China Millennium Monument
The China Millennium Monument (
Name and symbolism
The monument is branded as a monumental altar (
The monument's name in Chinese also includes an expression (simplified Chinese: 世纪; traditional Chinese: 世紀; pinyin: shìjì) that depending on context may refer to a century or a less precisely defined epoch or era, and is rendered as "millennium" in the monument's official name in English. The CCP discourse about the monument has emphasized the reference to five thousand years of Chinese nationhood, rather than the new millennium associated with the year 2000 of the Gregorian calendar.[1] It was completed just in time to be the centerpiece of the Millennium celebrations in China, at a cost of 200 million Chinese yuan,[6] but its official inauguration was delayed until Chinese New Year on 5 February 2000.[1] Altogether, the monument's Chinese name can be read literally either as "altar within China dedicated to the new century" or as "altar dedicated to a new Chinese century", thus preserving some ambiguity as to the intensity of its nationalistic intent.[5]: 186–187
Around the time of inauguration, the monument's was strongly associated with the leadership role of
Description
Building
The monument faces south in accordance with
The Century Altar is structurally divided between a truncated conic base representing earth (Chinese: 坤; pinyin: Kūn) and a sundial-shaped rotunda representing heaven (Chinese: 乾; pinyin: Qián). The latter can rotate around a vertical axis and supports an inclined metal spire branded the "Time and Space Probing Pin" above a central circular platform.[3] The base's diameter is 85 meters, and the rotating sundial's is 47 meters.[5]: 189
Interior decoration
The monument's central room is branded the Great Century Hall.[9] At the center of that room, and thus of the entire monument, is a gilded pillar decorated with traditional Chinese imagery and surrounded by eight cylindric columns.[5]: 191
The Great Century Hall's 5-meter-high circular wall is adorned with episodes of idealized Chinese 5000-years-long history, sculpted in precious stone
On the upper level, a 140-meters-long circular corridor features 40 bronze statues of important figures of Chinese culture and science, and (on the rotating qián) 56 sculpted stone slabs representing China's officially recognized ethnic groups. The series of characters starts with political adviser Guan Zhong (c. 725-645 BCE) and ends with nuclear scientist Deng Jiaxian (1924-1986). Other individuals featured include Laozi, Confucius, Sima Qian, Zu Chongzhi, and for the modern era, Zhan Tianyou, Cai Yuanpei, Lu Xun, Guo Moruo, Mei Lanfang, Mao Dun, and Liang Sicheng.[4] The statues, installed after 2005,[5]: 190 are sponsored by individual donors, many of them businesspeople from Hong Kong. Another donor, Stanley Ho, is singled out on the monument’s ground floor with a bronze bust celebrating his gift.
Monumental causeway
Leading to the monument is a monumental causeway that starts at the intersection of the monument's north–south axis with Fuxing Road, the western part of Beijing's major axis that becomes Chang'an Avenue further west. Just north of Fuxing Road is a screen bearing the monument's name calligraphed by Jiang Zemin, and a circular plaza flanked by two arcs of water, symbolizing China's two iconic rivers the Yellow River and the Yangtze. In the center of the plaza is a sunken square space with a permanently burning flame of "Chinese Holy Fire", kindled in 1999 at the Zhoukoudian site where Peking Man was discovered in the 1920s, and symbolizing the continuity of human experience in China since times immemorial.[9][11] The plaza's northern side features a map of China in a circular gilded medallion fringed by sculpted dragons. Between it and the monument's main structure is the 270-meters-long causeway proper or "bronze thoroughfare", a three-meter-wide installation with events of China's history inscribed on bronze plates, starting 300,000 years ago, on a year-by-year basis (some left blank) starting in 3,000 BCE, and with longer notices and indications of Chinese zodiac animals starting in 1901. The choice of events mentioned has been described as framed in a teleological narrative that legitimizes China's socialist revolution.[11][5]: 188
Millennium Monument Park
To its west, north and east, the monument is surrounded by a parking lot and beyond it, by a green space carved out from
Beijing World Art Museum
The Beijing World Art Museum was initially intended to host a permanent collection of non-Chinese art that would be displayed in two large halls, one for
The museum's inaugural exhibition in 2006 was titled "Mirroring the Age: Six Centuries of Italian Art" which was attended by 120,000 visitors.
See also
- Monument to the People's Heroes
- Monument to the People's Heroes (Shanghai)
- Museum of the Chinese Communist Party
- Millennium Monument (disambiguation)
Notes
- ^ a b c AP (2 December 1999). "China: Monument to celebrate 5000 years of civilisation". Youtube.
- ^ S2CID 161752321
- ^ S2CID 245901985
- ^ a b Simon Cockerell (12 April 2021). "Museums of Beijing #46: China Millennium Monument". Koryo Group.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Shuishan Yu (2012). Chang'An Avenue and the Modernization of Chinese Architecture. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press.
- ^ Mark O'Neill (31 December 1999). "Monument to steal show in celebrations". scmp.com.
- ^ Liu Xiqi (刘熹奇) (2000). "Study the speeches, cherish the party spirit, follow the party". ChinesePosters.net.
- ^ John Gittings (13 July 2001). "'It is our turn. This is our time.' Ecstatic Beijingers take to the streets to celebrate". The Guardian.
- ^ a b c d "China Millennium Monument". TravelChinaGuide.
- ^ "Beijing World Art Museum". China Services Info. 2019.
- ^ a b "The China Millennium Monument". ForeignerCN.com. 2007.
- ^ Peter Fiore (14 September 2012). "World Art Museum, Beijing". Peter Fiore: Thoughts on Painting.
- ^ "Exhibitions at Beijing World Art Museum & China Millennium Monument". photography-now.com.
- ^ Li Yan (9 May 2014). "Xu Beihong's work on show at the Beijing World Art Museum (5/9)". Ecns.cn.
- ^ "Art exhibition at Beijing World Art Museum of the China Millennium Monument". visitbeijing.com.cn. 5 January 2018.
- ^ ""Raffaello: Opera Omnia" exhibition opens at Beijing World Art Museum". CAFA Art Museum. 12 December 2020.
- ^ "Museum's 'Golden Mummies' collection arrives in China". University of Manchester StaffNet. 19 August 2021.