- This topic has 9 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated September 15, 2005 at 9:11 pm by titch.
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September 12, 2005 at 9:03 am #1036764
Local efforts needed to protect the Great Wall
Fei Li
2005-08-13 07:21It takes a wild imagination to link the Great Wall, a revered and sacred national symbol of China, with an orgy that involves drugs and alcohol.
But when money grabbing is king and the pursuit of individual “highs” the norm for some people, you don’t need this kind of wild imagination.
On July 30, when a “Wild Dancing Party”, or “rave”, was held on the Jinshanling section of the Great Wall, the link between the Wall and an orgy was seamlessly formed.
The wild party, attended by more than 1,000 party-goers from home and abroad, had all the ingredients to be described as “wild.”
According to eyewitness’ accounts, piles of empty bottles and waste, including human waste, were left strewn everywhere following the overnight rave.
Moreover, some partygoers took drugs at the party, according to media reports.
Many even urinated on the Great Wall, citing the scarcity of the toilets.
The incident, which came to the public’s attention through the internet and then the mass media, has turned into a nationwide uproar.
And it is no wonder.
Regarded as a great national symbol, the Great Wall occupies a special place in the hearts of Chinese people, and is a source of national pride and strength.
When the Wall is used as a stage to hold such indecent carnivals, the outpouring of public outrage is to be expected.
Adding to the dismay, it was revealed later that similar parties have been running annually for eight years now.
People have every reason to be concerned about both the physical damage such an unruly party could do to the Wall, and the psychological harm such desecration of what is the greatest symbol of Chinese culture and history could do to the Chinese people.
The preservation of the Great Wall, a world heritage site, is a pressing task, with many parts of it already crumbling. In many places it is being destroyed.
And in 2003, the Great Wall was listed as one of the 100 most endangered sites by the World Monuments Fund.
But this call for protection of the priceless ancient Wall falls on deaf ears in many places.
Many local governments use the heritage of the Great Wall as a cash generator, making money off it, but not preserving it.
For example, management rights for the Jinshanling section of the Great Wall have been leased to a company on a 50-year term, starting from 1997, for a sum of 6 million yuan (US$739,827).
The company then gave the go-ahead for various commercial activities to be held there.
Due to the absence of a nationwide law covering the Wall’s protection, however, such behaviour is hard to rein in through moral discipline or conscience alone. Currently, the Wall is administered regionally rather than centrally, allowing leeway for local governments in their management of this mighty relic.
So far, only Beijing has barred commercial use of the Wall in the form of a local law.
Such a situation has made the Great Wall protection task even harder.
A complete law should be worked out so that local governments can take the protection effort seriously. Only then can the Great Wall be shielded from man-made destructive forces and continue to stand high to inspire the Chinese nation.
(China Daily 08/13/2005 page4September 12, 2005 at 9:13 am #1067032Anonymous
danger, danger, thats not the sort of publicity that raves need, and it was exposed through an internet site like this one! boo. the tone of the peice is horrificly emotive, it would be interesting to find another veiw of what actually happened and what was left behind/ not cleared up.
while i do think its important to protect national monuments for future generations, i think that its also important not to shut them off from public use completely, stonehenge being a good exception where a compromise has been reached.
why shouldnt people party monuments put there for the enjoyment and wonderment of all? if they cause no significant lasting damage, i cant see owt wrong with a great wall party. cant erode it any more that the thousands of tourist treks it takes every year.
September 12, 2005 at 9:20 am #1067025Did you see Quentin Tarrentino on Jonathan Woss’ program last year when he was promoting Kill Bill with Uma behaving like a munter, going on about how they got really munted at a rave at the wall after finishing the film?
September 12, 2005 at 4:28 pm #1067033No but I saw some madman jump the wall on a skateboard last night.
September 12, 2005 at 6:42 pm #1067026this story is widely reported on all the “engrish” news sites of China, and appears to be being propagated directly from xinhua (the central press office of Beijing’s government!). The full report mentions “various rubbishes” being left behind
raves are actually fairly common in China these days, although its mostly comercial hard house and trance, the main drug used is ketamine, and they are only accessible to the relatively affluent young people in the urban areas.
However its only fairly recently that the authorities have even admitted the existence of this scene!
the rave itself appears to have been organised on a commercial basis with a lot of input from British promoters.
suprisingly it appears these events are not illegal – the Chinese do not have such a problem about neighbourhood noise as Britain and some of the councils license the hire of bits of the wall.
it does seem that the promoters under-estimated the clean up requirments though, and this one was a bit bigger than previous events.
September 13, 2005 at 8:40 am #1067029this is unbelieveable — sometimes i am blown away by the way rave culture has disseminated itself globally and how young people the world over are moulding it and shaping it to mean something in their lives.
sometimes its easy to forget when you’re dancing in a forest with pretty much the same people you see most weeks, that the world over people with very different backgrounds and very different lives are responding to the modern world in the way that you do.
But as general lighting has pointed out, there are issues and problems thrown up by this too. I am always concerned and suspicious about the involvement of british (or just western) promoters. Does it make any emergent scene more artificial/ not organic enough? is there much of a free/ DiY scene in China?
anyway – an interesting article…….
makes you think………..September 13, 2005 at 11:04 am #1067031Theyre using ketamine? O.o that is definatelly new to me, its an anesthetic and has to be injected as it is a liquid (im a vet nurse, we use it in surgeries) its a little silly to use something that is going to make you drowsy (its fast acting too)… i dont get it
though on a serious note, i agree with USE, this sort of publicity is not something raves need… then again, the only way to look past a media coverage like this, is if you have experienced what the event is really about or can be bothered finding out the other side of the story.
September 13, 2005 at 3:19 pm #1067027Mashvie wrote:Theyre using ketamine? O.o that is definatelly new to me, its an anesthetic and has to be injected as it is a liquid (im a vet nurse, we use it in surgeries) its a little silly to use something that is going to make you drowsy (its fast acting too)… i dont get itmost recreational users of ketamine evaporate the liquid into a powder and then snort it in a similar manner to the use of cocaine or amphetamines – there is, thankfully, a dislike of the use of needles amongst ravers…
ketamine has slight stimulant effects on humans in small doses. I think vets also use tiletamine and lorazepam combinations which are more likely to have a tranquilising effect, but apparently aren’t much fun for recreational use by humans (one person on erowid said it was unfair on the apes and monkeys to give them this crap!)
Quote:though on a serious note, i agree with USE, this sort of publicity is not something raves need… then again, the only way to look past a media coverage like this, is if you have experienced what the event is really about or can be bothered finding out the other side of the story.I’m amazed TBH the Chinese allow this sort of event to happen at all! In other Asian countries the cops would have shut down such an event, were it licensed or not.
Malaysia used to put rave clubs out of business by shutting off the venues electricity supplies at weekends, and Singapore fairly swiftly squashed its local rave scene after the drug use was widely exposed… (those events which do happen are merely commercial exhibitions for sound equipment)
one obvious problem in this case in finding the other side of the story is that AFAIK none of us on this board understand the Chinese language so we wouldn’t be able to find info on “local” internet sources. Of course if any Chinese ravers have managed to reach this site (which may be blocked in CN anyway) we’d love to hear what they have to say about raves!
Sometimes people don’t help themselves – we did have a chap apparently with links to the Shanghai club scene post here but all he wanted to do was plug a commercial site and a mail-order bride type place!
September 15, 2005 at 9:04 pm #1067030I am very interested to read about this Chinese ‘Wild Dancing Party’. But I would like to add this regarding the official reports of waste & damage.
Recently, I read reports of a rave in this country, cant remember which site. Basically the jist was the same – natural beauty spot soiled etc, but there was a reply from one of the ravers stating that he and others had cleaned all the rubbish from the site and left it as they found it. He posted pics too. I know who I believe. China has growing links with Britain – I can’t believe they haven’t discussed things like this rave problem. It’s all a matter of propaganda. If they embellish the truth about drugs being evil and parties being a place where drugs are taken/sold they can enforce their image as upholders of law and order etc.
It is heartening to know though that the urge to dance to loud repetitive beats is universal – I think it brings us closer together as human beings.
September 15, 2005 at 9:11 pm #1067028sambo303 wrote:China has growing links with Britain – I can’t believe they haven’t discussed things like this rave problem. It’s all a matter of propaganda. If they embellish the truth about drugs being evil and parties being a place where drugs are taken/sold they can enforce their image as upholders of law and order etc.China and Britain are remarkably close these days and there is lots of open co-operation between the two countries Governments. The rave itself was organised by British commercial promoters; I certainly expect the Chinese would have asked Scotland Yard for assistance with dealing with “potential problems caused by these raves”; and that London would be all too happy to assist Beijing.
The systems of government and law enforcement of both countries are also similar. Why do you think senior civil servants in Britain are known as “mandarins?”
I have noticed an amount of traffic on this site from areas of the world which I would expect to find a large Chinese community, so I do think a few Chinese ravers may read here.
They may not be able to post though due to the very effective censorship and filtering of the internet there (developed in conjunction with many western corporates).
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