忆城记 City in Memory
虽然城市每时每刻都在变化，但对每一个人来说，一个城市总有它比较固定的记忆面貌。我出生在广州市中心，据说出生的时候家里还借住在祖父的弟弟七叔公一家，是位于杏花巷的宅子，出世之后，家人从医院直接接我回连新路81号的新宅，屋子面对着广州市政府大楼的府前路和中央公园，凤凰树好像华盖一样遮蔽着这条安静的小路，在这里我也就见证了广州从国民党政府走进共产党政府的整个过程。我心中的广州记忆面貌，之所以具有很浓厚的民国时期色彩，就是因为童年所铸。
City is changing all the time, though, in a person’s memory, it always clings to a certain visage in light of memory. I was born in the center of Guangzhou. I was told that, when I was born, my family were still living with my grandpa’s little brother – my seventh granduncle’s family. It was a house in Xinghua Alley. After I was born, my family directly took me back to our new home at No. 81, Lianxin Road. The house was facing Fuqian Road, where Guangzhou government building was located, as well as the central park. Flame trees tendered the silent road like an umbrella. This is the place where I witnessed the process that Nationalist Party surrendered to the PCP. The city of Guangzhou in my mind is closed related to the Republic of China due to my childhood memory.
广州的建筑一直很有特色，我想首要原因是这座城市从唐代以来一直是对外的门户，与外部事物接触频繁造成的。当全国绝大部分还在营造四合院、“四水归堂”、“一颗印”、“虎下山”这种围合形式的传统民宅的时候，骑楼已经在广州兴起了；当全国还在海禁的时候，广州却出现了十三行这样的贸易中心大街，现代建筑开始进入中国；广州领风气之先走出了民族现代化道路，出现了中山纪念堂、市政府、岭南大学这样优秀的民族现代作品；而沙面也以最完整规划、和华界完全隔开的国际租界的形式出现，它们迄今依然是认识和了解18-19世纪欧洲殖民建筑规划、设计最好的场所；广州最早形成新城市中轴线，最早出现中央公园，最早出现长堤这样繁华的西式商业滨江大道，而广州的这个发展，不是以类似某些城市推倒重来的方式建造的，而是以与传统共存共荣的方式，西关大屋、东山别墅、中线的民族现代并向发展，具备了一个现代城市最合理的发展模式。这些印象痕迹深深地刻印在我的脑海里，无法忘却。
The architecture in Guangzhou has always be characteristic, which, I think, must have something to do with Guangzhou’s position as a connection between China and abroad since Tang Dynasty. When most part of China was still building traditional style houses such as quadrangle courtyards, Qilou Buildings have already emerged in Guangzhou. When China was still in a state of seclusion, Guangzhou has already had trade centers such as Thirteen Hongs, suggesting that modern buildings have already entered the city. Guangzhou has been leading on the path of China’s national modernization. At the early phase, it has excellent works such as Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, Guangzhou Government Building and Lingnan University, among which Sha Mian appeared as the best planned international leased territory completely isolated with the other territory of China. These buildings are still the best place for understanding the layout and design of European colonial architecture from18 to 19 century. Guangzhou is the earliest to form its axis line, to have central park and busy western style business street such as Changti. What’s more, the development of Guangzhou is not realized by the deconstruction of the old, like some cities do. Instead, it has been following a pattern which allows the coexistence of the old and the new; Xiguan Houses, Dongshan Villa and the traditional modernization along the axis line, thereby, to step forward side by side, suggesting a most reasonable pattern of the development of the modern city. I’m deeply impressed by all of these.
最近几十年来，广州大发展，轴线不断东移，城市蔓延、旧区重建，连我自出生起就居住的连新路81号也被拆毁开通成穿越府前路到解放北路的马路了。时过境迁，面目全非，但是记忆还在，默写出来，还是有一种魅力的。这就是这一批画的由来了。
In the recent decades, Guangzhou has been experiencing a grand development with the axis line being driven easter and easter. The urban area expanded, the old districts were rebuilt, even No. 81 in Lianxin Road was demolished and transformed into road linking Fuqian Road and Jiefangbei Road. The vicissitudes have changed everything but memory, which, when being drawn, still has its charm. This is the story of these sketches.
有人会问我：你不喜欢新的吗？我会说：人童年记忆中的那个地方总是和自己最接近的，可能我的祖父会更加喜欢辛亥革命时代的那个广州，我的父亲更加喜欢1930年代那个广州，对于我来说，在这里给大家看到的则是属于我这一代的广州了。
Some people might ask, don’t you like new things? I would answer them that the place in one’s childhood memory is the most intimate thing to him. Perhaps my grandpa preferred Guangzhou in the era of the 1911 Revolution, my father loves Guangzhou in the 1930s most, while what I am showing you here is the city in my generation’s memory.
王受之写于2012年4月12日