Goodbye, old house

Author: Zhu Yong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-08-01
Features: The understanding of a city should be approached from both spatial and temporal dimensions. Entering a city's space is not difficult, but entering its time is not. Time is always escaping, so we can only see the "present," while its origins and destinations remain hidden in darkness. The so-called "present" is an abstract concept, impossible to measure in length—is it a second, a minute, or an hour? In this sense, the "present" is abstract, constantly changing, and unstable, whereas the "past" is permanent and concrete, like a vast warehouse where all things that have vanished will gather. Therefore, in my view, all cities belong to the past—either the "past" of one minute ago or the "past" of one year ago. Time has no starting point, so the perspective from which we look back can be infinitely extended. A city provides a space for our vision to run. The longer our vision extends, the more complex and vivid our understanding of the city's history, memory, and imagination becomes. Space is the container of time, and vanished time will leave traces in the city's space. Thus, time and space can be unified. Theoretically, reading a city's space should also complete the reading of its time. Almost all old houses have disappeared, and the mythical creatures like the qilin and crane that once roosted on their beams have scattered like monkeys from a fallen tree. The spring orchids and autumn chrysanthemums, as well as the tea trees and pear blossoms, are also gone. Those exquisite houses are like teeth that have been pulled out, leaving behind only a bloody and mangled jaw. A colossal thirty-story structure will replace the old houses, and I believe it will become a giant false tooth, announcing and flaunting its victory in a gilded and inlaid manner.