Bruce Lee's former home was demolished, should the celebrity's home be protected?
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Qiao Zhifeng
Bruce Lee's former residence in Kowloon Tong was demolished and he lived here for nearly a year before his death. On September 24, the Bruce Lee Society announced on social networking sites that the demolition of Bruce Lee's former residence in Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, was officially started on the same day due to the abandonment of the owner and the government, and bruce Lee's former residence will no longer exist. (Beijing News, September 24)
Bruce Lee's former home was demolished, triggering a discussion among netizens: Should the celebrity's former residence be protected?
Celebrity homes should, of course, be protected. But to be protected, there are a number of conditions that must be met. The former residence of a celebrity, as the name suggests, includes two aspects of connotation, one is a celebrity, and the other is a former residence. Not everyone can be called a celebrity, and not all homes qualify as protected homes.
Let's start with celebrities. Great fame is a necessary condition, but it is not a sufficient condition, and it is also necessary to have a historical status and historical merits. Some of today's small Internet celebrities have millions of fans and an alarmingly high annual income. However, their online scratching posture and sucking powder and gold seem to attract people's attention, but in fact, it is only a flash in the pan and cannot last. In addition, celebrities are also big and small, some are well-known and household names, and some may be regional. If you do the former residence and eyebrows and beards regardless of size, it is obviously unnecessary and wastes resources. In addition, there are two kinds of celebrities, one is a celebrity who has been flowing for hundreds of years, and the other is a celebrity who has been stinking for eternity. The former, of course, should be commemorated, while the latter should be spurned. A few years ago, I heard that there is a place to engage in Ximen Qing's former residence, Ximen Qing is indeed "famous", it can be said that it is notorious, for this kind of negative figure to erect a monument, what values can be transmitted? Either to create gimmicks and exploit the curiosity of tourists for profit, or to invent ideas and make political achievements. Celebrities like Ximen Qing, or don't toss it.
Then say former residence. A former home is a place where someone once lived, or a former residence or house. Whether it is a celebrity or an ordinary person, there may be more than one place where they have lived, even if it is protected, it is impossible to protect all of them, and the most representative ones must be selected, not as long as the celebrities have lived, no matter how long they have been included in the list of former residences. Some people believe that the former residence mainly refers to the place where the person was born, spent his childhood or more living with his parents and other elders, that is, the residence of the place where the hometown is located. There is some truth, but it is not complete, where the main activities or feats of celebrities are completed, where they should be protected. Protecting the former residences of celebrities, choosing one or two important places is enough, even if it is difficult to choose, do not do too much, otherwise it will be too scattered and lose the focus.
Over the years, I have traveled all over the world and visited the former homes of many celebrities, and almost every tourist destination has one or two. To be honest, not many people were impressed, and some common problems were found. First, some so-called celebrities, in fact, are not too famous, but there are no big people and big celebrities in the local area, so they have to "pick generals in the lame" and take out the numbers; second, the former residences are not "so", many of them are renovated or reconstructed, belonging to "fake cultural relics", lacking the thickness of history; third, the protection and exhibition form of the former residence is too single, basically a large or small house, with several pieces of old furniture, and several pieces of life, photos and other information of the owner of the house are hung on the wall, which are unobstructed, and a few glances have been read. It's boring.
Which people's former residences need to be protected should be comprehensively considered and carefully demonstrated; how to protect, it is more necessary to have overall planning and planning, and it is not possible to renovate the house and put a few objects to protect it. To protect the former residences of celebrities, we must fully excavate their ideological value, cultural value, and historical value, and do a good job as a systematic project and a long-term project.
Finally, let me tell you what I think of the demolition of Bruce Lee's former home. It is understood that Bruce Lee's former residence in Hong Kong has three places, and this demolition is the mansion at No. 41 Kim Baron Road in Kowloon Tong, also known as the "Qihe Xiaozhu" villa. This was Bruce Lee's last residence from July 29, 1972, until his death on July 20, 1973. Bruce Lee is a modern man, leaving many former residences, and it is impossible to protect all of them. As the government and the owners of the former residence finally reached a consensus: the establishment of a special exhibition of Bruce Lee at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum is another ideal way to express respect and nostalgia for Bruce Lee, and such "standard treatment" and commemorative forms are obviously much more scientific and rational than the preservation of a so-called former residence that is not the only one.