Title:Disappear of hometowns
I used to think that some words like Disappear are entirely human ideas. The word, Disappear, as an example, never exists in the system of nature because things in the nature never disappear. The sun seems to sink in the ocean in darkness, but it raises in another hemisphere; the food in our plates is eaten and gone forever, but it exists in the form of our blood, our bones and our bodies; the ruins of a city fall, but they are used to form more magnificent structures, even when they are destroyed into dust, there is dust left. However, I found myself vastly wrong when I saw the debris of a group of ancient buildings in my home town.
These buildings had been here even before my grand-grandmother’s born and were loaded with memories of generations. The presence of these buildings has even become one part of the word hometown for most of the people here. I am afraid of the disappear of my hometown because when I look at the models of the new buildings on the sand table, I don’t see magnificent structures even they are well-designed, I don’t see a better hometown, I see another Shanghai, another Beijing, another random modern city I am not familiar with. My hometown is disappearing, not even into dust, but into nothing.
This city is expanding based on destroying. Actually, it is what all the cities in the world are doing, isn’t it? Modernization is just an excuse, our infinite desire is what drives us to ignore or despise what is disappearing. One day, all the hometowns will be pulled by our desire into the same pattern; one day, old places will finally only exist in the memory of old people, or better, struggle to survive as tourist attractions; one day, travelling will become meaningless because when you get off the train or plane, the only thing you will find different is the name of station or airport.
When this day came finally, the time will keep flowing but the history would stop. You may think that it is impossible to happen in real world, but it is undeniable that when the size of city is expanding in such a dramatic speed, the space for history to be written down is compressed into for***ike museums. Even countries with history of thousands of years like Greece and Rome, are enclosed in a cage called World Cultural Heritage.
At the end of the speech, I want to cite the words from a famous writer: accept the inferno and become such a part, or seek and learn to recognize who and what, in the midst of the inferno, are not inferno, then make them endure, give them space.
I used to think that some words like Disappear are entirely human ideas. The word, Disappear, as an example, never exists in the system of nature because things in the nature never disappear. The sun seems to sink in the ocean in darkness, but it raises in another hemisphere; the food in our plates is eaten and gone forever, but it exists in the form of our blood, our bones and our bodies; the ruins of a city fall, but they are used to form more magnificent structures, even when they are destroyed into dust, there is dust left. However, I found myself vastly wrong when I saw the debris of a group of ancient buildings in my home town.
These buildings had been here even before my grand-grandmother’s born and were loaded with memories of generations. The presence of these buildings has even become one part of the word hometown for most of the people here. I am afraid of the disappear of my hometown because when I look at the models of the new buildings on the sand table, I don’t see magnificent structures even they are well-designed, I don’t see a better hometown, I see another Shanghai, another Beijing, another random modern city I am not familiar with. My hometown is disappearing, not even into dust, but into nothing.
This city is expanding based on destroying. Actually, it is what all the cities in the world are doing, isn’t it? Modernization is just an excuse, our infinite desire is what drives us to ignore or despise what is disappearing. One day, all the hometowns will be pulled by our desire into the same pattern; one day, old places will finally only exist in the memory of old people, or better, struggle to survive as tourist attractions; one day, travelling will become meaningless because when you get off the train or plane, the only thing you will find different is the name of station or airport.
When this day came finally, the time will keep flowing but the history would stop. You may think that it is impossible to happen in real world, but it is undeniable that when the size of city is expanding in such a dramatic speed, the space for history to be written down is compressed into for***ike museums. Even countries with history of thousands of years like Greece and Rome, are enclosed in a cage called World Cultural Heritage.
At the end of the speech, I want to cite the words from a famous writer: accept the inferno and become such a part, or seek and learn to recognize who and what, in the midst of the inferno, are not inferno, then make them endure, give them space.
