Talk About Kitsch

The Chinese, are famous for architecturally taking as a challenge the expression if the mountain wont come to Mohammed, then Mohammed will have to go to the mountain .... an expression by the way, that originally comes from the Francis Bacon's 1625 essays, retelling the Turkish proverb of the time "..... Mahomet called the hill to come to him, again and again; and when the hill stood still, he was never a whit abashed, but said, If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill."

Will The Real Venice Please Stand Up ... one of these is fake

But in this case, I am referring to cities ..... famous tourist cities of the world such as Venice, or Paris etc. They simply copy all the good bits of these cities somewhere in China, and Chinese tourists can experience them all in one theme park day. Dalian, in north-east China is one such spot. There they have recreated a mini Venice, frescos and all .... with 2.5 miles of canals and over 200 copied buildings for tourists to experience the city by gondola.

A replica Paris with an Eiffel Tower has appeared in the form of a residential area just outside of Hangzhou in eastern China. A copy of the Alpine village of Hallstatt, in Austria, was built in Guangdong, South China. The city of Shanghai has gone even further, and as part of a de-centralisation project, the city has commissioned nine 'town centres', which are given different 'international' styles, which include the architectural styles of British, German and Spanish .... I didn't even know that Britain had any style, architectural or otherwise.

But the faked prize biscuit has to go to Buenos Aires, where there is a theme park named Tierra Santa (Holy Land). Opened in 2000, it claimed to be the first religious theme park in the world ... God forbid that there is another one .... but I probably hope in vain. Bad taste never lacks for company.

Holy Land ~ Buenos Aires Style  ...Plastic Palm Trees And All

 

Because it is meant to be a replica of Jerusalem. Its not done in the best possible taste.

Talk About Bad Taste ... the Mechanical Christ Rises On Top Of Golgotha ~ Once An Hour.

In fact rather the opposite. Once the mechanical Christ has risen, he swivels, closes his eyes and rotates the palms of his hands ~ apparently provoking great emotion from the visitors stood beneath.

Plastic Golgotha .... Disturbingly Unrealistic.

Perhaps, done tastefully, with real trees, realistic actors and costumes and proper buildings, the theme park might work for North European sensibilities. After all Passion Plays, are still viewed by thousands across Europe, while the processions around the Stations of the Cross are viewed by thousands in Jerusalem itself. They might be vaguely baffling, but not necessarily in bad taste.

However Tierra Santa is made of plastic, and has reminders of modern life right overhead, as the the park is situated right next to Jorge Newbery Airport, and a plane flies over the plastic palm trees every few minutes .... talk about Kitsch.