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Romance Revolution on the Wall

By Uking Sun (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-12-07 13:36

From "Punks not dead" to "I love you forever," to "Happy" and "To marry the right person," the rocks used to decorate an artificial hill, located in the traditionally solemn Altar of the Sun in Beijing, have become a favorite place for emotional tourists to scribble whatever is lingering in their minds, most about love.

In Chinese society, where individual concern is routinely at the sacrifice of collective interest, tourists like to write Chinese characters on landmark buildings, such as on the Great Wall. Perhaps the most popular sentence, usually written by white glue to keep it lasting longer or sometimes even carved in stone, is "Jonny or Tom has visited here." This simple statement that someone has visited a place on a certain day has been criticized by many morality watchdogs as a "bad habit" damaging the historical sites.

But in Altar of the Sun, the place that emperors in Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) worshiped the Sun, the Chinese charterers left on the rocks near a lake are mostly about love. The following photos, taken on December 6, 2009, show some of the interesting signatures.

There's a popular but unclaimed Chinese saying that "A man leaves his reputation behind wherever he stays, just as a goose utters its cry wherever it flies." People are desperate to attract public attention and afraid to be forgotten. For those ordinary Chinese at grassroots level, the lack of resource to make their voices publically heard may be another reason of expressing themselves on buildings.

[Photos by Uking Sun. Opinion expressed in this newsletter is only of the authors.]