Talk:Great Hall of the People

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 4 October 2021 and 9 December 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Jjjjdddd199704.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 21:57, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Seanconnell.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 22:40, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

A proposed move
Considering the name of the country is People's Republic of China, and the monument outside is the Monument to the People's Heroes, the conference held inside now is the National People's Congress, perhaps this page should be re-named as People's Great Hall instead of Great Hall of the People. The link People's Great Hall is red, so this should be an easy move. Shall we move ? Comments, anyone ? -- PFHLai 05:08, 7 March 2006 (UTC)


 * use common names? "Great Hall of the People" seems more common and sounds better, while "Chinese Republic of the People" would be awkward--Jiang 08:26, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

Here's an idea. There was a documentary that was aired on PBS a while ago about Luciano Pavarotti, invited by Hu Yaobang, giving a concert at the Great Hall of the People, as pretty much the first Westerner to ever give a concert in China. I suggest that this fact should be mentioned - of course, with a reference mentioned. What do you think? -Daniel Blanchette 04:55, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Who was the architect(s)?
This article gives no information on who designed the building. Lumos3 11:37, 30 September 2007 (UTC)
 * I was just doing research on this building to start the article on the Ten Great Buildings—of which the Great Hall of the People is a part. One of the references: Peter G. Rowe, Seng Kuan. Architectural Encounters With Essence and Form in Modern China. MIT Press. 2002. ISBN 026268151X says that Zhang Bo designed the building, so I added mention of that in the article.D. Recorder 19:08, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

I edited this, the design was created by Zhao Dongri and Shen Qi and chosen by a group of architects. Zhang Bo was the chief architect of the project, just a slight difference but worth noting. Seanconnell (talk) 05:51, 12 February 2018 (UTC)

Neutrality
I don't feel that the tone of this article is particularly neutral. In fact I feel that it reads like it is straight from a tourism booklet or worse, like a PROC propaganda bulletin. The part that bothers me most about the tone and choice of words in the article is the mention of the "volunteers." Compare the tone of this article with the United States Capitol article, especially about the construction. The Capitol was built and later expanded in the 1850s using the labor of slaves "who cut the logs, laid the stones and baked the bricks."[18] The original plan was to use workers brought in from Europe; however, there was a poor response to recruitment efforts, and African Americans—free and slave—composed the majority of the work force. The point is the "volunteers" during the great leap forward were not quite likely to have actually volunteered to build the Great Hall and other structures.


 * Yes, it looks like this was written to "boast". KyuuA4 15:55, 15 October 2007 (UTC)


 * I disagree, just because the US used slave labor doesn't mean the PRC did. Can you provide evidence, by way of reliable sources, that it was built other than by volunteers? If you do not provide evidence of this in a day or so, I'm going to remove the POV tag. This is a very dry and factual article, you are somehow seeing opinion that isn't there. Where does it "boast"? Other than the title, "Great" is part of its name. Can you provide any examples of non-neutral language? Please provide them so they can be remedied. Your reading of it seems more informed by your perception and imagination than by the text that is here.D. Recorder 01:30, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

You have to keep in mind that "volunteers" can be used in many different ways. For example, military troops on "volunteer" missions get paid, and junior members in political the youth wings of political parties put in volunteer hours on various projects. There is a posibility in the case of the PRC, that these volunteers were party youth hoping to work their ways up. Of course, they may have been nearly slave labor, as the initiator here suggested, but that would need substantiation and wouldn't be a fair assumption. 207.47.162.154 22:25, 16 October 2007 (UTC) Jeff MacDonald
 * Yes but one must always be cautious, are you suggesting it may have not been voluntary simply because it's China? That's a bias in itself. Not accusing, just offering the other vantage point SGGH speak! 14:35, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Other problems
The whole tone of the article reads like an advertisement. It needs a substantial rewrite for neutrality and another source would also help greatly. I could help is starting thaT since I don't read Chinese, nor am an expert in Maoist China.

Cheers 14:43, 15 October 2007 (UTC) (fixed spelling removed extra bulletin. V. Joe 14:44, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

Political aspects
It should be worth linking to pages discussing the current state of the Chinese Government. The meetings held here are rubber stamp sessions, which has significance when considering how grandiose the building is. In psychological terms, the behaviour being exhbited is something along the lines of "if the building is really, really, REALLY impressive then it means it MUST be okay", which is a way of trying to handle what you actually know and wish wasn't true but aren't prepated to change; that you are running a dictatorship. Toby Douglass 15:57, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

closed to the public
Is the People's Hall generally closed to the public, or can anyone just walk into the rooms or you have to have an invitation or appointment? Gryffindor (talk) 00:12, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

The hall is open to public. For most rooms (meeting halls), you can walk into them as long as no meeting is being held inside. Yet do notice that the security check is heavy and opening time is generally limited and a little bit unpredictable. You will need some luck. Hosiet (talk) 06:35, 19 April 2017 (UTC)

Article evaluation
The Great Hall of the People Wikipedia article is part of the Architecture Wikiproject where it is rated Start-Class and Low-Importance. It is also a part of the China Wikiproject where it is rated Start-Class and High-Importance.

The article still needs a lot of revision and new content. While the article remains fairly neutral throughout and staying fairly fact based on statistics and events, the tone of the article feels more like a brochure for the building and less like an encyclopedia article. There are only a few specifically distracting or unclear moments in the article: In the introduction, “which occurs every year during March” and “a political advisory body” can both be omitted and put into the articles “Usage” section instead since they do not flow within their current sentence. The phrase “The centre peaks at 46.5 meters” is somewhat unclear and could be rephrased. Perhaps something along the lines of “The highest point of the building is 46.5 meters”

The “History” section needs more content added to it since it is only 3 sentences long. The “Description” section is very heavy with facts and could read smoother if it didn’t have such a dense amount of numerical statistics. Overall, the weakest part of the article currently are the sources. The entire article only has four sources. One source’s link no longer works and does not come from a reliable source to begin with. ( "Country Visits Unusual Places". Great American Country TV. Scripps Networks. LLC.:) Another source seems to be closely paraphrased. The source reads: “Many of the ancillary rooms are named after regions of China and decorated in the local style.” And the sentence in the article reads: “Each hall has the unique characteristics of the province and is furnished according to the local style.” This source has been too closely paraphrased and either needs to be quoted in stead or summarized. This source ( Great Hall of the People. Asian Historical Architecture - www.orientalarchitecture.com. Accessed 16 October 2007.) is also not cited in the correct place within the article. Content that could be added would be more information on the history of the building, inspirations from the architects and designers, planning that went into the creation of the building, and/or specific events that have been held at the building. In the talk page for the article, editors have discussed some of these ideas. They have also debated over the use of the word “volunteers” to describe the builders of the Great Hall. One believed that this was a misleading term since they believed the builders were actually slaves, however other editors pointed out that he did not have any reliable sources to back up that claim. People have also discussed how the tone of the article needs to read less like an advertisement of brochure.

The article could be improved by more sources that back up the facts already stated as well as new content in the subjects that lack much information.

One question I would ask about the article would be "What other history is there surrounding the construction and design of the Great Hall of the People?"

Seanconnell (talk) 03:04, 29 January 2018 (UTC)