Have you ever been somewhere a long time and felt at home there, left for a prolonged period, then returned again? While you're away, in your head you're feeling like you know the place. You have memories there, you know your way around, you spent TIME there...
In Western Europe and much of the United States there is some dissonance between what you remember and the current situation when you return. Some new shops have opened. Some have closed down. A new apartment building here, an old house torn down there. But by and large, it's the way you left it. However, in Asia the changes are so very fast and drastic that when you return the memories and the changes cause your brain whiplash! And if you're gone years, there can be so many changes that there is so little the same to cling to that you feel like you're a stranger in a new place... But then those very subtle unchanged things - a street, a lone shop you remember, a bridge - feel like a dream. An anchor. Proof of your past. You have shared history. All of a sudden that building is like a lifeline to your past.
And what about the buildings that are gone? They may just be buildings, but for the homes and schools I've lost over the years, they may as well have been treasured friends. I've grieved for them. And for the schools in particular, THOUSANDS of children lost a part of their history. I will never be able to show my daughter those parts of my history as my Swiss mother was able to show me her family home and school (which still stand now, even after she's gone). I feel saddened by this loss.
I realize this is not how everyone feels. Not everyone feels sentimental about their old haunts. But I would say most of us do feel some grief when a special building is lost. I remember how Santa Cruz locals mourned the loss of the Cooper House when it collapsed during the 1989 earthquake. And I know my fellow school mates were saddened when our school was demolished...
Time marches on, I get that, but we all need landmarks to relate to. It's jarring and discombobulating to not be able to relate to your own city. Cities I've lived in such as Beijing, Shenzhen, Calcutta, and Manila are vastly unrecognizable to their residents 20 years ago (I'd guess that most Chinese cities fall under this description).
This makes me think of the older residents. An old person in those cities probably can't find their way around because of the huge changes. Of course, the elderly in those cities probably stay within a short distance of their home so as not to get lost. But for anyone venturing around their city, I'd think it'd cause quite a bit of psychological trauma to constantly be confused about getting around your own city. After all, small changes can be fluster an elderly person, imagine not being able to find your way around the only city you've lived!
So, I hope the huge construction going on in Asia eventually slows, and instead of building cheap, shoddy buildings that need to be replaced in 20 or 30 years, they build more to last and really take care of their landmarks, for the sake of its residents. So that people don't feel like strangers in their own cities or adopted cities. So that we build something lasting for our future.
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