Governments must ensure that their major cities receive the financial support they need in order to thrive, because it is primarily in cities that a nation’s cultural traditions are preserved and generated.

This is a very sensitive issue and it is difficult for us to decide the role of governments. There are many issues in this statement that need to be addressed. The first question is whether the actual culture and traditions is in big cities or small towns and villages. The second thing is that whether it is really a government’s duty to subsidize cultural traditions. The author claims that governments should ensure that their major cities receive the financial support they need to preserve the nation’s cultural traditions. However, preserving cultures should not be the single reason to develop major cities. This is not only for preservation of nation’s culture but also for the reason of developing the whole society.

There is no doubt that major cities are the principal force when constructing a healthy country and their development directly reflects the development of the country. Major cities primarily generate a nation’s cultural traditions and makes it famous in the world. However, it is actually towns and villages where cultural traditions originate and are preserved and any government that pays attention to its cultural traditions should neither neglect nor ignore those places. Hence, these small places should receive equal if not more financial support than major cities. The culture and tradition maintained in these places might be much more integrated and purer than in counterpart cities. Therefore, in order to protect their cultural traditions, governments should support tradition-based towns and villages rather than invest a lot to the cities, which have little traditional foundation.

If we take the example of Hong Kong, it used to be a small fishing village 150 years ago. After it became the colony of the Great Britain, Hong Kong has developed gradually and has established as a financial center in Asia. Therefore, from its present, nobody can assert that Chinese cultural traditions are generated in Hong Kong. Hong Kong developed completely according to the style of the capitalism country, during the reign of Britain, although the majority of residents were Chinese, who are known for preserving their culture and traditions. The Chinese culture is not preserved in Hong Kong, hence there is no point in providing financial support to Hong Kong just for the culture’s sake. However, as it is a major financial and shopping hub, it attracts people from all over the world and it is a great source of revenue for the government. Hence, the government of China has to patronize it to maintain its importance.

However, while major cities are the resource of one country’s culture, the major part of population in many countries lives in villages. In cities, most people are doing salary-based jobs and in villages, most of the people are farmers. The government of a country has to take care of both the sides to keep balance in society. To construct major cities, the rural places should not be ignored.

The cultural traditions are the backbone of a nation and they should be preserved. However, major cities and rural areas should get equal attention from the governments.