THE ARGUMENT2022 – 24
How Old Should a Monument Look?
When the canopy came off the bridge
PLACE · ANCIENT TOWNThe Japanese Covered BridgeJapanese merchants paid for it, Vietnamese carpenters built it, a Chinese village kept it, and a Nguyễn lord gave it a name. After eight dismantlings, the part of the four-hundred-year-old bridge that is close to intact is the foundation. in 2024, the internet met a monument in fresh paint and clean timber, and did not recognise it. Conservators answered that they had restored the structure, not the patina, and that four centuries of river air would put the patina back. The dispute is really about what a town owes a thing it has repaired seven times before.