Zeng was once a senior journalist and editor for Heilongjiang Daily in northeast China. Since she established City and People, a special issue of the newspaper aimed at protecting historic buildings in cities in 1998, she has been dedicated to the cause of cultural heritage protection.

As far as Zeng saw it, Liang and Lin's former residence had already become a symbol of culture. Its removal gave her a feeling of collapse.

According to regulations on the administration of cultural heritage conservation projects, even if the buildings in the courtyard were in dangerously poor condition, they should be urgently consolidated by qualified construction companies but not be removed, said Zeng.

The excuse of reparatory removal was not persuasive at all. There was no such term in any cultural heritage laws or regulations, said Zeng.

The party that had demolished the courtyard should be investigated for legal responsibility, said Zeng.

The current situation is that the "cost" of destroying non-moveable cultural relics is too low. The lawbreaker pays a maximum of 500,000 yuan ($79,350) fine. So far, no one has been sentenced for criminal responsibility for destroying non-movable cultural relics, said Zeng.

What's more, Liang and Lin's students were against the Dongcheng District Cultural Commission's decision of rebuilding the former residence from the debris.

Based on international practice, cultural relics that had already been destroyed cannot be rebuilt. It was already wrong to demolish a cultural relic, and would be more wrong to rebuild a fake antique, said Chen Zhihua, an 83-year-old professor from Tsinghua University and also a former student of Liang and Lin.

Some students said the government could build a ruins park at the site. It is essential to erect a monument for the couple, and retain the ruin as a warning to future generations, they said.

If the government did want to build something, it could build a memorial based on the principle of being distinguishable. The memorial should be different from the original buildings in architectural forms so that people wouldn't be confused, said Chen.

Lessons

The miserable ending of the former residence of Liang and Lin serves as a mirror. It reflects the reality that many historic and cultural buildings are being abandoned and destroyed in China's ongoing urbanization process.

According to China's third national cultural relic survey, by the end of 2011, there had been altogether 766,722 registered non-moveable cultural relics on the Chinese mainland. Of them, 536,001 are newly discovered and about 44,000 disappeared in the urbanization process. Beijing has 3,840 non-moveable cultural relics, of which 969 have disappeared.

Fortunately, the reality has already aroused the attention of the public.

"A city is formed little by little. The historic cultural buildings were witnesses of history. We couldn't destroy them recklessly. Even if they had to be demolished, the demolition should be carried out according to legal procedures," said Fang Zhenning, a famous architectural critic.

There were many small details about an ancient building which are worth careful study and appreciation, said Luo Zhewen, another student of Liang and an expert on ancient buildings.

Luo suggested while working on protection plans, the regulators should take into consideration the history of famous people's former residences.

"Some people only see the immediate economic interests brought by the removal of the ancient buildings," said Ruan Sanyi, a famous Chinese expert on ancient building protection. "They removed the ancient buildings only to establish several real estate projects. These were very short-sighted actions."

Ruan said compared to capital shortage in ancient building protection, the lack of protection consciousness and the backwardness of protection concepts were more worrisome.

"Of course, to protect ancient buildings doesn't mean they can't be touched. Protection should be combined with development, enabling them to shine in modern society," said Ruan.

Email us at: yuyan@bjreview.com