In 2020, Virginia has pre-imagined the monument of Confederate（同盟国） General Robert E. Lee by covering it with graffiti and projecting the faces of black tinkers（补锅匠） and activists（积极分子） onto the monuments. Like Virginians, many in North Carolina and across the world, questions are the monuments and memorials（纪念物） in our public spaces and wish to reimagine them. Please raise your hand if you've ever looked at a monument, read its plaque（匾） and questioned its meaning and its place in our public spaces. Those of you who raise your hands know what I mean. In your mind, you might have also reimagined these monuments.

  If you didn't raise your hand, don't worry. After this talk, you will know about the questionable（可疑的） background of some of these monuments and might approach them differently in the future. The whole story of reimagining memorials became important to me when I started studying public history. Knowing that I focus on historic sites, my friends started asking me questions about the history of memorials and monuments. At times, it was really difficult for me to talk about the reasons we memorialize certain figures and events in our public spaces. However, I felt obligated to talk about the reasons we memorialize them and at the same time, the dark history associated with some of these structures.

  What then, my friends, would eventually go on and ask me why do we even have such historical representations（代表） in our public spaces? I'm not sure if your friends, family members, community members, or even students have put you in the spotlight（聚光灯） like this before, but this was true for me. And these questions were doubly difficult for me to answer, because I've studied architecture and historic preservation（保存） before beginning my journey in public history. And believe me, the architect preservationists inside me would like to preserve everything as found. But when it comes to these structures associated with discrimination（歧视） and racism, I couldn't defend the architect preservationists inside me. I was hoping to find the middle ground, so I thought if I do the research, I would find many ways ordinary citizens or even experts altered the monuments to convey a different message while preserving the historical footprint（脚印）.

  To me, by keeping the historical footprint and altering the monuments, there would be enough tangible（切实的） evidence to learn from past mistakes and enough change to reinterpret the monuments in a new light and create more inclusive（包括的） spaces for future generations. Sometimes keeping the historical footprint means removal（移动） of a controversial element within a historical context. For instance, the statue of Robert E. Lee was removed from the Duke（公爵） University's chapel（小礼拜堂） in August 2017 following violent clashes（冲突） in Charlottesville, Virginia. In this case, the removal of a controversial element within a historical context leaves an emptiness that intrigues（用诡计取得） people to wonder about the missing figure, as questions and rating their values.