Jonathan Trembley: China Renames a Mountain for Avatar: Making History More… Exciting?

In China’s Zhangjiajie National Forest Park stand a multitude of ancient pillars that have been shaped by erosion over countless millennia. One of the most impressive such ‘rock-needles’ was called the Southern Sky Pillar up until last week. It is now called the Avatar Hallelujah Mountain in ‘honour’ of the recent movie. The question must be asked if historical monuments, people and places should remain untouched by man, preserving authenticity, or if, to service popular interest and financial conservation, anything should be done to advertise these institutions of the past.

The 1080-metre Avatar Mountain and it’s surrounding park constituted the very first of China’s National Parks in 1982. It was even granted a World Heritage Site status by the United Nations in 1992. The true majesty of the pillars however has been captured in ancient Chinese art and literature for many centuries. They have not only been home to some of the very first worldly inhabitants 100,000 years ago, but have also been the legendary retreat of gods and heroes. In the end, the Southern Sky Pillar was a testament to geological wonder and a witness to ancient Chinese history. Now, the Avatar Hallelujah Mountain is little more than an interesting tidbit of pop-culture.

Why name this mountain after a movie? There are/may be two very different reasons. Firstly and officially, locals insist that Zhangjiajie National Forest Park and the Southern Sky Pillar in particular were used as the backdrop for most of the recently released Avatar film. The makers of the movie only confirm that they used “many distinct sites on earth as inspiration”. As such, an official ceremony re-baptised the mountain and it will forever be linked to the theatrical release (for now). The second explanation is only a theory but there are big bucks in marketing historical sites. Not only has the mountain been named after the most successful movie in Chinese theatrical history, but it has immediately become the site of many Avatar tours. Indeed, for a few hundred dollars, one can be led on a trek through the breathtaking scenery that allegedly inspired the movie. The tour organisers say “Pandora is far but Zhangjiajie is near” but I say human history is a lot nearer than fictional pandering.

That is the gist of it. Hundreds of tourists have already signed up for the tour and will soon be escalating mountains amongst the clouds and dense foliage of the Avatar Mountain. We must wonder if it would be better if the mountain kept its name and would thus remain little known for a few more centuries…

The local officials of Hunan Province in China are certainly not the first to hatch a cunning marketing plan such as this. Several years ago and to this day, the Dan Brown “da Vinci Code” has revived interest in the past 2000 years of Western European history. As such, France, England and Scotland of course offer “Da Vinci Code Tours” leading tourists from the terraced forts of Edinburgh, through the glass pyramid of the Louvre in Paris to finally the halls of Westminster Abbey in London. Like the Chinese example, organizers are capitalizing on a pop-culture fad; incidentally however, they are also exposing a much wider range of people to the wondrous (although not magical) artefacts of the past centuries.

Do the ends justify the means? Perhaps it IS better for people to appreciate a timeless painting and a majestic mountain for fictional reasons rather than for human history. As long as these things are remembered, I guess we at least leave the door open for future generations to perhaps rectify why these things are important.