History
Gigi Lowe, Group 4:
fter centuries of the Great Wall of China standing proudly between the Chinese Empire and
opposing forces, the great monument was taken down last night. Jamie Fung reporting live
from what used to be one of the worlds greatest wonders.”
thou
Fiction, Discovery College
Standing bare in front of the wall was more intimidating than when the wall was there,
ght Jamie, signalling to his cameraman. There were less people around, less tourists taking
pictures of the winding architectural grandeur, and less historical magic.
“
A
Jamie fiddled with his tie, and pushed his hand through his curly brown hair, “yes, this is now what
remains of the Great Wall. As you can see, there is a hanging silence in the air that was once filled with laughter
of tourists that came to see the man-made structure.”
Jamie points at what has replaced it instead, “the Chinese government has now replaced the Great Wall
with what seems to be electronically powered force fields. Although the monument has gone, at least we know
we’ll be safe- right?” Laughter follows as the camera turns off and Jamie looks around.
He remembered stories that his grandparents used to tell him about the Great Wall, and all the
significance behind the hard work that was put in to make it. ‘The worlds largest cemetery’ they called it,
because of how many people died in the process of building it. And all that work now gone, and replaced with
lasers and batteries.
Jamie approached one of the few guards who still worked there, and asked if they knew why the Great
Wall was taken down. The guards looked at him and snorted, even if they knew they wouldn’t tell a middle-
class citizen like him.
That was true though, he lived a simple life that started with waking up in the morning, having
breakfast while reading the newspaper, and going to work like any other middle-class citizen. Jamie turned
away and walked back to his camera man, who was still in the process of packing away his equipment. “Say
Kenny, why do you think the Great Wall was taken down?” Kenny, the camera man, shrugged.
“
Your guess is as good as mine, pal.” Jamie turned around to look again at the protective fields that
replaced the Wall. But China hadn’t been attacked in centuries, why would they still need to be protected?
“
Hey Ken, why do you think China still needs to have a wall around it?” He turned around but didn’t
find Ken anywhere. Thinking that Ken had gone his way back to the hotel, Jamie decided to stick around for a
little while. There was a slight breeze and the sun was hidden behind some clouds but still shone brightly on the
open area.
Jamie thought about the Chinese government, what with them being the worlds largest economy- they
had no enemies and no one had a reason to attack them by any means. So then, what was the purpose of the
replacement technology wall? Were they hiding something else, something like the deaths of the thousands of
people who built the wall?
Walking around, he bumped into one of the guards again but didn't say anything as he passed them,
looking past the lasers to the mountains in the distance. What was there that was worth protecting from everyone
else, what was worth tearing down one of the worlds wonders?
Knowing that he wouldn’t find out any more about the mystery walking around on this side of the wall,
Jamie set off to the taxi stand back to his hotel. Maybe he’d find out more on the internet, or get interviews with
people who could actually answer his questions.
He got to the library close to his hotel and began looking up news articles around the time the decision
was made to tear down the Great Wall. “Twenty two-fifteen, twenty two-sixteen... ah, twenty two-eighteen”
Flipping through the interviews, he noticed a certain pattern with who was answering the publics questions, and
also how vague they were.
A simple question like, ‘what made you decide to tear down the wall?’ was answered with a ‘oh, it was
time’ by the Chief Executive. Everyone who was part of the Chinese government hadn’t said a word about the
demolition, and over a third of the Legislative council had quit or been fired.
Jamie scratched his head, unable to grasp the concept of what good outcome came from destroying a
historical monument like the Great Wall. A few seconds passed, clicking from his mouse had annoyed enough
people in the library as he searched up all he could, and he was ready to ask someone who was ready to give
him answers.
The map he had printed out showed the Government House only a couple blocks away from the library
he was at, and he decided it wasn’t going to do much harm going to see if he could get an exclusive interview