A quake museum shouldn't be an opulent structure; rather, it should be as simple as possible to save money for survivors and reconstruction, says an article in the Youth Times. Following is an excerpt:
The overall plan of the earthquake museum for the massive Sichuan disaster has already been rolled out and construction will kick off in the second half of this year.
It's okay to establish a museum to commemorate the dead, but people question the huge amount of investment in building this museum.
According to the plan, the museum will cost 2.3 billion yuan.
Debate is now raging about whether we should use so much money for a museum.
The quake museum will be built to show the damage the natural disaster wrought on the people of Sichuan and encourage those who survived to lead a better life.
So we just need to protect the original site of some typical quake-hit areas such as Beichuan Middle School where more than 1,000 students were killed. There is no need to build other facilities.
Such a simple museum will give visitors an authentic sense of a quake-hit area.
It can also cut construction expenditures.
Quake reconstruction still needs money despite the huge amount of funds that have been allocated by the central government and through other donations.
The limited money should be used for more important aspects such as the improvement of people's lives, the development of health care and education, and basic social security for quake victims.
If the local government uses the money to build a luxurious museum, it will go against the original purpose of the central government and numerous donators.
(China Daily April 1, 2009)