Ackbar Abbas mainly discusses two types of city, invisible city and generic city. An invisible city is a city without a clear image whereas the generic city is more like a city which keeps transforming and ‘erasing’ its history and identity. As mentioned, ‘many Generic cities today are located in Asia’, which is pretty true as far as I know. As an example, my hometown Jinan has been inhabited for more than 4000 years, many ancient buildings there actually represent periods of history. However, as time goes on, new buildings emerge and many ancient buildings have been demolished. To older generations, this is a loss of history; to the younger generations like me, it is a loss of identity because we do not know what the city should be like and many young children do not even know this city has such a long history. The city has gradually become ‘superficial’.
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The two types of cities Abbas discussed is exorbitant city and generic city. Abbas used Calvino’s Invisible Cities to explain what the former is an overwhelming “phantasmagoric” multi-faceted city (Abbas, 143). I appreciate that you have shared your own knowledge of your hometown as example. In the case of Jinan which has a rich history, it seems to be undergoing erasure of an exorbitant city. Do you think cities can be an embodiment of both exorbitant and generic city? In your view, how can a city be preserved but also allow for development?