During an outing in 2016, I rode a bicycle through the countryside northwest of Chengdu. Passing a small shop at one point, I found there was a musical score written on the outside of the door with the title "The Most Beautiful Red." The shop owner said that this place was called Huahong Village, and the score was the village song. The owner gave me a sample of the song that was playable on my phone.
The song showed me a romantic vision of the rapid development of the countryside. Just then, the sound of excavators came from a nearby construction site. One was a vision full of the ambition of development, and the other was a reality that could be seen and heard. A true hallucination!
In reality, villages across China are transforming into something else through the forces of urbanization. These scenes, particularly near the edges of cities, attract me constantly. I began to pay attention to the reality of the countryside northwest of Chengdu, but I also unconsciously used images to capture a vision similar to the song, "The Most Beautiful Red."
2016年的一次郊游,我骑自行车穿梭于成都西北一带的农村。途中经过一间小卖部,发现门口的外墙上贴着一张半开大小的乐谱,标题是《最美花红》。老板说,这个地方叫作“花红村”,印刷在乐谱上的词曲正是这座村的“村歌”。小卖部老板给了我一份“村歌”的小样,可以在手机上播放试听。这首歌向我展示了一幅乡村快速发展的浪漫愿景。正巧,当时不远处工地中传来挖掘机的阵阵轰鸣声。一个是愿景,一个是实景,亦真亦幻。在现实的实景里,中国的乡村正在被城市化进程塑造成另外一个模样。那些临近城市边缘,并正处于急剧变化中的乡村景象,吸引我不停前往。我开始关注成都西北一带的乡村实景,同时也不自觉地借影像谱写着与《最美花红》类似的愿景。