When our cities try impatiently to change their appearances, tearing down old buildings to erect high-rises becomes inevitable. But after many years of controversy, there is a common understanding that historically significant buildings should be protected. Efforts in this regard, though, seem to be focused on "important sites" such as high-ranking officials' mansions and gardens, temples and celebrities' residences. Scant attention has been paid to buildings such as the Xunlimen Railway Station, which are commonplace architecture and are related only to common people's lives.
I feel sad about the station's demolition not only because of nostalgia. What I am worried more about is whether we really have developed a correct understanding of what protecting historical and cultural heritages means.
For many years, we seem to have made efforts to preserve, and often refurbish, mansions, gardens and temples, only to allow people to take photographs or worship there, and earn a fat income from tourism. Little thought, however, has been given to the cultural and historical meaning of those buildings. That explains why a goods railway station like Xunlimen, which did not look magnificent and had no relationship with any celebrity, was torn down.
In fact, what we can inherit from an old building is a spirit of belonging, a kind of mood and geographical character.
They represent the memory of a particular period, a record of people's daily lives and human relationship, subsistence philosophy, social customs and the ethics people developed in ordinariness.
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