Resting Places No More
During our recent visit to Xiamen and Gulangyu I learned of a not so pleasant aspect of the island that is not mentioned in any of the tourist information on or about the place. As I mentioned before, the island was significantly developed by the foreign diplomats, businesspeople and missionaries that moved to the island starting in the 1700s. Naturally, many hundreds of foreigners died on the island and were buried there over three centuries. Many foreign children died of childhood diseases and were laid to rest there by their grieving parents. Many foreigners who devoted their lives to establishing schools and hospitals in Xiamen were buried here as well.
In 1956 Britain and France bombed Eqypt over the Suez Canal and in a strange chain of events China decided to retaliate by destroying the foreigners cemetery on Gulangyu. Local residents demolished the gravestones and dug up the graves - leveling the once peaceful cemetery. In 1978 the government built a music hall on top of the former cemetery and today concerts are held on the site. There's no mention of the atrocity at the site or in any literature handed out by the local government tourism bureau. While I was there this weekend a German orchestra was playing a benefit concert in the music hall. I'm sure they did not realize they were creating music on top of their ancestors' graves.
The same awful thing happened in Shanghai during the Cultural Revolution. The large foreign cemetery in this city was destroyed and dug up by the Red Guards, the tombstones hauled off and used as construction material, washing stones, etc. I have searched in vain for the location of the once large cemetery but cannot find a trace of it.
The government here has not apologized to its own people for the terrible things it did to them during the last half of the 20th Century but that day will come. We should not hold a grudge - we should move on, but I still hope that at the same time the government will apologize to the descendants of the former foreign residents whose resting places were destroyed in fits of vengence by government edict.
In 1956 Britain and France bombed Eqypt over the Suez Canal and in a strange chain of events China decided to retaliate by destroying the foreigners cemetery on Gulangyu. Local residents demolished the gravestones and dug up the graves - leveling the once peaceful cemetery. In 1978 the government built a music hall on top of the former cemetery and today concerts are held on the site. There's no mention of the atrocity at the site or in any literature handed out by the local government tourism bureau. While I was there this weekend a German orchestra was playing a benefit concert in the music hall. I'm sure they did not realize they were creating music on top of their ancestors' graves.
The same awful thing happened in Shanghai during the Cultural Revolution. The large foreign cemetery in this city was destroyed and dug up by the Red Guards, the tombstones hauled off and used as construction material, washing stones, etc. I have searched in vain for the location of the once large cemetery but cannot find a trace of it.
The government here has not apologized to its own people for the terrible things it did to them during the last half of the 20th Century but that day will come. We should not hold a grudge - we should move on, but I still hope that at the same time the government will apologize to the descendants of the former foreign residents whose resting places were destroyed in fits of vengence by government edict.
Labels: Concert Hall built on top of the foreigners cemetery
posted by Kevcham at 5:54 AM
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