FADE IN.
Act 1
INT. SITTING ROOM - 10:30
PETER is watching TV.
PETER (V.O.): Oh, today's 9/11.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): 20 years ago today, I came home and saw TV showing planes flown into twin towers.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): After wondering a short while whether it was drama, I realized that it was news.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Was this the prelude of a nuclear war? Would Hong Kong be under attack?
Recalling.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): That was what I experienced in Hong Kong - my individual memory.
Act 2
INT. SITTING ROOM - 15:00
Peter is watching TV.
PETER (V.O.): Learning something without first-hand experience, we've knowledge but not memory.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): If people like me have knowledge but not memory of 9/11, how can there be any "collective memory".
Thinking.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): But "collective memory" is often taken for granted or conveniently shaped by media or politicians.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): And there're anniversaries which highlight the events themselves.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): People and countries mark events in different periods eg the 10th or the 20th anniversaries, in different ways and for different purposes.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Then, there's the ritual of commemoration, conjuring deep regard to the history.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Commemoration attempts to transform historical facts eg like 9/11 into the so-called "collective memory".
Thinking.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): For those who didn't have the first-hand experience, commemoration is actually a tool to turn history into "memory", and from "individual memory" into "collective memory".
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Commemoration often has socio-political perspectives eg to achieve solidarity or identity, from local and national to regional and global.
Thinking.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Thus, in commemorative activities, people often talk more about the present than the past, as if they want to make "memory" into history.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Ideally, the more we know about the past, the better we're for the future.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): However, history doesn't speak for itself. History is subject to interpretation.
Thinking.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Interpreting the present meaning of history is based on certain value assumptions.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Different historians can look at the same historical facts or "memories" but arrive at very different interpretations.
Thinking.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Issues may also be reframed to suit certain civil and political, economic, social and cultural agendas.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I always think that the greatest lesson people can learn from history is that people never learn anything from history.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Throughout history, there're battles and wars - all because of the desire of people or countries for dominance.
Peter shrugs.
Act 3
INT. SITTING ROOM - 23:30
Peter and his WIFE have just ended skyping with their children.
PETER (V.O.): Most of the times, we don't know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): The best gifts aren't material stuff but the memories we had with loving people.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Hundreds of memories, thousands of feelings and millions of emotions make just one person.
It's already 9/12.
FADE OUT.
THE END
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