Oh, for that yearning for the pastoral past

A series of graffiti painted on the broken walls of a block of traditional Shikumen-style buildings in Shanghai, which was demolished last month after being home to generations of residents, has stirred a wave of nostalgia among people across the country. The graffiti tells the simple story of a Chinese girl's daily activities such as reading, playing, eating and sleeping. But the girl has a lost look on her face and always carries the image of her old house in her mind, or on her bag or on any other object. The image of the house is in sharp contract to the debris and the broken walls against the backdrop of glitzy skyscrapers.

Xi has emphasized that developers should maintain the traditional Chinese construction styles. What it means is that even if the old buildings and old villages are protected, the old lifestyle will disappear because of the fast social and economic development. In fact, despite the existence of courtyard houses in Beijing, the hutong (or alleyway) lifestyle is disappearing because many of them have been rented out to businesspeople.

How can traditional village life survive when more than 300 million farmers have left their villages to work in cities as migrant workers? Can their elderly parents and children keep the traditional lifestyle alive?

China has the longest recorded history among all countries. And Chinese people love looking back at the past. Nostalgia is not only a personal outpouring of emotion; it is also an invisible and lasting spiritual connection that unites a community and even a country.

That some homeowners' opposition to forcible demolition of their houses gets the support of the public shows that it is a cultural issue more than an economic problem.

More than an efficient government, it takes key traditional values to realize good governance in a fast developing country such as China. This is where nostalgia comes into play.

The author is a writer with China Daily. liyang@chinadaily.com.cn