preface
The protagonist of the story is an ugly empty field. When the district library was built in 2010, the area looked like a rough cloth over the ground from the library window. Three sides of the building asphalt road, surrounded by residential buildings. The yellow field was dotted with green patches. No flowers, no fences. A man will only occasionally cross the middle if he takes a short cut. Nothing special, until the land, in a seemingly hopeless wait, finally comes to its construction year at the end of the year. I was able to write down a few of the stories that took place here and seem to be more than here.
1
Uncle Wu came to the lot at two o ‘clock in the afternoon, wearing a white sweatshirt and a western cowboy hat on his head, swaying slightly as he walked.
“You don’t have to help me,” he said. “I’m walking well.” In the afternoon to dusk, when he finished flying the kite, the sunflowers in the open field were all bright and golden. Uncle Wu picked up his kite in the sunflower field and shook himself to go home.
The plot of land that Uncle Wu used to visit covers nearly 20,000 square meters. Standing in the middle of the field, one could not hear the distant rumble of the driveway. People come and go here, rarely meeting people face to face, only flying insects stir their wings, and weeds grow shoulder to shoulder.
Occasionally, residents of the building would burn paper in the field during memorial ceremonies. The smoke rose from a point and drifted slowly up into the air. Other people who saw it would not go near to watch.
Other times, the child wanted to go to the center of the ground, the child’s grandmother on the back of the block, “there are big worms, don’t go to the inside.” Frightened, the child stopped running.
Sunflowers in an urban garden. (Photo: credit: Author) Sunflowers in an urban garden. (Photo: provided by the author)
The sanitation guards working in the surrounding gardens parked their bicycles at the corner of the land and rested against tree trunks. Not long after he had moved from the village near the town, he did not mind if his blue clothes rubbed up against the earth.
In the district government’s plan, the nearly 20,000 square meters of land adjacent to the library will be used to build a new district youth palace. The existing Juvenile Palace is located at a corner of a road in an old building. There were few activities and it was used as a stage for duet.
So at the legally prescribed time of commencement, something happens on the land. Digging the earth, putting up signs, checking the situation, the residents around to see. Lively did not want, then calm.
Over time, idle land becomes just an empty lot.
2
But Uncle Wu keeps flying kites on this ground. Whenever he did, there were people around to watch.
The retired uncle who comes to the fields to grow vegetables, the uncle who cuts newspapers in the library, the uncle who cleans the garden, plus me, are all friends of Uncle Wu.
Uncle Wu retired for 28 years. His great grandchildren all went to junior high school. He took to flying kites when he was young. In his earlier memory, kites were lightly oiled on thin paper on bamboo shelves. Later, I bought them with money. The most expensive one was nearly 100 yuan.
Uncle Wu spent so much time flying kites that he almost travelled all over the city, from the beach to the hillside park, from the small square in front of the residential building to the site to be built. Uncle Wu is tall, legs and feet sharp, the city on the bus, the area in the land before the construction of the surrounding, are to be built open space. The dust rises in the wind, but the kite flies.
Uncle Wu’s kite was flying so well that people looked up to see it.
“To fly a kite is to be happy.” Uncle Wu said.
Before his children moved, he lived in the old building where factory subsidies were distributed, and Mr. Wu sometimes returned to the park in the old building to watch acquaintances play poker. He chose a corner of the park to fly a kite, surrounded by a group of “old idlers”.
“Mix it up, mix it up.” Uncle Wu often said.
He flies a kite in a field, stands to fly it high in a steady wind, and sits to control the string in his hand. The long black bag was leaning against the tree, and Uncle Wu was holding the thread. The wheel was made of iron, and it was heavy to hold in the hand. The kite in the sky in the sky silent, on the ground uncle Wu year after year, but have seen many people.
Uncle Wu’s voice fell to the ground, out of sight of the weeds.
“I am old, have no matter of words, every day is to mix.”
“Just see how empty this place is, and how little time you spend there? Hang out, they’ll hang out.”
“People don’t mix.”
Uncle Wu is always on the tip of his tongue.
The planning and construction of the district has taken shape, and high-rise buildings have sprung up one after another. As Wu grew older, he fixed his eyes on the only vacant lot left around his house.
Some years ago he was surrounded by three uniformed men as he flew a kite at a construction site. The site was near the airport, and Wu’s kite had violated the rules. Three hundred meters up, his kite was a threat. He was told to stop flying the kite and get out of the clearing before the crowd of onlookers grew.
Uncle Wu left, but the matter stuck in my heart.
“I put high ah, they three to manage me.”
“I’m a long way from [the airport].”
“Better leave it here. Here they’re not coming.” Uncle Wu said, “Mix it up, mix it up.” I was about the same age as his granddaughter, and when I was amused, he said, “You have a long time. Don’t mess around.”
At the southeast corner of the clearing, the long kite line slowly rose.
Under Uncle Wu’s kite, swarms of sunflowers burst into golden waves. Uncle Wu had to hold on to the string until the kite was fully airborne. If you are not careful, the kite will be planted in the sunflower and weed over the head.
The nylon rope cut the flower, and the wild strength of the flower broke the kite. Uncle Wu walked into a sunflower in autumn looking for his kite.
And the sunset, the land in the gold, quietly.
3
Uncle Zhang wore glasses and spoke politely. After he retired from his job as a factory worker, he moved his family to the neighborhood. Unlike Uncle Wu, Uncle Zhang used to go to the library to read periodicals and newspapers without any special interests. He carefully collected health information, and occasionally jotted down one or two in a yellow leather lesson book.
Uncle Zhang was carrying a plastic bag from a training school when he went out. Inside were thermos cups, books and pens. The training school is now closed, but Uncle Zhang’s bag is in good use. After reading the newspaper in the library, he carried the bag to the vacant lot.
“Well, here we are.” The aunt of north side packing dish greets.
“Well, let’s see.” Uncle Zhang answered with his hands behind his back.
In autumn, Uncle Zhang stood in the field, the breeze gently stroking his face. He stood on the edge of his neighbor’s field, chatting with elderly people of similar age about family gossip and health insurance subsidies. Then he made a phone call:
“Hello, Xiao Wang is me, this curative effect is not obvious for six months… Can you make an exception and study it?”
Uncle Zhang was holding a magazine carefully in his hand as he spoke. The phone finally hung up with a few “Yes, yes”. Uncle Zhang handed the magazine to his neighbor and held it to me. Then with emotion said, “These years really have not eaten less ah.”
“This health care product, can’t be false?” I couldn’t help asking.
“No, they all do. One more. Look at this book. It’s very clear.”
Uncle Zhang is a careful man. The words on the coated paper were studied thoroughly, and they were no longer suspected. I’ve bought them all. The key is the effect. If it doesn’t work out, it’s good to study it as a special case.
“There is no end, no end to old people’s illnesses.”
Uncle Zhang nodded and smiled sadly as the neighbor in a straw hat said so.
4
Like Uncle Zhang, there are a lot of people planting vegetables on the vacant lot. Looking down from the library in early spring, as far as the eye can see, there are dozens of vegetable fields in horizontal and vertical stripes. But it is against the rules to grow vegetables, and the previous ones have been uprooted and bulldozed. But as long as this vast land is free, the neighborhood will patiently continue to plant.
In the early winter of last year, three bulldozing trucks were used to dig up the soil and remove all the sweet potatoes and melons planted in the fields. Since then, however, funding has been scarce and the youth Palace project has stalled. Three white warning signs were erected on the ground, with eight red letters reading, “No growing of vegetables in the land to be built.”
Vegetables from an urban garden. (Photo: courtesy of the author) Vegetables in an urban garden. (Photo: provided by the author)
But to the early spring, the vegetable fields suddenly increased. Warning signs forbidding the land had not been removed, but word had spread that farming was allowed. Say is teenager palace wants to build by the end of the year, this year is the last year that the ground is idle. Bird droppings fall on the edges of the boards, and the rain has not been able to wash away the red words, nor to completely wash away the mottled brown marks and thoughts of the human mind.
Retired people come here with the idea of growing something natural, like Uncle Zhang. Before this spring, it was only a few vegetable fields that I saw occasionally.
Weeds and sunflowers grow year after year, blocking the view in the middle of summer. People walking in the field, reach out to dial, or step out of the path, can always see the vegetable field. Sometimes the beanstalk climbs a sunflower’s pole, sometimes the flower lies on its side on the leaf.
Corn with high poles, melon vines with three-prong shelves, eggplant and chili standing on the ground, fresh clusters of cabbage and coriander, melons lying on the ground, and short and delicate soybeans. A row of green Onions, to sprout is a radish…
“The way to nourish one’s health is to feed one’s stomach and change one’s blood from the stomach.” “Said Uncle Zhang.
Uncle Zhang’s shirt was tucked into his pants and his sweat was over his glasses. He keeps an extra bottle of water in the bag he carries every day to keep his crops hydrated in times of drought. He kept on reading newspapers and taking notes, and went to his vegetable patch without saying much to his family. Then there were too many vegetable fields lying idle, and the family gradually learned about them.
“Didn’t you want to bring your family?”
“They weren’t called, and they were busy. I didn’t tell them much. I said exercise.” Uncle Zhang said, hands on the waist to ease the vertebra.
And the sun is high in the sun, Uncle Zhang’s green bean leaves, early to drink through the bottle of water, was wilted in the sun.
5
On the other end of the idle land, Aunt Wang is looking forward to a bumper harvest.
“In the sun, the dishes are all down again, finally not easy up point.” Aunt Wang repeated it to me in a luscious dialect. During this year’s drought, the cabbage in the vegetable field finally became fine. Standing when there was water, pressing one against the other when there was no water. Pressed into a piece of white and green, like a group of powerless imperial concubine, some subjugant without my taste.
Unlike most retirees, who have just started growing vegetables this year, Uncle Wang and Aunt Wang are the real experts at farming in The fields. Uncle Wang carried water from the two buckets, but they were full and could not spill the water. Wild mosquitoes stared at the man’s exposed arm, the skin is too thick for the weight of years, grass black mosquitoes can not bite. Wang smiled as he continued to carry water in his short-sleeved shorts.
Aunt wang and uncle Wang moved from their hometown to live with their son. They lived in the surrounding high-rise buildings and left the old house to their mother and brothers and sisters. Uncle Wang went to watch on duty the next day to supplement his savings, while Aunt Wang did the cooking at home.
For the rest of the time, they gave the land.
Day after day they came to water it, and as the sundial went on, they went on as before. It was too hot to waste any water, so Mrs. Wang watered the vegetables along with the roots as the old man had arranged.
Uncle Wang went to fetch water from the river where the land had not been filled in. The river channel has become a drain for the community’s commercial tenants. Uncle Wang carried out the water is cloudy, there are vegetables inside the leaves, floating out of the smell of washing powder.
“This water is not good.” Uncle Wang fanned his straw hat and his russet face was covered with beads of sweat.
Can also only so carry water to pour, the tap water of the home is precious, back and forth go up and down the building also laborious. Uncle Wang set out from his field, tramped out a road leading to the water supply in the weeds and sunflower.
Such vegetables grow out, pick when eat, need to wash for a long time. But with a lot of water to fight the drought, the land is actually saltier. In order to prevent residents from planting vegetables, the winter city shoveled snow poured here. The salt in the snow remover seeps into the soil.
The city roads are clean. “The land is bad,” Mr. Wang said.
With all my heart to keep these vegetables, I ate nothing, and went on buying vegetables in my life. Before Mrs. Wang went out to buy some food, she looked at the land first, leaning her head to avoid the pavement that blocked the path. She stood in the shade with her hands on her waist, looking at the crops she had planted, each plant joined into undulating pieces of beautiful green.
Looking at the green fields, Aunt Wang felt happy and picked some available green Onions. She went to the market to buy some vegetables in a happy mood.
The old man plucking vegetables. (Photo: Oriental IC for photo) the old man pulling vegetables. (Chart: Supplied by Oriental IC)
Drought, salt soil, dirty water, people drive. Any of the conditions can not catch up with the home of the field, not catch up with the ease of thousands of miles of fertile field.
“The land I come from is much better than this. You can grow anything. A pulp of soy bean with a pulp of melon… If it weren’t for our son, we would have gone back.”
“Did you mention it to your son?”
“Don’t mention it, just think about it. The children are busy.” Occasionally, Mrs. Wang would complain to her son that there were still people stealing vegetables from the vegetable fields and that the weather was too dry. “It’s all a small matter.”
Aunt Wang is small in stature, but always full of energy. From time to time in the house, she would look if any suspicious figure was on her ground. She went downstairs immediately to check on the situation.
Their daughter works in a factory in Guangzhou. Mrs. Wang receives phone calls from her daughter every day to confirm that she is in good condition. Sometimes Aunt Wang stood in the field and chatted with her daughter. Uncle Wang stopped carrying water and listened. The sound of insects was still heard in the field. The telephone sounded a little louder and came out of the receiver.
Say that all is well, the girl’s voice on the quiet field light around.
In the autumn, the harvest finally failed to take hold. Uncle Wang still went to fetch water, walking along the path where the sunflowers blossomed. Aunt Wang was picking dead leaves from eggplant plants in the field. The withered leaves in the field had not been cleaned when Uncle Wang came back from the sunflower bushes.
Aunt Wang looked forward to the harvest, but the eggplant was empty and tasted astringent. Edamame is flat, can’t touch a bean, can’t make a dish. The green Onions are growing well, but we still have them at home.
Instead of picking vegetables, she folded a handful of sunflowers and told me she was going to take them home and put them on the table.
“Just pinch it down, wouldn’t that look good?” Aunt Wang said with a smile in the sunflower.
6
Over time, idle land becomes more than just a piece of land.
From summer to early autumn, sunflowers bloom particularly luxuriantly. The vegetable fields grow and people come and go.
The construction of the Youth palace is about to begin. Vegetable fields, kites and sunflowers will no longer be found in this idle land. Old people go home and spend their days in peace and quiet.
Sunflower luxuriant, submerged drunk white warning signs. The little girl, brought by her grandmother, came here to pick flowers. Those who steal vegetables enter after night and leave footprints. Old people in the inside play spirit to live well, on the ground to do their own, by their own heart sutras, live their own compassion. Waiting for the vegetable field that was not there, and finally becoming a children’s paradise of hope.
Reference:
Formation Reason and Type Division of Idle Land by Tam Yongzhong
Peng Heqiang et al. “The Phenomenon of Urban Land lying idle and Cultivated Land lying idle — A Case Study of Beibei District, Chongqing”
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