The "White House" here is not an accurate title. The milky white outer wall, the crown shaped dome and the triangular lintel with Collins stone columns are typical symbols of the outstanding representative of neoclassicism architecture "the United States Capitol" from ancient Greece and Rome. But most Chinese people can't tell the difference between the White House and Capitol Hill. They generally call such buildings "White House". This phenomenon is thought-provoking. The vague understanding of the United States seems to exist widely in the hearts of ordinary Chinese people.

The "White House" is probably the most imitated building in China. Government buildings at all levels, court buildings, company buildings, schools, hospitals, hotels and private villas can see the shadow of the "White House", which is spectacular. These buildings were all built in the nearly 40 years since China's reform and opening up, reflecting how the Chinese people who suddenly face the world imagine power and wealth in the era of reform and opening up after opening the door to the world. The United States is undoubtedly an important source of this imagination.

Obviously, at this time, the "White House" has evolved into a simple symbol, carrying many complex and subtle emotions such as people's ideal of the rule of law, power imagination, cultural yearning and wealth longing. It constitutes a kaleidoscope of the image of the "White House". It is a cultural phenomenon that is inclusive and absorbing, but also lacks subjectivity and cultural cognition. From this image to the "White House" style buildings standing all over China, it has become an empirical evidence of the great collision and integration of Chinese and Western cultures since China's reform and opening up. From this point of view, they seem to be special "monuments".

Since July 2019, I have been traveling all over China and visited more than 100 such "White House" style buildings. I hope to keep a complete image file for these "monuments" as far as possible, so as to remember a distant era.