题目：
Tradition and modernization are incompatible. One must choose between them.
传统和现代化是水火不容的。人们必须二者选一。
正文：
Considered as opposite directions, tradition and modernization have their certain reasons to be incompatible in some aspects. However, in my view it is our society's responsibility to harmonize tradition and modernization, since they both have their indispensable advantages.
Tradition is memory of an individual, a city or a nation. The amassed historical elements are combined by time into an endless treasure mine involving culture, arts, technology and so forth.Tradition has long averted its function during this amassing progress, giving us experience, rules,ethos and morality. Based on traditional views, we are able to accept modern time and future. For instance, the traditional festival in China, Spring Festival, has played as a spiritual pillar of Chinese people. During that day, people will have vacation, returning home and sharing an annual dinner with family members. It is the only time, to many Chinese, when they can have an entire rest, only dropping into happiness and family. The social function of Spring Festival lays in diversified aspects which help people and the whole society to keep a healthy, stable attitude to their life and family. Other traditional elements have all their values, since they are familiar to a group of people, containing history and memories. The Greek architect, master of critical regionalism, Aghias Zonis claimed that people will feel dangerous without traditional and familiar elements, which cause them an environment of safety.
On the other hand, modernization is an inevitable trend of our human society. Consider about the past development happened dramatically from the Industrial Revolution, productivity has grew at a swift speed and changed our world into a totally different scene. During this time, traditional ethos and morality, as well as material elements, have been changed or even destroyed. For instance, in ancient time, women in China have very low social positions because they could do little work to produce welfare. But modern technology gave them opportunities to work as well as men in factories, companies and other social domains. The turn from labor producing to intellectual producing helps the society to build equality between genders, therefore changing the social ethos and tradition a lot. Meanwhile, however, some excellent traditional welfare is also destroyed by modernization, including old buildings, urban sights and spiritual beliefs. For modern development, certain spaces and resources are needed, some of which are used by traditional elements. So removing such relics have been an inevitable step for further development.
The Beijing city has been changed during the past 60 years, replacing its ancient residential buildings and city gates with skyscrapers and cross roads, making this city into a vacuum without memories and identify. Such dangers have been recognized by academia but still controversial on how to deal with them. Together with these ancient buildings, ethos and morality have also been changed. In ancient time, sexual relationship was views as a very serious topic which can only exist with certain person. But fall away from traditional morality, one night stand and other sexual relationship between strangers have played as a social phenomenon in both China and western world. Undoubtedly, such changes are due to the modernization, bringing possibilities to cure VD and prevent being pregnant. And they are impulsing traditional thoughts seriously, causing certain social problems.
So harmonizing tradition and modernization is a necessary mission. According to the mentioned tradition's advantages, we cannot abandon it for modernization. By contrast, modernization is our future, which must be taken into consideration and based on tradition. Only by absorbing beneficial elements from both sides, can we gain a stable progress of development. Fortunately, exactly because of modernization, people are now able to find more and more ways to adjust their conflicts, with modern scientific and other theories. A striking example involves the renovation of Ruhr District in Germany. Having developed to the biggest industrial district in Europe after the War World II, Ruhr District has long been considered as a totem of this country's industry. But after 1980s, the change taken place in its industrial domain made this area lose its function gradually. Additionally, pollution, crime and other social problems were revealed during the conflicts between tradition and modernization. To deal with this situation, the government established a project to renovate this district, with modern technologies of architecture,environmental engineering and other subjects. By changing the former factories into museums and sports centers, Ruhr District is now playing a vitalized role in German society, together with its traditional memories. The Ruhr's experience tells us about the possibility of harmonizing tradition and modernization, by adjusting their functions and abstracting advantages. Although such changes may be not affordable by all countries, with the development of modern society, we can find more and more possible methods to gain similar results. People's intellectuals can change their world, instead of undermining it, if they are properly taken.
To sum up, we have no choice between tradition and modernization, but they are not absolutely incompatible. As long as we keep an open kind to modernization, and as long as we hold on traditional advantages, both of them will play important roles to help us seek a better future.
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