I haven’t been to Wuxi for a little more than two years and this past Wednesday I went there to visit an old customer. We started out from Changzhou early in the morning and before we left my driver was asking other drivers the way to our destination when in Wuxi. Unfortunately and predictably no one knew the way; sure, why would a Changzhou driver knows the way in Wuxi? When I found out what he was doing I assured him that I would know the way once we get off the highway at the right exit. He looked at me suspiciously but said nothing. After nearly an hour and before I could manage to see clearly for myself, our car had left the highway and came into a vast piece of flat land. Wide and straight roads crisscross each other vertically and horizontally dividing the land into large block of squares. Blocks near us were grown with weeds and fenced up with wire mesh but those far far away from us were already built with large and modern factory buildings. On our far right there was a huge honey-cone shape chimney; a power plant. All in all I was on the edge of a piece of strange land I had never set eyes before. When I was about to ask my driver where he is taking me, he turned around and looked at me sideway and asked: “Well, which direction should we go?” I told him I wouldn’t know because I had never been there before. He said no, you told me to get off at Wuxi East and this is Wuxi East. I said the hell it is, Wuxi East is filled with village houses and paddy fields, and this is just a big piece of flat industrial land. He then asked me when the last time I visited Wuxi was and I told him. He then said: “Sir, two years can change a lot of things in present day China and what you are seeing is some of the changes” and looked at me expectantly for direction. Knowing that I had lost the way as well as the game, I called my customer for him to send someone to lead us to his factory. The factory was the same as it had been, but had expanded into the adjacent blocks on both side and built with very modern buildings. My customer also took me to the factory across the road; another new and modern factory. It was his factory also but manufacturing a different kind of product. Sitting in his office looking out of the window, I could still see a few random village houses behind his factory and some scattered ones afar surviving in the gaps of those brand new factories. Other than that nothing else looked the same and the paddy fields were definitely gone. It was a bright sunny day and many of the new factories are in white or beige color. With their colorful roof the whole area looked clean, fresh and energetic. But somehow, a depressing feeling set in my heart; where had the tens of thousand farmers gone. Families of many of these farmers probably had been living on this land and in the same location farming those same fields for generations. Some of them could have been there for over one or even two thousand years. And in a short span of a little over two years they have disappeared to me. Perhaps they had been relocated, but where? Everywhere I go, there are new industrial parks built on farm lands. What is happening to their life, their social practices, their local folk tradition and their livelihood? 

I don’t know if I am over worrying. Changes is happening all over our country; drastic changes and I am worrying and deeply concern that these changes may uproot our tradition and culture that is, or WAS, buried deep in our old towns and villages and our folks. If this is inevitable for the sake of modernization, it could be a huge price to pay. Is there a better route to free our country from poverty, if poverty is the concern? Or is this the only way to modernization? Could we have our own brand of modernization, like what the Japanese did? By Daguan This morning the day was so fine. When I alighted from the city train, a beam of bright sun shine poured upon me. I walked towards the light, my heart beating in ecstasy. The road laid straight ahead of me, reaching far beyond. The air was so clear that I could see the end of it. There were flowers by the road side, red and yellow spots sticking out of the green leaves, all smiling. Slim trees lined up on both side, stretching their branches and twigs and waving with the breeze venturing through. Two or three birds jerked out in front of me, singing happily. I watched them landed on the top of a shooting bough, preening themselves so indulgently that totally ignored the steps of passers-by. Looking into the azure sky, I took a long, deep breath. “It’s so lucky I live on this earth!” I thought to myself. That was a piece of my good feelings that extends to the full day. Even now in the mid-night, when I am sitting before the computer doing my english writing exercise, the beauty of the scene still mesmerizing me. Whoever else on the earth wouldn’t imagine a life like this morning? Whoever else on the earth shouldn’t have the right to enjoy the every happy minute of their lives? My mind began wondering out. I thought of the forks in the country-side, very poor forks. Do they like a beautiful bright day? I thought of the people in Africa, do they know that it is nice to own a piece of oasis? My guess is yes, they all do. The way I felt myself, the way I felt them. I live in this world, they too. Let the Mother Earth give out her blessing to the people in every corner, not only a few. 

Letterbomb...hehe...where have all the riots gone?