Yinan county authorities in Shandong province are reportedly "rebuilding the birthplace" of Zhuge Liang, a famous statesman during the Three Kingdoms period (AD 220-280). They claim that Zhuge spent his childhood in Yinan and have invested more than 1.5 billion yuan ($229.6 million) on the project since last year, says an article on china.com.cn. Excerpts:

The legendary figure of Zhuge Liang has prompted several provinces to claim that he lived, worked or was born there. The ancient statesman has also made them spend huge amounts of money to build or rebuild structures to prove their claims.

It is indeed painful to see the local authorities spend hundreds of millions or even billions of yuan just to prove their claims.

Provinces, cities or counties have no justification to fight for the tag of being Zhuge`s birthplace or the place where he lived or worked. The local authorities do not seem to care about the spiritual aura or the cultural legacy of the legendary figure. In fact, they are desperate to make political capital out of building a Zhuge "cultural square" or other such edifices.

The local authorities should have made some practical and charitable contributions to society, instead of spending huge amounts on creating structures based on falsity.

The 1.5 billion yuan that Yinan county has spent on "building" the birthplace of Zhuge could have gone into building more primary and middle schools or providing the existing ones with the resources they desperately need or offering free lunch to the students on a regular basis.