Chicken / dragon
(Dragon covered in chicken wire in the Summer Palace: Beijing)
In the Summer Palace, we happened upon this little creature; a dragon wrapped in chicken wire – I have to conceed that I genuinely felt rather sorry for him. Other statues, also furnished with protective wire, flanked him. It seemed like a fairly unorthodox way of preserving the detail on these items, but even more ridiculous on closer inspection (see inset) that it made no difference at all.
It seems that very like Winston Churchill’s bronze foot in the House of Commons, these statues are rubbed for good luck. Unfortunately, most people blindly ignore the addition of chicken wire and press it against the surface of the metal, probably doing even more damage than merely rubbing it with soft fingertips. Ungainly? Yes. Ridiculous? Verging on. As you can see, a large patch of metal has been worn smooth at the top of each leg. I think a glass box is obviously even more crazy, but chicken wire seems like an ugly, ineffective deterrent. It also positively ruined any photographs that any tourist may wish to take home and treasure. However, I can understand their protectiveness – from the little inset image, you can see that the detail on the statues was marvelous indeed.
– Today Rosie is in the UK, visiting her Gran –
