A Brick
A Brick is the fifth book I have published, reflecting on the process of urbanization.
Preface
Ten years ago, my father told me over the phone that our ancestral tomb was about to be demolished and we needed to move to a cemetery further away on the mountain. Ten years later, when I went to worship my ancestors again, there were already high-rise buildings in front of the grave. I couldn’t help but wonder if I would face another migration in the future.
In the distance, the roar of excavators continued, destroying villages in the outskirts of the city, replaced by buildings with similar faces in a earthy yellow color. It could be seen that the intense collision of old bricks and tiles could not eliminate patterned thinking, and the unconscious was so deep. Some things might seem to disappear on the surface, but they could never be completely erased from a person’s heart. But when I realized this, I was already separated from that inexperienced electrician by an impassable brick wall.
I was born in the early 1970s, and at the age of 22, I ran away from the countryside with ideals to seek refuge with distant relatives who were developing in Ningbo. To help me integrate into this city, he introduced me to a master electrician, and from then on, I was intentionally or unintentionally pushed into the wave of urbanization construction.
I started as a construction worker, gradually rose to become a team leader, and eventually led a team of over a hundred people.
In the process of striving in the city, I have seen my ideals gradually materialize - however, in this rapidly changing era, not all ideals can be achieved smoothly.
After the epidemic, real estate projects began to collapse, and I faced unprecedented challenges. At one point, I was caught in a vortex of struggles, which forced me to make difficult choices and re-examine and explore my identity and positioning.
The process of urbanization is like a high-speed train, constantly refreshing the ruts of history, crushing me from familiar rural life to the edge of unfamiliar cities. As a generation that has not been completely baptized by agriculture and is no longer young, my identity is like a brick on a construction site, constantly dismantled, crushed, and reshaped in the changes of the times, and ultimately frozen in a reinforced concrete sandwich that is neither urban nor non-agricultural. As long as the building stands firm, it will always be “alive”.
I have worked hard to devote myself to urban construction work, eager to find my own place to stand. However, when the future I once longed for becomes hazy and uncertain, the unpredictability and uncertainty of the road ahead make me stop and try to open my eyes from the cracks.
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