A country to go back to, a city to stay in.

As the year is approaching, the "What's Page" in just a few minutes miraculously snatched away the "Spring Festival travel rush craze" and took the lead in arousing the feelings that people in this land have been brewing for a whole year.

In the words of news reports, "this is amazing."

However, I forgot the wonderful comments of film critics, sociologists, economists and scholars, and forgot the doubts and appreciation, criticism and cheers of countless netizens. What impressed me in just a few minutes was only my life.

-life between the city and the countryside.

0 1

I have lived for fifteen years, out of the natural countryside and wandering in the bustling city.

Fifteen years, I can't tell whether it was infinitely compressed in the torrent of the development of the times, or because more and more sophisticated time measuring instruments and countless entertainments developed in this rushing modern society eventually passed away in obscurity.

In other words, after 15 years, you can still leave something behind.

The summer of 2003 became an important footnote in my life. That summer, my grandmother took my fledgling brother and me on a green leather train full of sweat of ordinary working people and all kinds of instant noodles, left my hometown in Guangxi and came to a city in northern Zhejiang. Before that, grandma and dad had laid the foundation here.

Accurately speaking, they found a temporary foothold and a relatively stable job in the countryside on the edge of the city. At that time, I didn't understand why they had to walk thousands of miles from one village to another, but they still worked hard.

It took me some time to understand that the two can't be equated at all.

Villages and towns on the edge of prosperous cities can at least let people enjoy the most fruitful results of economic development through urban and rural public transport, commodity flow and policy radiation, and also let them connect to the wider outside world more quickly.

My hometown, which is 0/800km away from the richest coastal area in China, is obviously not one of them.

02

The most irreversible thing is the times.

Over the past decades, urbanization has evolved at a high speed, and pieces of yellow land have been swallowed up by high-rise buildings of reinforced concrete with lightning speed, and modern metropolises comparable to those of the international community are scrambling to build them.

There is no doubt that this is a dazzling achievement; However, the theory of speed only exposes the problem more thoroughly-this is highlighted by the fact that the binary opposition between urban and rural areas has become a topic that has been repeatedly voiced from experts and scholars to ordinary people.

When "Spring Festival travel rush fever" becomes the largest periodic migration in human history, we may be able to understand how many people have become vagrants at a loss in such an era of drastic changes.

It seems more worthwhile to talk about people like me who took root in the countryside for a short time in childhood, but suddenly changed their life scenes to cities during the critical growth process.

To some extent, rational futurists must hope that people like us will take on the role of adhesive between urban and rural areas. But they often ignore the fact that it may take us vagrants a long time to get out of confusion and hesitation and start to rebuild ourselves.

Needless to say, how can we find a simple and consistent "belief"-or something similar-when we become more and more fanatical and confused between the bizarre urban culture and the alienated rural culture.

I still remember the first time I went home. It was the summer vacation of junior one. It was six years after I left home that I finally set foot on the land where I was born again.

To tell the truth, memories are sometimes beautiful, perhaps just because it is a memory. The wonderful things in your memory, after being ruthlessly washed by time, may get endless disappointment compared with reality.

That's what happened to me then. How many fields and country roads in Shan Ye bear my initial impression of the world and my purest childhood fantasy, but when I come back six years later, I am lost in the summer sunshine that has remained for many years.

That's the local accent that I gradually don't understand; It is older and smaller streets and villages; That is an old house that has been abandoned for a long time and is gradually in disrepair.

The yellow-skinned fruit trees in the yard are more old, and some unwashed fruits are hung among the sparse leaves, which slowly wither in the hot sun.

Different from when I was young, now I am enjoying the most vigorous vitality in my life, and I can easily jump back and forth on the fruit trees. In the following years, I have been troubled by such a problem-

The countryside, really can't go back?

03

If I had been fully integrated into the life of this city at that time, it would be nothing but a complete change. It seems that this "transformation" is called "betrayal".

But unfortunately, adapting to the city and bidding farewell to the countryside is often difficult in entanglement and complexity.

The real protagonist behind What's Page-the little boy who finally received the hardcore punk-style Page toy made by his grandfather himself, his blinking eyes seemed to announce a fact-he will certainly not suffer from entanglement and wandering in the future.

Neither will his grandfather. Because the gray-bearded grandfather has completely projected his sense of survival on the rural land, even if the urban civilization has already exposed the fangs of invasion, even if the vicissitudes of life have intensified for decades, the barrier of mountains and the tempering of traditional life rhythm have enabled him to cope with all this freely.

Perhaps the only thing that bothers him is the occasional call signal when dialing from the mountain.

Only the father in the film is willing to bear the helplessness between the city and the countryside for the so-called "family" and "survival".

After finishing primary school and junior high school, I successfully entered the high school there and officially went to study in the city.

Finally, the last ten kilometers away from modern civilized life have also been eliminated. I am completely naked in the bustling, noisy, dazzling and indifferent city center without any protection.

It is not easy for a child with rural consciousness in his bones to adapt to the city and the society of strangers in a rapidly changing environment.

Of course, the gradual integration with urban civilization is gradually accumulated from many firsts-the first time I went to KTV, the first time I visited a large shopping mall, and the first time I went to KFC. I used to touch a whole new world carefully.

The unparalleled light show of modern human civilization in the city is dazzling and exciting.

How many people flock to it.

Because, for most "urban-rural sandwich people", even if they have been at a loss for a long time, they are more willing to use the gift of urban civilization to solve this problem.

The more prosperous a city is, the more prosperous it is. The mystery here lies in people. Therefore, in the past two years, the "war of grabbing people" between big cities in China has intensified-they hope to attract and assimilate people who come out of villages and towns or even small cities, thus siphoning more economic resources and development opportunities.

It is true that in the stranger society of modern cities, indifference, fast pace and infatuation have become the norm, but compared with rural areas, people find that they can get more opportunities, and it is not an idiotic dream to mix people with real talents and learning.

There is no romance in big cities, only competition, cruel competition. For young people who are increasingly advocating self-worth, freedom and ideals, this is precisely the advantage of the city over the countryside and the county.

After all, the latter is a frog boiled in warm water, while the former embraces freedom and tolerance, and it is also a declining and colorful river. Even if there are all kinds of ups and downs, even if they are trapped in this concrete forest for a long time, people know that this is everything they should bear.

04

Facts have proved this.

I read an article not long ago, and my hometown (calculated by city level) ranks in the top ten in the list of regions with the largest net outflow of population. Although I was deeply moved, this statistical result didn't surprise me.

More and more people choose to leave the countryside and go to a wider city to pursue more tangible things.

Every time I go back for the New Year, it should be regarded as the most abstinent period of my year.

The nearest Internet cafes and banks in our village are all eight kilometers away, and it takes at least twenty minutes by battery car.

So far, there are no cultural and recreational facilities in the village. During the Chinese New Year, everyone just goes door to door, but the most lively thing is playing cards and gambling-gambling culture is still growing wildly in rural areas of China;

An inter-village basketball match was held a year or two ago, but it was soon stopped. The only basketball court in several nearby villages-a small cement yard-was quickly filled with ruins. After that, it should be a long time since I heard the happy click of basketball hollow into the net.

People who have been wandering between the city and the countryside for a long time, that is, the so-called "urban-rural sandwich", drag big bags and small bags on the local train every Spring Festival, and finally return to the land they call "hometown" after ten or twenty hours' driving and endless reversing and running.

What they didn't realize, however, was that in this reciprocating process, they were unconsciously alienated, bringing the impetuousness and materialism of the city back to the original natural and simple countryside.

A little thing has impressed me so far. One Spring Festival, I really panicked and bought a picture book online. A few days later, my uncle sent me a package at the entrance of the village on a tricycle. He said you could be a boy. I went to more than a dozen villages in Fiona Fang to deliver goods, and I have never seen anyone buy books.

Looking at his simple face, strong body and capable work style (when chatting with me, he didn't forget to dial the phone in his hand), there is no doubt that this uncle has been a courier in the village for at least a year, maybe longer. But he only sent this book, or I bought this little book on impulse.

I don't want to flaunt anything through this incident, but I just stated a simple but worrying fact-the cultural soil in rural areas may be barren beyond our imagination.

If we have to make an exception, we may still talk about the Chinese New Year. The custom of New Year in China.

05

Everyone says that there is no atmosphere in the city for the New Year-if it is counted as the gorgeous and boring "Spring Festival Evening" every year.

So everyone has an infinite yearning for the "Year" in rural areas.

For me, every year when I go back for the New Year, I can feel a sense of destiny, but I have to admit that the taste of the New Year that I can feel is limited.

On the one hand, people of the older generation have died one after another, and some traditional things have not been passed down after all. On the other hand, people who work in big cities always rush to the train and go home by bus before New Year's Eve, so they don't have much strength to go through all kinds of red tape, so the local folk customs are gradually alienated and the sense of ceremony for the New Year is also reduced.

But after all, there are still some things that are the most important in China's traditional culture in the countryside. After all, it is difficult to completely erase the traces of thousands of years.

Every year, the bell rings at twelve o'clock on New Year's Eve, and countless fireworks suddenly bloom in the silent night sky. I got up, left my mobile phone behind, and followed ABBA to the big banyan tree with a history of nearly a hundred years at the entrance of the village.

People from several surrounding villages also left home at this time; Everyone took the whole chicken, pork, fruit, wine, firecrackers, gold ingots and incense sticks, and their younger generation to attend the indispensable ceremony at midnight.

That old banyan tree is said to have been planted by an ancestor named Tan. Under the overgrown branches and leaves of the banyan tree is his grave, which we call the "social grave".

In fact, the "social grave" is not a very luxurious grave. At best, it can only be said to be a small mound surrounded by bushes. But at the important moment of opening a new year, people choose to worship him devoutly.

That night, under the bright night sky reflected by fireworks, I looked around at people standing on their knees, and firecrackers were exploding in my ears; In the flickering candlelight, I seem to see the meticulous rituals and sacrifices in the old society, and at the same time feel a sacred and profound significance.

It was the time of the year when I thought it was the Spring Festival and I was full of imagination for the future.

This is what the city can't give me after all.

06

In the city, I am a rootless duckweed. I have no history and no spirit. I can only face this "profit-oriented market world".

Back in the countryside, even though I have been away for a long time and my memory is vague, this land can still give me a great touch at some special moments.

What a distant and rich memory it is. This memory belongs not only to me, but to all the people who were born and raised here but left their hometown.

How many people struggle to stay in big cities, just for the infinite glory of returning to their hometown.

The times are developing and history is advancing.

It must be noted that under the general trend of national economic development, rural life is getting better and better; Even if it is washed away by the trend of the times, there is always tranquility, beauty and simplicity in the countryside that are almost extinct in the city.

It's never too late for the prodigal son to return.

Personally (I believe I'm not the only one who has this idea), even if I will live and struggle in the city for a long time in the future, I may return to that old house in the country when I am too old to walk.

It can't be called an old house exactly, because just last year, when my parents got married, the cement-soil wall mixed house built in the early 1990 s had been completely demolished.

On the original site, a three-and-a-half-story, modern gray cement house has sprung up-the facade is completely paved with cement, and there is no decoration at all-such houses can be seen everywhere in the plains of my hometown.

They are built along the highway, flashing between the green hills and the quietly flowing rivers, connecting people who speak the same vernacular and eat the same rice in this land and water.

This is the city's feedback to the countryside. This is also the rural commitment to urban survival.

07

Does the city have any symptoms in the crazy wave of urbanization? Yes, traffic jams, environmental pollution, population expansion and mental crisis. ...

Is there a dull pain in the countryside? Yes, agriculture is dying, the population is flowing out, and left-behind children. ...

Everyone yearns for rural life, but the convenient and rich modern life makes people reluctant to go. Under the two functions, it is a cup of bitter coffee mixed with nostalgia and obsession of not leaving the big city.

Scholars who believe in "anti-urbanization" advocate that people should return to the countryside; Urologists believe that the city is the first minister to promote the process of people's civilization.

I can't tell who is good or bad. But I understand that less than a few years ago, no one forced farmers to enter the city, and now no one forced people like me who had received higher education in the city to return to the countryside.

In the times, we always have a certain degree of autonomy.

In fact, when a sustainable and efficient economic system has not been established in rural areas, it is irresponsible to drive farmers back to the countryside blindly and ask them to revive rural culture, which is not conducive to the increase of the well-being of the whole society.

Similarly, now college students want to go back to the countryside, to the frontier, and to help the poor in the countryside. Apart from helping some aspiring young people to relive the fanatical "false belief" era decades ago, we can't even take care of ourselves properly and live with dignity in this world.

Everyone is pursuing a better life. But it takes wisdom and tenacity.

I am still very grateful to my grandmother. At that time, because of the policy problems of the college entrance examination in different places, I was almost forced to go back to my hometown in Guangxi after finishing junior high school.

But grandma insisted that I stay in Zhejiang.

"Everything is inferior, only reading is high." As the lowest education in the family, my grandmother knows this truth better than anyone else. She suffered too much from illiteracy and not reading.

She doesn't know many big and high-end truths. She didn't say, son, study hard, work hard for building socialist modernization in an all-round way and strive for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. No, how much can a rural woman know to rise to the national level?

She just thinks that I, her son, have learned more knowledge in a more open and free city and can live a more stable life in the future.

It's unrealistic to just reach the sky in one step or make an amazing leap. What most people can do is to move forward step by step.

What my grandmother and more mothers in this 9.6 million square kilometers land don't know is that their simple and firm ideas will be the ultimate solution to the above problems.

All down-to-earth, hard-working people receive complicated information from this huge world, are encouraged, or consciously and spontaneously, study hard, do things seriously and live seriously.

When the wings are full, some people choose to return. Go back to my hometown to run an academy, teach and do something called "feedback". They have truly established the principle that they believe in life, and they are free and determined to do what they could not and dared not do when they were young.

In such a gratifying situation, what binary opposition between urban and rural areas, what lack of faith, what ecstasy, what loss, in the final analysis, is just a humble passer-by in the long river.

This city, we can stay; We can go back to the countryside.

To all those who have been or are or will be wandering in foreign countries and cities.

It's done.

I wrote it as I walked,

Minxi

20 19. 1.23

This article first appeared in the text of the official account of WeChat.