On the axis of space and time, cities and people are annihilated as a particle, but as Descartes said, “I think so I am”, if there is thought and soul, a city can also contain the whole universe. And the soul of the city is the people in the city. Some people love mountains, some people love water, but I love cities. Among the people who love the city, some love the city and some love the small town. It doesn‘t matter to me. I love the soul of a city.

Cities can also be personified. Technology can give a city whatever appearance it wants, just as a man can choose whatever clothes he likes. But such a city is not real. I think of Pascal. On the axis of space and time, cities and people are annihilated as a particle, but as Descartes said, “I think, so I am”. If there is thought and soul, a city can also contain the whole universe. And the soul of the city is the people in the city.

I forgot where I read this sentence: “the degree of my love for a city is directly proportional to the bookstore and history of the city.”. I agree with you very much. Gorky’s saying, “people who don‘t read have no soul”, still beats me like thunder. To exclude reading and thinking, as Arendt pointed out, is to put people under the pressure of natural attributes, to satisfy material consumption, and to become slaves to the necessity of existence. Marx regards labor as the necessary condition for people to be human, and I think reading and thinking are the only way for people to become citizens.

Without citizens, how can cities be called cities? History is the source of citizens’ temperament. It‘s not the history of architecture, it’s the history of habits. Since the day of its birth, a city has been alive because of its residents. The words and stories of residents, the laws they made, and their conduct constitute the blood of the city: up to now, they have become the moral rules and value judgments handed down from generation to generation, reflecting the character of people. For example, the forthrightness of the people in the north of China, the delicacy of the people in the south, the romance and passion of Paris, and the preciseness of Berlin, this is the city,This is the history of the city. It is the indelible mark of a city.

I suddenly realized that the idea of touching the city was not appropriate. Touch is physical. In Hengdian or Hollywood, you can touch any city in the world. But the city is dead. The blood, life and soul of a city are people who are ignored by skyscrapers, cars and airplanes. I love my hometown, so I feel him: his breath and pulse are the same as mine.

The earthquake in Sichuan was so strong that it almost destroyed Wenchuan city. But the people in Wenchuan are still there. They just left for a while. As long as they choose to become citizens and continue to write the history of Wenchuan, the life of this city will still exist. A man will die if he gives up reading and thinking. A city will die if he forgets history. Wenchuan is not dead.