City’s Land | Memory is a Responsibility

Found the bench in Central Park, but it didn’t show up when I posted it on WeChat Moments. I drew on it to create a web-like image before I could post it.

There are many benches like this in Central Park. Even on the roads outside the park, there are benches not far away, for people to rest their feet when they are tired, or for those who are temporarily homeless to spend a night.

But without a doubt, this bench commemorating Chinese doctors is still the most special.

Many chairs have names on them. They are the donors, or the names the donors want the world to remember.

I didn’t specifically find out, but I think Central Park has a special program. The park needs public facilities, and if someone donates, it’s a good solution.

The chair commemorating Dr. Li can be found on Google Maps with accurate navigation. On the map, it is marked as a five-star “attraction”.

The markings on the map come from user reviews. Many famous restaurants can be marked as four stars, which is already remarkable. The five stars for Dr. Li are the result of a group’s “stubborn” efforts.

Dear friends, go and see it, and remind yourself not to forget.

The WeChat Moments of the past two days have a sense of nostalgia and commemoration. Urumqi, Nanjing, Shanghai, Chengdu… there are some things and some people that everyone needs to remember.

Last night, I also looked back at a year ago and watched some videos and photos I had posted. Returning to the scene again, I still shed tears several times.

Last November, we needed to constantly examine. It was a critical state, with madness and also rebirth; with going with the flow and also the efforts of young people who are not familiar with the world.

At the end of November last year, it was the final stage of control. Because of the efforts of some people, we were able to end the control. But if we were to go back to October last year, with all kinds of “unwavering”, who could have predicted the possibility of a turnaround?

Many people have become accustomed to seeing everything in front of them as permanent. I often see a nihilistic mockery: it’s useless, it won’t get better—most of the time they are right, and they are right again, but this worldliness is actually meaningless.

There are still some valuable things to do, otherwise, what is the meaning of human life? In my opinion, “don’t forget” is one of the meaningful things.

In this era, memory needs to be defended. This is not only because of information overload, and people are prone to forget, but also because there is a force that doesn’t want you to remember the past.

In the past two months, I have seen many friends forwarding the newspaper pages of “last year today”. Many headlines seem absurd and ridiculous today, but they were regarded as truth last year. This “review” is not only a repetition, but also a creation and criticism, a stubborn persistence.

Memory is the last reliance of man, and also the “essence of man”. It has always been a field of power struggle, and that proper noun is called “history”. When you lament that you can’t do anything, at least there is one thing you can insist on: don’t forget.