that the original tiles were quietly sold.
The administration treats nothing repaired after 1911 as historic, thus allowing its previous ham-fisted alterations and inappropriate patch-ups to license further ahistorical and shoddy ‘conservation’ with whatever is cheap and convenient. Columns originally lacquered may simply be painted in the same red.
It might be argued that leaving the site in a distressed state is more historically correct, since as with other buildings right up to the present day, maintenance was typically minimal or non-existent, and repairs were undertaken only when they amounted almost to complete reconstruction.
Photographs from 1900 clearly show rotting wood, sagging beams, fallen plaster, and peeling paint. The journalists on the post-Siege of the Legations march through the city by foreign armies in August 1900 reported the same, and that carpets were filthy, interiors dingy and ‘everything indicated slovenliness, neglect, and decay.’ The grass had been allowed to grow up through the bricks of the courtyard in sufficient quantities to interest the officers’ horses.
One visitor in 1901 described the halls as ‘polluted with the dirt of a decade and cursed by the mal-administration of corrupt palace officials,’ a fair description of the palace management from 1949 to the present day, too. Control over the Wǔ Mén and of right of entry was handed back to palace officials by foreign forces on 17 September 1901.
Wherever what may be the largest gate receipts in China go (the museum admitted to ¥590 million in 2010, which it hands to the Ministry of Culture), it is only sporadically on conservation and not much on security. In 2011 a farmer stole precious artefacts on loan from a Hong Kong museum, not all of which have yet been recovered, and in 2013 a man smashed a window and damaged an antique clock.
In 2011, something of an annus horribilis for the Palace administration, it was also revealed that a Sòng dynasty plate had been broken during a routine procedure and that there had been an attempt to cover this up; it was admitted that several unofficial exhibitions had been held (where did the revenue from those go?); it was reported that the disappearance of 100 ancient texts from the library had been hushed up; and attempts at pest control since 2006 were revealed as inadequate when termites were rediscovered.
In 2005 a 10th century scroll painting was ruined by drips from an air-conditioning unit, there have been further scandals about arguments over the division of gate receipts with tour companies, the administration has been accused of buying antiques for the collection and later illegally selling them for huge profit, and it is said that many of its posts are effectively hereditary.
In the 1970s items from the collection were sold to employees for token sums and according to Chinese media seven inventories conducted over the years merely counted the number of items but didn’t match them with the museum’s official list of assets.
After the 2011 theft the administration donated a banner to the police with an inscription thanking them for their efforts, which unfortunately replaced the character for ‘defend’ (捍, hàn) with the character for ‘shake’ (撼, also hàn). Mass on-line mockery ensued, which rose to a crescendo when the administration’s written apology appeared. This contained a dozen grammar and spelling mistakes.
But at least now there’s more of the site to see as more halls are finally being renovated (or rebuilt) and reopened although vast areas remain out of bounds to visitors, and dragon-topped pavilions are glimpsed intriguingly over the tops of lower buildings that block access to them. One northwest section, where buildings had been deliberately set alight by eunuchs to prevent an inventory from discovering how much of the treasures stored there they had stolen, has recently been rebuilt with an ultra-modern interior by American architects with funding from Hong Kong businessmen, and is reportedly used as a private club for those with ¥1 million to spend on membership.
The Forbidden City denies the club’s existence, although the application forms have been seen, as well as advertisements for jobs there. The administration unconvincingly blamed this on a private company that acted without authorisation, and claims the halls will open for public exhibitions. Several years on there is no sign of this taking place.
A programme of such ‘renovations’ is due to continue up until 2020, the palace’s 600th anniversary. A project initiated by the World Monuments Fund to restore the Qiánlóng emperor’s retirement complex in the northeast using vast amounts of foreign funding supposedly matched by the Forbidden City administration, is proceding with proper academic guidance and meticulous care, was originally due for completion in 2017, and supposedly with every intention of making it as open to the public as possible. However, access is effectively impossible to obtain, although the rooms already completed were for a while accessible to a limited number of tour companies for a fat fee, leading to speculation that the palace’s cadres may be making a nice return from this foreign investment, too. An opening up is now promised for 2020.
Return to Palace Museum or ‘Forbidden City’
See other Forbidden City stories:
The Two Palace Museums
Where are They Now?
A Storm in a Coffee Cup
The End of the Emperors
The Last Occupant of the Forbidden City
Pride and a Fall
The Ends of the Eunuchs
Next in Imperial City: Jǐng Shān Park
Previous: Introduction to the Imperial City and Tiān’ān Mén Square
Index to Background and Stories
Index to Gazetteer
Main Index to A Better Guide to Běijīng
