Protecting our history

Cities across the country have not learned a thing from tearing down too many historic houses in a massive urban renovation in the last two decades. Sadly, big metropolises such as Beijing and Shanghai are setting bad examples.

The recent decision to dismantle a former residence of Lu Xun in Beijing, one of China's greatest writers and thinkers, has sparked huge public outcry. This is an emergency that calls for immediate government intervention.

In his downtown Beijing courtyard house, known as siheyuan in Chinese, Lu Xun wrote several well-known novelettes, such as "Madman's Diaries" and "The True Story of Ah Q". These short stories, which are still included in high school textbooks, have influenced more than a generation of Chinese.