Who Am I?
Maybe I am an Escapist
I was born and growing up in Wuhan, a gigantic city upon the Yangtze River, which is divided by two huge rivers into three districts. The population of Wuhan is as big as the population of entire Minnesota but it is only as big as the Twin Cities area. Feeling lost in the crowds is the most common sense you are going to get in ï¼·uhan - there are just so many people everywhere cramped, rushed and stuffed. I remembered when I was little, my family hasn't got a car. So every time when we are going out, we have to call it a "journey" - the whole city transit system could confuse a intelligent economist like my mother. I would always be worried about getting lost in those days. The crowd of innumerable people truly scared me like a monster. As a matter of fact, people, even sophisticated Wuhanese get lost in transportation, all kinds of places within Wuhan due to the chaotic urban plan. The situation is much harsher than the Tokyo in Lost in Translation.
Maybe it is the the hustle and bustle of Wuhan that shapes Wuhan citizens' temper - Wuhaneses are famous for being easily irritable. The other part is, the strong sense of getting lost in Wuhan also has given birth to many artists, poets, underground filmmakers, sentimentalists and of course, illegal arty movie-DVD dealers. My father is one of the "arty" people, who is an installation artist and smokes five packs of cigarettes every day. He is never happy and my mother says she thought that was my father's charm. Throughout my adolescence, Wuhan provides me more sentimentalism than optimism or maybe I was deeply influenced by my father. Unlike when I was little, I was not afraid but got sick of the rushy crowd in Wuhan. Many times, I would lock myself in my room, blocking out the real world - indeed, I was anti-society as a young adolescent.
The whole city rolls like a permanent mechanic rotation and that frightened me.
Definitely, I am a Naturalist?
"Morning, Wuhan" taken by me in 2006
Wuhan is a city of blaze and glaze. In the summer, it is like a gigantic steamer, in which millions of people are burned with the temperature of 100 F. As the extremely hot weather last for the entire summer, Wuhaneses' bad temper could be worse. People tend to hide in there air-conditioned room and everyone becomes irascible. It is also a season of crime and rapists because too many impulses have no place to release.
When the summer comes, I would flee away. I know Wuhan's summer has the power to change a person's temper. And, summer is the only chance for me to get away from the city scene. But unfortunately, I was still remained some rushy and short-tempered side in me, which emerges out when I feel hot or anxious. For many years, I have been seeking ways to clam me down and eventually I found God.
Chutian Golden Paper 2006-08-05
Failing in stealing, a thirteen-year-old girl set fire to classmate's flat, Xiao Qian (an anonym), a thirteen-year-old girl, copied the house key of her classmate, LinYu (an anonym) and stole in the flat many times. On April first, Xiao Qian entered into Lin's flat again and stole nothing. Getting irritated, she actually set fire to the bedroom. Yesterday, the two families came to terms. Xiao Qian's family paid Lin Yu's family ï¿¥30,000.
When it comes to Wuhan' winter, everything is doomed to die and the weather will be cruelly cold. People say, the winter of Wuhan is the season of mythicism. I'm pretty sure that the mythicism of the winter in Wuhan comes from millions of massacres from ancient time till WWII. Wuhan used to be a huge burial site, where tons and tons of dead people were buried. When I was little, mother always warned me about ghosts and spirit might appear suddenly and I was once in deep fear. Later, I grow up to be a skeptical person and I still respect ghosts.
"Wuhan, winter" taken by me
My City Forced Me to Hear Absurd Stories
Absurd Story 1:
2006-12-31
A young girl drowned in Yangtze River Bank
A young girl walked slowly into the Yangtze river at Dadikou, 6:30 p.m. last night. And she's already drowned when people found her. The reporters were soon on the scene after the accident. She looked about seventeen years old. Subsequently, the policemen found out cellphone and keys from the body. At present, the identity of the dead and the cause of death are under investigation.
Absurd Story 2:
2007-01-19
A scientist's statue sawed in Wuhan Optical Valley Square
Three masked men were found sawing the famous mathematician, Li Guoping's statue in Wuhan Optical Valley Square at 3:00 a.m. yesterday. The security man went to stop them and was wounded by the steel tube but the statue's left hand and the equation in its hand have been sawed off. Soon, other security men came to help and the three men fled away.
Absurd Story 3:
2006-8-15
Alike in face, Unlike in weight
It’s hardly to tell apart the twin sisters at first sight for they are alike in face but unlike in weight. One is plump while the other is slim. This startling change dates from March when the younger sister was sent to Beijing for two-month advanced study. She took Paiyousu diet pills and lost 14 kg in the staying.
Honestly, part of me enjoy reading these ridiculous stories, almost like jokes for me. Being absurd, weird and ridiculous might be an obvious cultural characteristic of Wuhanese. I used to feel horrible about these nonsense things but later I figured the satirical meaning and the propaganda context in them. Then being weird and satirical becomes my quote and life philosophy that I should not and could not do pretend to believe or compromise. I have to be sharp, tough and conscious. Do art, but not for art's sake; being weird, but not for weirdo's sake.
