Modern life

Author: Wang Anyi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-11-01
Features: Wang Anyi's modern life is her pen—it's also a way she expresses her love. She has just completed a collection of short and middle stories titled Modern Life, which includes 12 short stories and 3 middle stories. Wang Anyi, who never repeats herself, will bring us what kind of surprise this time? In the southern Zhejiang town of Nanxun, there are several famous clans that still stand tall with high walls and deep courtyards today, and Jide Bridge stands proudly. The Jiangnan region, with its emerald waters and people, still maintains a sense of strict order and discipline. Now, however, a new modern charm has emerged. The root of this lies in the new street, lined with countless fashion stores. The decor and displays resemble those of big cities, and the clothing follows the trends, with Korean styles being predominant, as well as Parisian ones. Over half of the operators are young and beautiful women, with foreign accents, showing no signs of shrinking away. This leads one to speculate that before the anti-prostitution crackdown, the nightly scenes of merriment might have been the lingering echoes of a more vibrant past. Closer to home, there was once a time in a new development area, under the towering modern material buildings, where I saw several young girls. They were heavily made up and wore revealing outfits. Under their mid-thigh-length camisoles, the arms that stretched out had thick, muscular arms from intense labor, and their backs showed the same shape—muscles wrapped around the shoulder blades. Their robust bodies, clad in the light, playful attire of the city streets, took on a distorted effect. Under the relentless compression of time on space, people also acquired new forms. Faces, shapes, and postures, pushed rapidly by the swift flow of time, transformed into something else. In turn, they changed the space. They coordinated each other in a tense way, dividing territory, and within this, there was an underlying intensity of conflict. This chaotic, strange appearance has evolved over time and will continue to evolve. Standing at a high vantage point, looking down at our city, towns, and fields, they seemed to be caught in a wild storm: disorderly and fragmented. All points, lines, surfaces, and blocks were undergoing sudden disintegration...