When you visit an historic site, museum or other significant place do you believe the message you are given? Should you? Who's to judge? The images below represent a museum with a clear message. Truthful?
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/04/world/asia/04museum.html?_r=1
History has always been misinterpreted and misrepresented. The cynic in me rarely believes anything. China has every right to demonstrate the highlights of its history and progress. What nation wants to build a museum to honor its flaws and mistakes? America illustrates our struggles and mistakes by spinning them to be a triumph over injustice. Civil war was relabeled as a war about slavery when in fact had little to do with the beginning of the war. This gave the war a positive spin. The emancipation proclamation occurred on Jan 1st 1963, Fort Sumter was in April 61. We just realigned the truth to meet our needs. The decimation of Indians and forced labor of chinese americans in the 1800's is spun as progress and manifest destiny. A noble sacrifice by many to build a great nation. How about the imprisonment of Japanese Americans following Pearl Harbor or Guantanamo Bay today. The civil rights movement classified as a triumph by a race rather than a demonstration of oppression and hatred by a race. The medical and psychological experiments performed on the under privileged don't show up in many text books. The list goes on in this country. The bible which so many refer to as a historical document has been interpreted to however it needs to fit. Each division of religion reads and utilizes what they want from it. History is no different. Why focus on the negative. Negatives may occur in a society but they don't have to define it.
ReplyDeleteAdditional thought on the experiments. Ask your grade school or high school teacher if they teach about the Tuskegee syphilis experiment. The article mentioned 10 year span of revolution. This wicked us government led experiment lasted for 40 years. Read about the experiment and if you don't throw up a tip of the cap to you.
ReplyDeleteThis article raises a good question that professor Wicks has asked us to think about: what version of history are we being taught through visits to the museum? Not only is the museum a problem, but as Andrew touched on, what is being taught in our school systems? It seems to go against what it means to be an American to believe that this country was built upon war and betrayal. Growing up, I was not taught extensively about the pain and suffering that our country was built upon until I reached college and took several different cultural classes. These events in history are often left out in grade school and high school textbooks and even in American history museums. Unfortunately, with parts of history being played down and as the author stated of China, an idealized version of the past being presented, it is hard for visitors to not believe the version of history that they have been given.
ReplyDeleteAlong these lines, I do not believe that one should always believe what they are given to read or presented, but the best idea is to be curious. Building off of what Andrew said about the Bible and religions, many churches believe that curiosity is a natural step to believing in something. To take what one says word for word without critical thinking would be foolish; I think that those that visit these museums and read history books need to take the same road and wonder beyond what they are being told. They need to wonder if there is more to the story, what events happened during this time, could this event be glamorized, and is there more to be discovered.
However, with all of this being said, I can understand how a country like China or any country for that matter would rather deny a less than perfect past and paint that idealized version. No one likes to admit fault let alone an entire country. A museum displaying the faltered history of one's country would not make for great patriotism and I can understand the reason behind sweeping the negative past under the rug and focusing on the successes. I think if people thought about it, they would understand this reasoning and use it as motivation to critically think each time they are told a person's version of history.
Andrew, I appreciate you passion for the issues of social injustice that have occurred in the U.S but please try and relate historical interpretation to travel and tourism. Historical sites from roadside markers to national museums deliver the messages they are designed to convey and there will never be complete agreement about the "facts" or worse yetrevisionist history. So what, if anything, as tourism professionals do we do?
ReplyDeleteBuild a Museum of injustice. We previously discussed the draw of dark tourism. Why not build a museum to all the immoral and unethical things that we have done? These would be interesting stories and would draw in a crowd. The donnor party fascinates people. Things along this line and others I mentioned may enlighten fascinate people. I thought the things I mentioned did apply to tourism. The reason they are left out of museums is because they would not appeal to a mass audience. perhaps using this dark only angle they would draw a desired crowd and reaction.
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