Wu Jun "Writing Embedded in Life"

My classmate came from Yunnan yesterday. When I saw her sitting opposite me, selflessly sending WeChat messages and constantly answering the phone, I had quietly made a decision. I thought that soon I would send a message that hinted at her that such things were impolite. In addition to education, I also I want to tell her that she should cherish it a hundred times since I, a person with social phobia and autism, can go out to eat. But after we each drank a bottle of beer, I changed my mind, because after she put down the phone, she told me that she was bankrupt, divorced, and now alone, traveling on various rights protection roads.

In the late 1990s, when she met me with a mobile phone in hand and calfskin shoes on her feet, she pointed in the direction of Xinyijia Department Store and told me that that area was a project of her own home, I was in a daze. We no longer have the same language as her. At that time, I probably didn’t even realize how shabby I was.

Now, where did these arrogant rich people hide in those days, retreating to the mountains and forests, or do they stand at the forefront of the times and dominate the world?

I remember that after "Seventeen Miles" was published, some people had objections to the novel, thinking that it was obviously not credible how a rich man could appear in twenty years.

However, if he has lived in Shenzhen, he will understand that many people's lives may undergo great changes in twenty years or even less time. It may only take a short time to complete a reincarnation from wealth to abjection. All it takes is a wrong decision, a momentary movement of a finger, and a wandering mind. Examples abound and it’s a piece of cake.

I have begun to like nostalgia. In the past, I missed my hometown, but now I miss Shenzhen.

In 1997, I was still a radio reporter. For a period of time, I went in and out of the famous labor village every day. As a famous tourist attraction, Labor Village receives thousands of visitors every day. The Mazda car of the village committee secretary parked arrogantly in front of the luxurious village committee door. Uniform housing, uniform decoration, and even the confused eyes of the villagers in the labor village are unified. The villagers of the fishing village in the past did not know what was happening in the outside world, and no one told them what this sudden life meant. Not long ago, when I passed by there again, I saw the dilapidation and depression there. Gangxia, Caiwuwei, and Baishizhou have all become urban villages with a mixture of fish and dragons. The former aboriginal scenery is no longer good, and the former provincial people have begun to live a good life. Of course, there are also farmers who cannot enter the city and their hometowns that they cannot return to. Most of them are from other counties who are as at a loss as me, with gaudy clothes and mixed expressions. Even though they have lived in Shenzhen for a long time, their spirits are still wandering on the long-distance bus between their hometown and Shenzhen. In the dream, they didn't know they were guests. When they fought for delicious food and fine clothes for themselves and their families, they sacrificed their entire youth and all their enthusiasm.

In the millennium, I witnessed the urbanization of rural areas in Shenzhen, land exchange for social security, renovation and illegal construction, rice seedling incident, soaring housing prices, Shenzhen and Hong Kong, indigenous people and people from other provinces, exchange of advantages, Wage arrears, the asylum system, the implementation of new labor laws, administrative barriers inside and outside customs, the ratio of men to women, the sequelae of immigration, etc. The various tastes of Shenzhen people have captured my eyes and my heart, and they have become so rich that I feel uncomfortable writing about them. This piece of land, where the beauty of China and the pain of China have been glued to forty years of reform and opening up, affects the nerves of the whole of China all the time.

I know that if it were not for writing, I would not be able to cast my eyes there, to the people outside my life. I would not be able to intersect with their lives, let alone follow this city so closely. The pulse of the city beats together, the blood is boiling, the love and hate are intertwined, and it digs into people's hearts and refuses to stop. I never thought that this special city would bring the same people and stories, so I never had the anxiety of lack of subject matter.

I hope to continue to embed China’s most active people and the metropolis they created into my writing, and use stories to connect the secret history of Shenzhen people’s souls. And this is my motivation.