One afternoon between our trip to the village, LuHe, and our days in Guangzhou, Edward told us he would take us to a cultural exhibition in central Shenzhen.
The place is called Splendid China. Were we interested?
Sure. Of course. That's what we're here for. Although we had never heard of it, the name is typically Chinese in its use of the grand descriptor "splendid." Splendid in many ways it is.
Splendid China is a new construction, a tourist destination built to show off all parts of China, not specifically the cultural sites of Shenzhen. It was described for us in various ways. It is an outdoor museum / folk village after the order of Mumford Village (for folks in western New York), though on a vastly larger scale. It is a theme park of recreated places and structures that might make one think of Disney World -- without the fantasy and without the rides.
The entry to Splendid China features several huge displays of modern, cartoonish renderings of traditional Chinese things (like dragons) and new Chinese things -- all of which suggest the universal appeal of modern TV animation. Note the characters have "western" rather than Asian eyes.
On our visit to Splendid China, the kissing couple, more traditional and clearly Chinese, was drawing young folks who posed for photographs in front of it. I don't remember seeing too many of those young folks in the park itself, however. To be honest, there weren't many people of any age in the park on that day as the weather was cold and showers threatened.
[We did encounter a group of Korean tourists that we identified by the sound of their conversation. Quite a feat, I must say. Donna called "Anyounghaseao (hello!)" as their open carriage drove by us.]
Edward parked at the car entrance, in an partially submerged parking garage just beyond an enormous tree that I remember as being a tropical species of sycamore.
The cultural center itself had no other Disney-like characters that I remember, although it did have an aerial tram for those who wanted a seated overview. We chose to spend our visit on foot, all four hours of it, which began with a series of imposing stone archways that lent a more traditional "weight" to the park entrance. We did not have time to visit every corner of the park and we did not see any of the cultural shows that were offered in better weather.
These arches, like nearly everything in the park, were newly constructed replicas rather than old originals; they create the look and feel of an ancient imperial city, although no ancient sites had been scavanged for artifacts. At other displays in the park, as, for example, with the Great Wall reproduction, the model is so vast in its scaled down version as to demand an emotional response. One cannot help but be impressed by this staggering feat of engineering, ingenuity, and physical labor.
The mission of Splendid China is, objectively speaking, preposterous. How does one take the mind-boggling variables -- a land mass the size of China, a civilization that spans 5,000 years, and a population that includes 56 ethnic groups -- and adequately represent it in one "theme park"?
To be fair, one could hardly do justice to China's diversity, scale, and longevity even with a life-time of free travel and ready access. Nevertheless, Splendid China accomplishes some significant things.
In an odd way the large and the small replicas, and the presence of floral "representatives,"achieved a sense of "China" that would be hard to create short of the life-long tour I have just suggested.
Perhaps the first conclusion one might draw from these re-creations of the wonders of China is just how varied China actually is. I grew up while China was a very "closed kingdom," imagining China as a land of exotic wonders and drab daily existence -- this was during Mao's early years, after all -- but never in terms of diversity. I would have thought that the Chinese were uniformly Chinese, with one language, one form of writing, one identifiable look, one mode of dress (sometimes plain, sometimes fancier), one means of living, and so on.
Although much of what was unknown about China in those days is knowable today and while no intelligent westerner would admit to holding the kind of singular view of things Chinese that I just described, the fact remains that we often don't think past the false notion of China as a mono-culture. The truth is -- and the value of a tourist destination like Splendid China is -- that mono-culture idea is quite simply false.
Splendid China will never replace visiting actual cities, countryside, and historical sites, of course; no recreation can. And we will want to see the actual terra cotta figures and the Great Wall on our next visit.But Splendid China is, in fact, an efficient way to begin understanding the Chinese complexity. China is many things: it is mystery, it is confusion, it is contradiction, it is elegance and dignity; it is in many ways overwhelming. It is a long, significant, complex history. It is many enchanting cultures. It is diverse and fascinating peoples.
But China is not fantasy.
One of the ways that Splendid China is different from a place like Disneyland is that while it creates fantasy it is not really a destination. The fantasy is wanting to see the real thing -- all of it.
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