Forbidden City still full of intrigues, author says
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ELIZABETH JACKSON: The home of China's imperial rulers, the Forbidden City, is the geographical heart of Beijing.
This famous palace, one of the most enduring representations of Chinese history and culture, is being renovated in time for the influx of millions of tourists who'll travel to China for the Olympic Games.
But most who visit the Forbidden City won't be aware of the intrigues that have taken place, and continue to take place, behind its walls as emperors, eunuchs, nationalists and communists have played out the struggles that have shaped who has ruled China.
The Australian National University's Jeremy Barme is one of the World's leading China scholars.
He met our China Correspondent Stephen McDonell in a Beijing cafe to discuss his new book on the Forbidden City and the importance that this palace still holds for China's rulers.
JEREMY BARME: For the leaders of China and for the people of China, the Forbidden City has gone from being a place that represented all that was backward, decadent and corrupt about the last Chinese dynastic era - the Ching Dynasty, to becoming something that is a sight of pride, national unity and also dynastic greatness. And that's been an extraordinary transformation.
Moreover, for a China in the throws of imperial commercialisation, since the mid 1990s, the Forbidden City has become a major brand name and Zijincheng (phonetic) is now a rigorously policed and protected brand.
STEPHEN MCDONELL: And is it, I suppose, a way in which the leaders of today feel that they can have a connection with China's past leaders, I suppose, which somehow maybe gives them a legitimacy as if it's a natural progression or something like that?
JEREMY BARME: Indeed I think that's exactly what's happened. We saw throughout the 20th century a lot of problems with China's way of dealing with it's past, of the legacies of the dynastic past. And the humiliations suffered at the hands of the western trading powers was such that the Chinese Government, various governments and regimes tried to distance themselves very rapidly from the past.
It's only the last 10 or 15 years that the authorities with the economic rise of China, with it's long term stability as we've seen in the last 30 years, that they've been able to regain, recapture and reclaim the past with a level of equanimity or relative peace of mind that has been unprecedented in 20th century Chinese history.
STEPHEN MCDONELL: Now in your book you refer to Zhongnan Hai as part of the Forbidden City. I have to say I never thought of it as being that way. This is the place where China's leaders en masse live with their families.
Why do you consider it as part of the Forbidden City? or why indeed is it part of the Forbidden City?
JEREMY BARME: Well during the last dynasty in particular, the Ching Dynasty from the 1640s for about 250 or 260 year period, what's called Zhongnan Hai or the Lake Palaces is an area that was used constantly by the Imperial family for banquets, to live in, for morning - for breakfasts or for afternoon teas, for leisure parties.
The Empress Dowager herself, the last major incumbent of the Forbidden City lived in the Lake Palaces for much of her later life. And this is a normal part of imperial life in China.
It's one of the great things about 20th century China and in particular the communist era of rule, that they've managed to convince everybody that the Lake Palaces had nothing to do with the Forbidden City at all.
STEPHEN MCDONELL: Why is it that China's leaders still live there? Is it because, I don't know, it's a nice place to live or is it because they want to keep an eye on each other? or why is it?
JEREMY BARME: Well this leadership compound was first used as a Government centre from the 1910s, from the earliest days of the Republic of China. It was a large conveniently placed centre of power, with very spacious offices, capacious living quarters and immediate access to most parts of the city - it's in the very centre of the city.
When the communists moved in on Beijing, they found a ready made government centre. And the reality is that in the early 50s they simply didn't have the money to go and build another centre of power. They did think for a time of building a massive new central government office on what we call Tiananmen Square today, it would be called the Chairman's office.
But again, lack of money, and lack of general resources made that impossible. And over the years they've become more and more entrenched in living in Zhongnan Hai, and all of the buildings around it. The streets around it are full of these huge walls and massive compounds, leadership compounds, where all the other leaders and their families live.
STEPHEN MCDONELL: But in theory, you could live anywhere in Beijing today, there are lots of nice flats, big houses, why do they still all live there?
JEREMY BARME: Well there has been discussion of moving the centre of government either to the east of Beijing or to the west. But convenience to the Great Hall of the People, they have underground railroad tracks to the Great Hall and they have instant access through underground railroad tracks and roads to their western command centre out in the hills.
It's a convenient spot and they have established a lot of great security methods of keeping themselves safe and happy there.
STEPHEN MCDONELL: I suppose I'm asking you though, why does the leadership group feel they have to live together as well rule together?
JEREMY BARME: Well the Chinese communist leadership is still a highly secretive group of people, engaged in constant internal tussles. We might have elections and back-stabbing after the fall of various political parties, but in China we know they have them but we never hear about them.
I'd imagine that the leaders want to keep a close eye on each other all the time. And to live close by and in constant communication is something that is extremely convenient for those in power or those jostling for power.
STEPHEN MCDONELL: Now recently we saw the controversy of Starbucks being kicked out of the Forbidden City following a campaign by a famous broadcaster here. What do you make of that?
JEREMY BARME: Well it's a mixture of things, the famous broadcaster guy who wants to become even more famous, and to take, naturally to play the role of the patriot. Most rogues do of course take on the carapace of patriotism to prove their relevance to the society. So he was playing a clever self-promotional game.
But also there's a lot of feeling about any foreign involvement in the Imperial Palace or the Forbidden City in Beijing, and Starbucks was an easy and soft target.
They used to have a sign outside their cafe which was up in the Imperial Garden, they had to take that down, they moved themselves to a more innocuous little spot - they occupied this small little corner of one building in one courtyard of the Palace, without even a sign. But to get rid of them was like a major, proof of patriotism and national vigour.
It's part of that sort of, I suppose, that sort of empty gesturing that people like to engage in. It makes themselves feel good, makes people feel they actually did something. They achieved some great, patriotic act by just kicking out some, after all, some relatively mediocre international coffee making company.
STEPHEN MCDONELL: Now why is it that the Forbidden City survived the cultural revolution?
JEREMY BARME: More by chance than anything else. Actually plans were mooted in the early 1960s to put in a six lane highway in front of the Forbidden City.
And during the early years of the cultural revolution, there were first plans to either tear down the audience hall or put up huge Mao slogans all over the place and convert the main back halls into people's rest rooms, where people could read newspapers and study Chairman Mao thought.
Because of the fear that Red Guards would break in to the Palace and tear the place down, there was a real move among various Red Guard groups to obliterate this most obvious and glaring example of feudal despotism that the government under Zhou Enlai sent in troops to occupy the Palace and close it all down.
So the occupation and closing the Palace really saved it from further depredation.
STEPHEN MCDONELL: So in other words you're saying that the Chinese troops actually at one point saved the Forbidden City from the Red Guards. Is that right?
JEREMY BARME: Indeed. The troops moved in and closed the Palace down and protected it from any attempts to break in. In fact to this day, on the western quadrant of the Palace there's still a battalion of troops occupying the Forbidden City.
STEPHEN MCDONELL: So do you think that Zhou Enlai is the great saviour of the Forbidden City then?
JEREMY BARME: Well Zhou Enlai, the premier at the time did, through his actions, did prevent the Forbidden City from being further damaged or harmed.
It is interesting though that he was also involved with building a whole series of buildings on the western side of the Palace to protect the sacrosanct precincts of Zhongnan Hai - the Lake Palaces. And those buildings are now regarded as a major blot on the Forbidden City, and Zhou Enlai is responsible for them.
STEPHEN MCDONELL: When you go to the Forbidden City today, I mean you must have visited it so many times, does it still strike you as an amazing place? or are you now just, I suppose, used to it?
JEREMY BARME: Well it is still such a physically extraordinary place, because the very nature of it's, well the harmony of space and colour and light, and the design of the place is extraordinary. It still is a breathtaking monument to visit.
And a very complicated series of palaces and spaces from the massive outer court, where there are these huge audience halls and courtyards, to the inner court, with the smaller courtyards and intricate areas of the Palace.
And what's interesting about the Forbidden City is because the constant renovation program that will continue until 2020, there's always something new to see.
ELIZABETH JACKSON: Jeremy Barme speaking to our China correspondent Stephen McDonell, at a cafe somewhere in Beijing - not a Starbucks, we were told.
