The world’s first museum dedicated to China’s Tiananmen Square crackdown will once again open its doors in Hong Kong after a months-long closure as the city prepares to mark the 20th anniversary of its handover to Beijing.

The June 4th Museum closed its doors last July after organisers said they were being targeted for political reasons in the semi-autonomous city where concerns are growing that Beijing is tightening its grip.

Tenants in the commercial building which housed the museum from 2014 said the museum breached regulations that said the premises could only be used for offices.

The museum, now housed at a new temporary venue, will open to the public at a time when Hong Kong is revving up the fanfare for the 20th anniversary of its handover to China by Britain, with expectations of a high-profile visit by Chinese president Xi Jinping.

Organiser Lee Cheuk-yan stressed this was an especially important time to reopen the museum.

“It’s very important that this museum will be here to tell Xi to his face that people in Hong Kong have not forgotten what had happened 28 years ago when the Communist Party decided to open fire and send in tanks against the people’s aspiration for freedom,” Lee said.

Chinese authorities branded the pro-democracy protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989 a “counter-revolutionary rebellion” and many on the mainland remain unaware of the crackdown.

The cramped 100 square-metre space will be displaying newspaper clippings, large photographs and videos of tanks rolling down the streets of Beijing during the crackdown.

The exhibit, which also displays a two-metre tall statue of the Goddess of Democracy opened on Sunday and will run until June 15 in the city’s Shek Kip Mei residential region.

“It’s very much meaningful because… it counteracts against the brainwashing by the Communist party,” Lee said of the museum, which is still searching for a permanent home.

“They have the money and resources to really try to use excuses to suppress our museum, but I think we will fight on, and I think with the support of people in Hong Kong we can fight,” he said.

The Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, which runs the museum, is raising funds and hopes to find a permanent location for the displays within the next two years.

Residents said it was important for Hong Kong to host the museum.

“Hong Kong is the only place in China that can act as a platform for people to comprehend this part of history,” said social worker Regan Suen, 33.

Beijing has never given an official death toll for the Tiananmen crackdown, which was condemned worldwide, but independent observers tallied more than 1,000 dead.

Hong Kong enjoys freedoms unseen on the mainland, enshrined in a deal made before Britain handed it back to China in 1997. But there are growing fears those freedoms are being eroded.

One of the most important holidays on the Buddhist calendar, Visakha Bucha marks the three important incidents in the life of Lord Buddha – his birth, his enlightenment, and his death. Coinciding with the full moon of the sixth lunar month, this year’s Visakha Bucha falls next Wednesday.

Traditionally Buddhists will go to temple to make merit, attend Buddhist sermons, and wien tien – walk around the temple clockwise three times in prayer and meditation. Phra That Haripunchai Temple in Lamphun province is the designated pilgrimage temple for 2017.

“Phra That Hariphunchai Temple contains the Buddha’s relic that is auspicious for the rooster year. The pagoda was built in the era of Phra Nang Jamthevi, the Princess from the Lawoe Kingdom of Hariphunchai city,” explains Ajarn Khatha Chinnabanchorn, a well-known fortune teller.

For those staying in Bangkok, The Mall Group is once again organising its “Visakha Bucha Auspicious Celebration” from Thursday thrpugh May 10 on the concept “Worship Buddha’s Relic of the Rooster Year, Bring Happiness Throughout the Year” and will be bringing a replica of the Phra That Hariphunchai Temple pagoda to The Mall Ngamwongwan branch.

Medallions bearing the king of roosters on one side and the symbolic Yantra on the other, which have been blessed and prayed over by Phra Kru Sitisungwon, the assistant to the abbot of Wat Ratchasitaram, and which are believed to bring better health, long life, happiness, and prosperity, will be offered to M Card and Thai Life Card members.

Khatha, who led the recent medallion ceremony involving the preparation of three-legged tents signifying a foundation in life for stability, prosperity, and longevity, explains that on one occasion in the past, His Graciousness the Supreme Patriarch Somdet Phra Ariyavongsanana went to Rangnaipa Temple to witness an incantation. As he sat in meditation, he was suddenly surrounded by a flock of enraged roosters. He chanted the incantation and the wild roosters were tamed. Some of them even came close to him and fed off the palm of his hand.

The auspicious rooster medallions have also been ceremoniously consecrated to rid the people of misfortunes and to worship the angels of the nine planets that are believed to bring good health, long life, happiness, and prosperity.

The Mall event features plenty of activities for the new generation including “The Crystal Singing Bowl” to create balance in the cells through sound waves that helps to remove negative thoughts and ease certain sicknesses. This ancient therapy will be led by Dr Gumpanat Buahombura, who will use crystal bowls made from quartz in seven sizes to connect with the seven chakras of the human body.

Sermons and lectures by Phra Maha Sompong, Major Suthee Suksakol, Jatupone Chompoonich, and Khatha himself will be given as part of the “Mee Thet, Mee Talk” activity. Merit-making rites including the Uppatasanti Prayer Ceremony “Mahasanting Luang”, which will offer prayers in honour of His Majesty the late King Bhumibhol Adulyadej and the Thai Royal Family led by the monks of Pitchyayatkaram Wonwihan Temple. There will also be yoga meditation and an offering of 99 sets of Sangkhtan (household goods and dry food) to monks.

But while the few hundred diehard supporters give it their all week in week out, the now dilapidated terraces of what was once continental Europe’s biggest stadium may soon fall silent for ever.

In March the 123-year-old club, which even under the Nazis was allowed to keep its English name “Vienna”, declared itself insolvent and is trying to hammer out a survival plan.

The players haven’t been paid since December and automatic relegation looms from Austria’s already lowly third division, the Austrian Regional League East, making finding new sponsors even harder.

“If it all ends, it will be the end of an era,” sighed Robert Haidinger, head of the supporters club, as he charged five euros ($5.50) for the trickle of cars arriving for the evening match.

“A piece of Viennese history would disappear,” he told AFP.

– British import –

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Like elsewhere in Europe and beyond in the late 19th century, British immigrants were a major driving force in the birth of Austrian football.

The “Vienna” was founded, in a pub, in 1894 by British gardeners together with locals smitten with this exotic new combination of exercise and gentlemanly “fair play”.

The club quickly became an all-Austrian affair but its three-legged logo, the triskelion, still survives in tribute to the homeland of one of the founders, William Beale from the Isle of Man.

To this day many of the chants on the terraces are in English. “Hey ho let’s go,” says a sign, in English, on the way out of the ground.

“To hear lots of voices singing all together something like ‘Come on Vienna’ is, well, it gives you goosebumps,” said Josef Keglevic, a lifelong fan.

– ‘Wunderteam’ –

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“Vienna” used to be a force to be reckoned with not only in domestic football but internationally too. Visiting Spain in 1925, they thrashed Barcelona 4-1.

Its Hohe Warte stadium, the biggest in Europe outside Britain when it opened in 1921, was also the home ground for Austria’s legendary national “Wunderteam”.

As many as 85,000 supporters watched trainer Hugo Meisl’s men — slayers of allcomers and unlucky favourites for the 1934 World Cup — play Italy here in 1923.

When Hitler, no fan of football, annexed his native Austria into the Third Reich in 1938, the club’s many Jewish players and functionaries were quickly expelled.

Rudolf Spitzer, who took part in the club’s first official match in 1894, was one of several people associated with the club murdered in the Holocaust.

But from a sporting point of view the Nazi era went well for the Viennese.

In 1943 they won the Tschammerpokal cup at the since-renamed “Adolf-Hitler-Kampfbahn” stadium in Stuttgart.

“It was one of most successful teams in World War II,” historian Alexander Juraske, author of a book on the club’s history, told AFP.

After 1945, once Austria was re-established and life returned to normal, the club remained highly successful and in 1955 won the Austrian championship for the sixth and, so far, final time.

Plagued by poor performances, a slow decline set in over the following decades and in 1992 it slipped out of the Bundesliga top league for the final time.

“The club also made a lot of mistakes,” Juraske said. “Financially it bit off more than it could chew.”

– Vienna got soul –

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Chief executive Gerhard Krisch is trying to cut spending by 700,000 euros — a third of the club’s costs — but faces an uphill battle to save this piece of sporting history.

Regulations only allow the stadium — now a “nature arena” with a grass bank on three sides — to hold 5,500 people, stymying efforts to make money through events like concerts.

And in this small Alpine country, only the big clubs like Red Bull Salzburg can make any money, filling their stadiums with 15,000-20,000 fans.

“All the others have problems, including in the Bundesliga, with fewer than 2,000-3,000 supporters. That’s not enough to run a club economically,” Krisch told AFP.

But Josef Keglevic, a supporter since he was six years old, said “Vienna” still has something special.

“At clubs like Barcelona, Real Madrid or Bayern Munich… there is no humanity any more. There as a supporter you are just a number, a revenue generator,” he said.

“But here there is something, a feeling… A soul, yes.”

The elaborate costumes carelessly thrown aside, the young troupe members playing with their smartphones, the half-eaten noodles abandoned in the corner — all were tokens of disorder that made Li Zhiguo grimace in his blue and gold cap.

“I get angry sometimes watching my students perform, because their heart isn’t in it,” Li said.

“But when they ask me if rehearsing diligently will guarantee them a good living, I have nothing to say.”

When Li joined the Yu County Jin Opera Troupe in northern Hebei province 35 years ago, he and his fellow teenage recruits believed that they had secured stable futures as the public guardians of a traditional art.

But policy reforms in 2005 turned their government-sponsored project into a private venture without a concrete business strategy, gutting the performers’ salaries and threatening the future of an early Qing Dynasty opera form.

Jin opera, which is characterised by upbeat songs and wooden clapper instruments, originated in the northern Shanxi province bordering Yu county.

From the Spring Festival to the end of March, the troupe travels from village to village in Hebei, performing on ramshackle rural stages to mostly elderly crowds.

Despite their new business designation, they still rarely charge for performances — most attendees wouldn’t pay — and rely heavily on support from local governments.

Backstage at one of their last shows of the season, Li sighed as he recounted all the departures in recent years. Many of his students had left the troupe after struggling to support their families.

“If it’s about the art, I’ll tell them to stay,” said Li. “If it’s about survival, I’ll tell them: go.”

– An ‘iron rice bowl’ no more –

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The group of 90 has been active since 1985, drawing its members from auditions held across Yu county. The performers join when they are between 13 and 15 years old; those who stay have known each other their entire adult lives.

Liu Donghai, a former actor who now helps manage the troupe, recalled that being chosen from among more than a thousand kids had felt like winning the lottery.

His parents were thrilled because, being a state institution at the time, the troupe offered him an “iron rice bowl” — the Chinese parlance for a secure job.

Since they were stripped of their public status, however, some performers have started driving pedicabs between shows for supplementary income.

Even the most senior members of the troupe make less than 2,500 yuan ($363) a month, while the average actor makes closer to 1,500 yuan ($217) in a district where the minimum monthly wage is 1,590 yuan ($231).

Over the 23 years that Liu, 36, has been with the group, he has seen his cohort shrink. But a sense of loyalty has kept him from leaving.

“This is my family,” he said. “Our troupe leader is like a father to me. Whatever he says, I’ll do.”

Sometimes that means singing in negative degree Celsius weather, or dancing while snow settles on his elaborate costumes.

But as Geng Liping, a 30-year-old actress, said, “When you’re on stage you never feel cold.”

– ‘Sword dangling over their heads’ –

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Jin opera recounts ancient Shanxi history, with storylines soaked in nostalgia for the province’s imperial past.

Modern audiences have different tastes, said Wang Jia, founder of the China Jin Opera Network.

“Even our notion of beauty has changed, so everything — from the costumes to the dialogue — is being adapted for contemporary viewing,” Wang said.

The greatest problem they face now is attracting young recruits willing to endure the nomadic life of an actor, a life without financial guarantees.

“Most of them don’t have health insurance,” Wang said.

“The question of whether their basic needs will be met is like a sword dangling over their heads.”

At a March performance in Yu county’s Baocao village, there were no chairs in the viewing area, but some attendees had brought their own. Others watched from inside their cars, or found perches along a crumbling brick fence as a harsh wind blew around them.

More people used to come, the performers said, before the county’s coal plants closed and the migrants left.

Now there were about 50 mostly elderly locals, some with babies in their arms. They heard about the show through word of mouth.

One of the few young people, 20-year-old Zhang Zehui, had attended several performances with her grandmother.

“It’s lively and interesting, but I don’t really understand it,” Zhang said.

Garbed in a colourful robe, Li stood backstage, awaiting his cue.

“Has it been worth it?” he asked as he looked out at the crowd. “That’s a big question mark in my heart.”

Whenever I plan my visit to New York – and these days that’s less often than Europe – one of the first websites I check is that of the Public Theatre. With year-round programming that’s diverse in both style and content, this non-profit company has been entertaining and engaging audiences for many decades, although it is often upstaged by the glamour of Broadway.

So I was delighted to discover that the recently concluded 45th Hong King Arts Festival (HKAF) had in its programme a new play trilogy that premiered last year at the Public Theatre. Furthermore, it was possible to watch all three plays making up “The Gabriels: Election Year in the Life of One Family”, in one day – a marathon viewing that had proved successful both in Big Apple and the Perth International Arts Festival. Each play lasted an hour and 45 minutes and there was a decent amount of time for refreshment and dinner breaks in-between, so it didn’t really feel like a boot camp.

“Hungry”, part 1 in the trilogy “The Gabriels: Election Year in the Life of One Family”, is set after Super Tuesday. Photos/Joan Marcus

Tony-Award winning playwright Richard Nelson set the first play “Hungry” on the Friday evening after March’s Super Tuesday, when Hilary Clinton gained a significant lead for the Democrat Party’s nomination and Donald Trump was just emerging. The audience was introduced to the Gabriels, a middle-class white family living in Rhinebeck, a small town in upstate New York. Mary’s husband, well-known writer Thomas, had passed away a few months earlier and she was still mourning. His mother Patricia, who now lives in a care home, was paying a visit after Thomas’s ashes had been released into the Hudson river. Also joining the dinner were Thomas’s brother George and his wife Hannah, Thomas’s sister Joyce as well as his first wife Karin. While they were preparing dinner –the play was staged in real time and the ingredients and cooking were also real so kudos to the set designers –the audience started to learn about their personal problems, which had little to do with politics. George and Hannah, for instance, were trying to find money for their son’s college tuition.

The second play “What Did You Expect?” was set in September before the first debate between Clinton and Trump, and added more personal problems to the mix. Patricia, for example, was suffering financially as a result of re-mortgaging her house and could not afford to pay for her care home. Karin, meanwhile, was trying to identify which of Thomas’s belongings they can sell as memorabilia to help. George, who earned little from giving piano lesson, was disconcerted that they were now planning to sell the piano.

The last play, “Women of a Certain Age”, was set early evening on election day before all the votes had been counted. While there was a sense of worry in the air about the election result and how it might affect them, it was the personal issues that were again at the forefront. Patricia, for example, has had a stroke and would have to sell the house eventually.

“Women of a Certain Age” is set as America awaits the election results. Photos/Joan Marcus

Playwright Nelson staged these three plays by himself and I had difficulty at first in hearing his actors’ voices. The microphones were hanging above the stage but didn’t seem to be on. Later, though, I realised it was probably the director’s intention to make these plays as realistic as possible and thus had asked his actors to use their normal voices, not projected ones. After all, the narrative was about family issues and the audience was peeking into their actions, or lack thereof, and eavesdropping on their conversations. That reminded me of the naturalism approach favoured in the early 20th century, and was thus a refreshing experience, particularly these days when audiences still think that theatre is larger than life, rather than a reflection of it.

“The Gabriels” was a kind reminder that no matter how much we say we care about our country and its government and politics, what matters most to us is our daily life and the troubles at hand, with our families and those around us coming a close second. Thanks to HKAF’s unique vision, we in Asia had a chance to watch this dramatic gem even before the West End.

It should also be noted here that, in another deft curation, HKAF commissioned local playwright Loong Man-hong to create another domestic drama trilogy charting one family’s lives in three key moments: before the change of sovereignty from the UK to China, after the Sars epidemic, and after the Umbrella movement.

SOON TO COME

– The highlights of the 46th HKAF, next February and March, will soon be announced and tickets will be available online by October. Visit http://www.HK.ArtsFestival.org.

American author and former Washington Post journalist John Burgess shares a glimpse of regional history in “Cambodia Reawakening – One Year After the Khmer Rouge”, an exhibition of his photos from 1980 that’s opening in Siem Reap on Wednesday night.

The show is organised in collaboration with Anjali House, a Cambodian educational NGO, and the US Embassy in Phnom Penh.

John Burgess arrived in Phnom Penh in April 1980 with one of the first reporters’ visas issued by the country’s new Vietnam-installed government following the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge regime the year before.

Water was usually not available from taps. These children helped with the very difficult job of collecting it from ponds and rivers. Photo/John Burgess

He spent two weeks exploring the capital and travelled by car around the Tonle Sap with stops in Siem Reap and Battambang.

Burgess says he found a country in some places still struggling with the horrors of the Khmer Rouge’s five-year reign and in others rapidly springing back to life, driven by “the boundless energy and ingenuity of its people”.

His photos from that tour give an instant impression of how everyday life was being reorganised after the Khmer Rouge attempted to forge an agrarian utopia but ended up committing genocide.

Remnants of war, such as this disabled Vietnamese tank, were common sights along the highways. Photo/John Burgess

Today’s younger generation of Cambodians inherited what was reconstructed, Burgess says, but questions remain. What do they feel about the past? Do they think it represents part of their identity? Do they want to nurture a general amnesia or are they eager to learn about it and express themselves?

“I made these photos in 1980 to help people in the United States understand Cambodia’s reawakening from the Khmer Rouge horrors,” he says.

“It’s a real thrill for me that today the images can help younger Cambodians appreciate the events their parents and grandparents endured and grapple with their own feelings about a history that’s increasingly distant in time but never far from the heart.”

The young people ages 14 to 19 in the care of Anjali House represent a generation that didn’t witness the atrocities of 1975-79. But they have studied the photos in the exhibition and expressed their feelings in poems, short stories and essays. These have been printed in English and mounted next to the photos that inspired them.

The Phnom PenhBattambang train was running, with every square centimeter filled. Photo/John Burgess

“We support underprivileged children and young adults in Siem Reap,” explains Anjali House director Simon Ke. “Our educational programmes are based on acquiring knowledge and also – perhaps more importantly – on developing independence and critical thinking.

“John Burgess’ photographic record of his visit a few months after the end of Khmer Rouge rule gave a wonderful opportunity for our young adults to link their country’s past to its present and future, link the idea of reconstruction to stability, and hope to ambition.”

The exhibition “Cambodia Reawakening” continues through May 17 at the Footprint Caf้ in Siem Reap. Admission is free.

Find out more at http://www.John-Burgess.net and http://www.Anjali-House.com.

Remembering His Majesty

A sculpture of the late King Bhumibol by Thaweechai Jaowattana, former photo editor of The Nation, is among the highlights of the “The King’s Inspiration” exhibition opening tomorrow at Rachadamnoen Contemporary Art Centre on Rajdamnoen Klang Avenue near the Democracy Monument.

The show features the late King in paintings, sculpture and photography along with the Monarch’s sufficiency economy projects. The other artists include Krikbura Yomanak, Jitsing Somboon, Jarut Wongkumjantra, Dinhin Rakpong-Asoke, Rearngsak Boonyavanishkul, Sakwut Wisesmanee and Hongjorn Seneh-ngamcharoen.

The show runs through May 28. It’s open Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 7pm. Find at more at Facebook/page: rcac84

Changing direction

Buoyed by the success of his debut exhibition “Melo House”, which marked the opening of Bangkok City City Gallery in 2015, Thailand’s popular manga artist Wisut Ponnimit is back at the gallery with his new show “LR’.

Opening on May 6, “LR” features his newest short animations and original animation drawings. Varying from one short cartoon to the next, the show offers – via the loveable animated characters the artist has created over the past 20 years – a sequence of “left-or-right” consequences for viewers to examine. Wisut, a self-taught animator, director and music composer has, since 2003, produced his original animations, and created music and animated work projections. Since 2009 he has been producing monthly online animations, each entitled Short Short Story by Wisut Ponnimit, for audio-technica Japan.

The runs through June 25. The gallery is located in Sathorn Soi 1, a short walk from MRT Lumpini station. It’s open from Wednesday to Sunday, 1pm to 7pm.

Welcome to my world

Australian photographer Nick Prideaux reflects on the minutiae of day-to-day life in his first solo exhibition “Selected Ambience (2013-2016)” showing at Project 189 art space in Soi Nana off Maitreechit Road in Yaowarat until May 14.

Taken over the last three years on three continents, this body of work is a gentle reflection through colour and light, a delicate play on the ordinary that offers a personal insight into the photographer’s world.

For more, visit http://www.Project189Bkk.org and http://www.NickPrideaux.com

Drenched in capitalism

Eight emerging artists from China explore the impact of rapid change as capitalism permeates he cosmopolitan lifestyle in the exhibition “World History” opening on Thursday at Tang Contemporary Art on Rajdamri Road.

Curated by Sun Dongdong, the show features works in various mediums including oil paintings, photography, installation and video art. While Guo Hongwei and Wen Yipei reflect on nature, Jiang Pengyi and Shen Han look at the body. Guan Jun and Xu Qu portray the issue of identity and Hu Weiyi and Wang Mai convey the issue of image.

The curator and some of the artists will be on hand for the opening reception on Thursday from 6 to 8pm.

The gallery is on third floor of The Golden Place Plaza and open Tuesday to Saturday from 11am to 7pm. Find out more at Facebook/TangContemporaryArt.

Much has been written about the Ministry of Culture’s Asean Puppet Festival 2017, which concluded last week, but little mention has been made of a piece, also featuring puppets, that was not included in the short festival. “The White Snake” by Hong Hun, finished its run of eight performances last night at the Crescent Moon Space.

The brainchild of seasoned stage actor, TV host and visual artist Konthorn “Hongtae” Taecholarn, Hong Hun’s first work “Hong Hun 101: Dude Must Die” had a short run last July. It was an original work in which the six actors created their own puppets and shared their personal views on death. For their second work, they picked a Chinese folk tale with which Thai audiences are familiar, “The Legend of the White Snake”. Readers will remember that Wannasak “Kuck” Sirilar recently picked up an award for his play adaptation of the story and I frequently wonder how many productions centred on the tale Thai theatregoers get to watch in a lifetime, especially considering the fact that the story itself already has several versions.

That’s not to say “The White Snake” was a step-back for Hong Hun, as the 55-minute show at the Crescent Moon Space was entertaining throughout – smiles were seen on the faces of the audience and laughter was heard often.

The four actors-puppeteers – Hongtae as Buddhist monk Fahai, Kwin Bhichitkul as Xu Xian, Sasapin Siriwanij as Bai “White Snake” Suzhen, and Marian Phum-on as “Green Snake” Xiaoqing – matched their physical movements to those of their characters, and even though none has trained professionally as a puppeteer, all exuded much enthusiasm and passion for the art of puppetry.

The stand out was Marian who seemed to be the most effortlessly united with her puppet. Without spoken dialogue, the sound effects and accompanying music were created live by multi-instrumentalists Sirimas Yodsuwan and Chutirat Kongsuntiea and they easily became stars of this delightful little show.

Credit was also due to director Patarasuda Anuman Rajadhon, who made sure that the storytelling was clear, all events well combined and the mood and tone always spot-on.

Hongtae’s adaptation of the script, while mostly staying true to the original, made some contemporary links. For example, the animation projected on the panel when Fahai first appeared, underlined that he is actually Thailand’s most infamous monk. However, the additional jokes, here and there, in a play so short, were such that Xu Xian and Suzhen didn’t have time to develop their relationship and the audience wasn’t quite sure what lessons we could draw from this new adaptation.

In the end and notwithstanding these setbacks, the audience warmly welcomed this new troupe into the ever diverse realm of contemporary Thai theatre and is now looking forward to watching the next work by Hong Hun.

THE MODERNIST architect IM Pei, who was once pilloried for plonking a glass pyramid into the courtyard of the Louvre, turned 100 on Wednesday with his controversial creation now an icon of the French capital.

The Chinese-American designer endured a roasting from critics before the giant glass structure opened in 1989, with up to 90 per cent of Parisians said to be against the project at one point.

“I received many angry glances in the streets of Paris,” Pei later said, confessing that “after the Louvre I thought no project would be too difficult.”

Yet in the end even that stern critic of modernist “carbuncles”, Britain’s Prince Charles, pronounced it “marvellous”.

And the French daily Le Figaro, which had led the campaign against the “atrocious” design, celebrated its genius with a supplement on the 10th anniversary of its opening.

Pei’s masterstroke was to link the three wings of the world’s most visited museum with vast underground galleries bathed in light from his glass and steel pyramid.

It also served as the museum’s main entrance, making its subterranean concourse bright even on the most overcast of days.

This file photo taken on June 22, 2006 in the Napoleon courtyard of the Louvre museum in Paris shows US-Chinese architect of the Louvre Pyramid Ieoh Ming Pei posing for photographers./AFP 

Pei, who grew up in Hong Kong and Shanghai before studying at Harvard with the Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius, was not the most obvious of choices for the job, having never worked on a historic building before.

But the then French president Francois Mitterrand was so impressed with his modernist extension to the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC that he insisted he was the man for the Louvre.

The Socialist leader was in the midst of attempting to transform Paris with a series of architectural “grands projets” that included the Bastille Opera and the Grand Arch of La Defense.

Already in his mid-60s and an established star in the United States for his elegant John F Kennedy Library and Dallas City Hall, nothing had prepared Pei for the hostility of the reception his radical plans would receive.

He needed all his tact and dry sense of humour to survive a series of encounters with planning officials and historians.

One meeting with the French historic monuments commission in January 1984 ended in uproar, with Pei unable even to present his ideas.

“You are not in Dallas now!” one of the experts shouted at him during what he recalled was a “terrible session”, where he felt the target of anti-Chinese racism.

Not even Pei’s winning of the Pritzker Prize, the “Nobel of architecture” in 1983, seemed to assuage his detractors.

Jack Lang, who was French culture minister at the time, says he is still “surprised by violence of the opposition” to Pei’s ideas.

“The pyramid is right at the centre of a monument central to the history of France [the Louvre is the former palace of the country’s kings].

“The project also came at a time of a fierce ideological clashes” between the left and right, he adds.

The Louvre’s then director, Andre Chabaud, resigned in 1983 in protest at the “architectural risks” Pei’s vision posed.

The present incumbent, however, is in no doubt that the pyramid is a masterpiece that helped turn the museum around.

Jean-Luc Martinez is all the more convinced of the fact having worked with Pei over the last few years to adapt his plans to cope with the museum’s growing popularity.

Pei’s original design was for up to two million visitors a year. Last year the Louvre welcomed nearly nine million.

For Martinez the pyramid is “the modern symbol of the museum”, he said, “an icon on the same level” as the Louvre’s most revered artworks “the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory of Samothrace”.

Pei is not alone in being savaged for changing the cherished landscape of Paris.

In 1887, a group of intellectuals that included Emile Zola and Guy de Maupassant published a letter in the newspaper Le Temps to protest at the building of the “useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower”, an “odious column of sheet metal with bolts”.

The predatory starfish is naturallyoccurring but has proliferated due to pollution and runoff at the World Heritagelisted ecosystem, which is also reeling from two consecutive years of mass coral bleaching.

Until now other expensive chemicals such as bile salts have been used to try and eradicate the pest  which consumes coral faster than it can be regenerated  but they can harm other marine organisms.

Tests by James Cook University, in collaboration with the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA), showed vinegar was safe, effective and cheap.

Study head Lisa BostromEinarsson said crownofthorns were injected with vinegar at four sites on the reef over six weeks, causing them to die within 48 hours with no impact on other life.

“We recorded live coral cover, abundance of coral disease, fish abundance and diversity, fish diseases and the abundance of closely related invertebrates before, during and after the sixweek study period and found no detrimental effects,” she said.

Keeping crownofthorns under control however is a tough ask, with dive teams needing to individually inject each starfish before it dies and breaksup.

But despite the labourintensive job, it is far more efficient than extracting them from the water before killing them.

A major study of the reef’s health published in 2012 showed cover had halved over the past 27 years and attributed 42 per cent of the damage to crownofthorns starfish.

‘Massive effort’

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GBRMPA director of tourism and stewardship Fred Nucifora said the new method would be used to target reefs identified as having high conservation and tourism values.

“Culling crownofthorns starfish is a critical management activity to protect coral cover and boost reef resilience, particularly in the wake of coral bleaching,” he said.

Earlier this month, scientists revealed the 2,300kilometre (1,400mile) long Barrier Reef was suffering its second consecutive mass bleaching event due to warming sea temperatures, and said some coral had “zero prospect” of recovery.

The reef contributes more than Aus$7.0 billion (US$5.2 billion) a year to Australia’s economy, supporting the livelihoods of some 70,000 people, and there have been warnings that dying coral could cost the region more than a million tourists a year.

BostromEinarsson said while the innovative new method was good news, it would be tough to wipe out starfish altogether.

“There are millions of starfish on the Great Barrier Reef and each female produces around 65 million eggs in a single breeding season,” she said.

“It would take a massive effort to try and cull them all individually, but we know that sustained efforts can save individual reefs.”

Vinegar has now been added to the GBRMPA’s list of approved control chemicals, meaning operators can apply for permits to start controlling the starfish.