CLOSE AD ×

Who needs Paris? Chinese copycat culture strikes again with I.M. Pei's Louvre

Who needs Paris? Chinese copycat culture strikes again with I.M. Pei's Louvre

China is no stranger to unashamedly ripping off landmark Western structures—the country has replicas of the Eiffel Tower and several renditions of the White House. However, this time they have copied one of their own architects, I. M. Pei, with a 1:1 duplicate of the Louvre in a Shijiazhuang theme park.

The latest addition to the country’s collection of replica Parisian architecture lies among overgrown shrubs and unkempt grass in an obscure amusement park in Hebei province. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it sits adjacent to an ancient Egyptian Sphynx.

China has already created “Little Paris” in Yuhang, Hangzhou, Zhejiang (East China), which features more mock-Parisian style architecture replete with Tower de Eiffel (though not the real one, obviously). Is this latest piece of “mockitecture” a tipping point or a simply one of more to come?


CLOSE AD ×