In my opinion, to put a statue of Confucius in front of the National Museum means more than the statue itself. It marks the Chinese nation's rising awareness of its own culture. The Chinese have realized the importance of respecting and learning from the country's history, its great people and its traditional culture.

Kong Jian (www.japanchinakorea.org): The erection of a statue of Confucius in front of the National Museum is not an incidental event, but it is a result of changing cultural strategies since the beginning of reform and opening up. It shows the Chinese are coming out of the shadow of denying their own culture. The National Museum is also an historical museum that focuses on the exhibition of traditional Chinese culture. Therefore, there could be many statues in front of the museum, but the first is undoubtedly that of Confucius.

The National Museum's move conforms to the trend of cultural development of the country and also the will of most Chinese, both at home and abroad. In the last century, Confucius and Confucianism were severely condemned as they were thought to be related with feudalism, and this posed serious damage to Chinese culture and Chinese people's beliefs.

China needs a cultural revitalization to match its fast economic pace. The Chinese have begun to find, in the process of learning from the cultures of other countries, that only by depending on our own thousands of years old culture can we build up a common cultural and spiritual home for the whole nation.

In the past two decades, schools across the country have opened classes on traditional Chinese culture and classical masterpieces. People from all walks of life are joining in a craze for traditional Chinese culture. All of these show the eagerness for traditional Chinese culture. Confucius Institutes have been set up and well received in many parts of the world. This tells us Confucius still enjoys a high reputation even today and Chinese culture is respected by the whole world. Confucius "attended" the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. From then on, his image and his ideas of harmony began to fly all over the world.

Disapproval

Gaohanqingquan (www.163.com): Confucius' achievements are mainly in education. His academic and political thinking was only one of the many schools of his time and not the leading thinking then. Confucianism is somewhat a partial and limited way of thinking. Besides, there is also a lot of feudal dross in Confucianism and this is what we should try to remove.

To put up a statue of Confucius is all right, but it should never have been put in front of the National Museum. It may be moved to the history museum, to help people understand how Confucius' thinking and theories helped with thousands of years' feudal rule in China, and meanwhile its positive aspects should also be stressed. It's OK to erect a statue of Confucius in a proper location, but not in front of the National Museum in the capital of the country.

Tao Dongfeng (www.163.com): The National Museum is not a museum exclusively for the culture of Confucianism, so by no means should a statue of Confucius be put in front of it (but one could be put in his hometown Qufu or at other Confucian memorials). After all, not all people on Chinese territory are believers in Confucianism and its founder Confucius. Confucianism is not China's national cultural ideology.

The National Museum is a place to conduct cultural education, a place to help the Chinese learn more about the nation's history and build up a common cultural identity and values. In this museum, people get to understand and know China and about being Chinese. Materials displayed in the National Museum imply the state's attitude toward history. It's not right to set up a statue of Confucius in a place as important as the National Museum.

Li Qing (Shenzhen Economic Daily): The question is not whether we should erect a Confucius statue, but whether it should be put in front of the National Museum.

Confucius does demand public respect and there are already many statues of Confucius around the country. Although Confucius was first of all a great thinker, he is also a major symbol of Chinese culture. But this does not mean a statue of Confucius is the most suitable statue for the front of the National Museum. Besides, maybe this big, high statue suits the more solemn surroundings of the National Museum, but it does not match the surrounding environment. In my opinion, a model of a piece of cultural relic is more suitable than this statue in front of the National Museum. I don't want to say that it is a messy layout, but it is necessary to first ask about the public's opinions before an important cultural landmark is set up.

It's undeniable that museums also have educational functions, and Confucius is undoubtedly a famous figure in the education area, but these reasons are not strong enough to justify the erection of the statue in front of the National Museum.