IC head defends inauthentic VR reconstruction of St Paul’s Cathedral

The virtual reality (VR) reconstruction of the Ruins of St Paul’s is not a history project, so a degree of inauthenticity is inevitable, president Leong Wai Man of the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) has said.

She asked the public for their understanding.

After the public launch of the product, members of the public – especially the cultural elite – criticized the results as inauthentic compared to the real cathedral.

Leong said the MOP800,000 reconstruction is not a history project but a cultural tourism project, so “100% authenticity is impossible.”

MOP800,000 is the price tag for the consultation services provided by local historian Ieng Weng Fat. There was no bidding process and the project was directly designated to Ieng, according to a report by local media outlet All About Macau.

Leong added that before the product’s release, “we expected that full authenticity of the cathedral 400 years ago might not be achieved.”

She said the project is the first of its kind in Macau.

“It is quite a challenge to reconstruct the long history of the cathedral,” she said. “We hope members of the public – especially academics and experts in the field – will help us refine the project after its official release.”

Restating the marketing nature of the project, Leong said that, as its main aim is to offer audiences interesting visual and mental experiences, “some details have been adjusted.”

On the question of the inefficient use of public funds, judging solely on the basis of this project, Leong exclaimed the “work is not easy.”

“The project is tourism-oriented. We only strove to present data that we have in a three-dimensional manner,” the cultural official said.

She said the bureau is open to comments and suggestions on the project.

Award-winning film director Martin Scorsese made a digital exterior replica of the then cathedral in his year-2016 work Silence about 17th-century Jesuit missionaries in Asia.