Dr. Jeff Hou

I think the physical space is still absolutely important.

And we have seen in recent protest movement that the actual gathering happens.

still matters.

But a lot of times, those gatherings are either facilitated by social media, your digital device, and also at the same time, the same kind of

digital infrastructure can also stop people from gathering.

So, for example, the state can just shut down the internet and stop people from communicating with each other.

And so things are more complicated today.

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

I think you can look at how elaborate buildings are, which is an indication of how the society kind of values things.

the importance of that particular building.

If you go to Tokyo, obviously there's a history of the imperial presence.

The center of the city is still the palace.

So we can read into the history of the city in terms of what it used to be before it became a democracy.

You can travel to Beijing, Tiananmen Square.

You can understand the history of the place.

And then at the same time, the square is still there, but it's not a functioning democracy.

These places do tell stories, stories from the past, from the present, and where things are going.

They're very fascinating to look at.

Yeah, so it's hard to tell now.

So the line has blurred between the appearance and how spaces actually function.