City's attractions likely to be spared character cull

• Source: Global Times
• [08:43 July 16 2010]
• Comments

The Mansion Hotel located on Xinle Road in Xuhui district, which used to be the office of Du Yuesheng. Photo: Mansion Hotel

By Craig Curtis

Shanghai tourist destinations that use fictional characters or negative historical figures to promote themselves seem safe, despite a new government policy cracking down on the use of unconfirmed links to historically significant persons and negative historical figures by tourist destinations.

The national policy was issued recently by the Ministry of Culture and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, Xinmin.cn reported Tuesday.

According to Professor Qian Nairong of the College of Liberal Arts at Shanghai University, the policy is aimed at putting an end to places trying to cash in on spurious links with famous historical, or even fictional, people, as such claims cast doubt on places with legitimate asso-ciations.

"It is understandable that such places are coming into question, for example, when the tomb of Three Kingdoms era emperor Cao Cao was discovered in Henan Province last year, many people doubted its credibility."

He added that places in Shanghai that associate themselves with controversial historical figures, such as early 20th century Shanghai gangster Du Yuesheng, are well established and therefore unlikely to fall foul of the new ruling.

China does not lack places that try to attract visitors by associating themselves with his-torical or fictional characters, even when their claims are contested.

There are at least two Huaguo Mountains, one in Jiangsu Province and one in Shaanxi Province, that claim to be the birthplace of the fictional Sun Wukong, better known as the Monkey King from the Chinese classic Journey to the West.

Claims to the title of birthplace of famous personages, such as ancient strategist Zhuge Liang and The Dream of the Red Chamber author Cao Xueqin, are also contested.

A number of Shanghai travel companies contacted by the Global Times, all of which asked not to be named, admitted to offering tours to places outside of the city that may be hit by the policy.