China has a small collection of replicas of some of the world’s most iconic landmarks. As of date, it already has a couple of White Houses, a few copies of Arc de Triomphe and Great Sphinxes, and at least one replica of Eiffel Tower.
Now, China is drawing the ire of netizens and other critics as various photos of what looks like a version of London’s Tower Bridge in the city of Suzhou surfaced online, according to the New York Times.
Completed in 2012, Suzhou’s Tower Bridge has twice the number of towers than the original. At night, the replica is bathed in hues of blue and yellow. Regardless of the time of day, Suzhou’s Tower Bridge has earned fans--and critics.
“Piracy!” wrote one netizen on the social networking platform Sina Weibo. Other online comments echo the same sentiment, with some saying that the Suzhou Tower Bridge is an embarrassment.
Li Yingqu, president of OAD, an architecture firm in Beijing, also called out the construction and labeled it as outright plagiarism.
“I was really surprised that it got built in Suzhou because it has preserved its culture really well,” Li told the New York Times in an interview. “It shows that local officials lack confidence in their own culture. They don’t understand that architecture is about culture. It’s not merely an object.”
Suzhou is already renowned in China for being the home of ancient gardens. It’s widely considered as the Venice of the East and has preserved buildings that showcase traditional Chinese architecture. The building of the Tower Bridge replica came as a surprise, with motivations likely resting on increased publicity and business.
JSChina.com.cn also released a commentary on Monday, Feb. 27, which read, “We don’t have any reason to give a thumbs-up to the replicated iconic building, and all Chinese architects need to reflect on this.”