Morning at the wet market, and poems on Douyin
Outside the Fifth Ring Road in Beijing, at six o'clock in the morning, the morning market is already bustling. There was a fried dough stick stall with white smoke coming out of the front. Lao Li Tou wore an apron stained with oil, and his hands flipped the fried dough sticks in the pot very quickly. He placed his mobile phone in the middle of the condiment bottles and was broadcasting live directly in front of the oil pan. He said, "Family members, keep an eye on it. The oil temperature is the key. If it makes a sizzling sound, the day will turn brighter." Several small red hearts floated across the screen. Lao Li glanced at them, then continued frying his fried dough sticks. The man who was queuing next to him said with a smile: "Lao Li has become an Internet celebrity now." Lao Li waved his head and said: "You can't even be considered an Internet celebrity. It's just to let everyone see how we ordinary people live."
This kind of scene can awaken those academic terms that are in dispute. For example, "aestheticizing daily life", for ordinary people, means taking a photo of the sunset while shopping for groceries and sending it to Moments with the text "Today's clouds are like marshmallows." Aunt Wang, who lives in Yangpu District, Shanghai, always picks up her grandson from school on time at four o'clock every afternoon. On the way, she will definitely pass by an Internet celebrity wall, where young people are lining up to take pictures. Aunt Wang couldn't understand those gestures, but she noticed that the Lingxiao flower in the corner was blooming in good condition, so she took out her mobile phone and took a picture. When she got home, she sent it to her family and said, "Look, this is a real flower, better than the one painted on the wall."
The art gallery in the living room and the fireworks on the mobile phone
In an urban village in Guangzhou, Xiao Zhang rented a house, which was only 12 square meters. However, he hung a painting above his bed. The painting was a reproduction of Monet bought on Taobao. He said that the painting cost 30 yuan to post, and it made his heart brighter. His roommate’s wall has what’s called an inspirational slogan, which says that if you don’t move bricks hard today, your status will be unstable tomorrow. There are two young people with two ways of decoration, both of which are looking for some spiritual breathing holes for themselves in this cramped space. Xiao Zhang said, "Taking aesthetics as an example, when I get home after get off work and look at this painting, I feel that life is not just about working overtime and sleeping."
First, on Yulin Road in Chengdu, Zhao Lei's song made the street popular. Now, at the entrance of the tavern here, young people hold up their mobile phones to take pictures every day, in order to look for the shadows in the songs. The owner of the vegetable stall next to him has long been accustomed to these people, "Let them take pictures, and I will run the business of my own stall. In the past few years, people would come to me and ask me, 'Do you feel sad?', and I would reply that I am sad. Today, pea tips cost five yuan a pound." A group of tourists laughed at what the boss said, and then everyone dispersed with smiles, and then continued to explore the literary and artistic atmosphere in the alley.
This is the current Chinese city. Aesthetics no longer exists alone in art galleries. It is scattered in the soy milk in the morning market, it is bent in the bedside paintings in urban villages, and it is embedded in everyone's mobile phone lens. Inside the Nanjing Pioneer Bookstore, there were still people reading books quietly, but more people came in, first looking for the cross to take pictures, and then left in a hurry. Store clerk Xiao Liu said: "If you take a photo, you have been to the bookstore and read the book. Young people want to comfort themselves. Our bookstore can survive only by relying on these people who come to check in and buy a cup of coffee and a postcard. Only then can we sell those truly valuable books."
Days in internet celebrity stores and new trends in the county
In the age of consumption, everything is leveled. The young people in the county are using the same TikTok videos, following the same dramas as those in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, and yearning for the same life. Xiao Chen, whose hometown is Henan, discovered that the newly opened shopping malls in the county are no different from those in Zhengzhou. The first floor is full of gold shops and cosmetics, while the fourth floor is full of dining areas. Each one is decorated with a so-called "style" than the other. Last week, a hot pot shop opened, and a check-in wall was specially built at the door, which said "I miss you in XX". A group of little girls lined up to take pictures. My cousin said that if you don't take a picture and send it to your friends, then the meal will be in vain.
However, some things have not changed. After taking the photo, the cousin dragged Xiao Chen to eat at a roadside stall. "That shop looks really nice, but it doesn't feel good when you eat it." The lady owner of the roadside stall knew about her cousin and gave her two extra spoons of chili. The two squatted on the edge of the road, eating and sweating. My cousin took out her mobile phone, took a picture of the greasy little table, and sent a message to her circle of friends: "The old place is still the most fragrant." In the picture, the neon sign in the distance is flashing, and nearby, the eye-catching orange-yellow fried noodles are steaming. The two lights are mixed together, and no one can tell them apart.
If you are not a local, please listen carefully. How can locals go to a place like Hubu Lane in Wuhan today? However, foreign tourists packed the place to the brim and it was almost packed. The masters of hot-dry noodles work there, making hundreds of bowls of hot-dry noodles a day. The series of movements on their hands already show a mechanized tendency, but even under such circumstances, they will still give a thumbs up when facing the camera. There are also words like "Come here, give me a smile, and wish you a happy eating experience in Wuhan." In the back of the alley, there is an artist engaged in portrait painting guarding his own stall. As a result, there is no such thing as opening for a long time. This is what he said: "Who would choose to draw this nowadays, because now when you take a picture with your mobile phone, everything you want is already there." My craft is about to become the so-called intangible cultural heritage. He smiled with a self-deprecating expression, and then lowered his head to look at his mobile phone. Displayed on the screen of his mobile phone was also an instructional video about painting.
Living a life is a science in itself
There are some academic debates, such as "aestheticization of daily life" or "aestheticization of daily life", which seem a little distant in the days of ordinary people. The logic of ordinary people's lives is quite simple: they need to live a comfortable and comfortable life, and they also need to have some fun and meaning. In Xi'an's Huimin Street, there is an old man who sells rice cakes. He keeps his stall clean and tidy, and arranges the red dates in a neat and orderly manner, which makes people appetite just by looking at them. Asked why they were arranged so neatly, the uncle said: "Because it looks good, it looks pleasing to the eye, and it tastes delicious when eaten. I have been in the business of selling rice cakes for 40 years, and this is what I pay attention to."
Hongya Cave in Chongqing is full of bright lights like the world of Spirited Away. However, local Chongqing people who know it know that the most beautiful scenery is not in the places where people check in, but in the old residential buildings next to it. When evening comes, the aroma of food will waft out of every house. There are a lot of clothes drying on the balcony. Some people will come out to collect and sort the clothes, while others are standing by the window talking on the phone. Such real and lively everyday things, together with the landscapes decorated with lights, combine to form this urban area. A local photography enthusiast said, "What you take pictures are all for tourists to see, but what I take are smoked bacon hanging on the balcony and old men playing chess in the alley. These are the essence and soul of Chongqing."
Life is like this. It not only exists in the present, but also has poetry and distance. It's just that today's poetry and distance are stored between mobile phone screens, placed in the decoration of shopping malls, and posted on the walls of rental houses. Wen Heyou from Changsha moved all the streets and alleys of old Changsha into the shopping mall. The old windows, old signboards, and dilapidated corridors have become the most popular photo backgrounds. Young people who come here rely on the mall's pricing to experience the atmosphere of the old days. A young mother who came with her children said: "Show my son what the place where his mother lived when he was a child was like."
At the end of the day, no one can teach anyone else how to get by. Those concepts that scholars have repeatedly argued about have become trivial in life. What really matters is the alarm clock that rings every morning, the pound of pork in the market, the bowl of noodles on the way to get off work, the endless messages on your mobile phone, and the content on Moments that you want to post but hesitate to post. Aesthetic or not, life has to be spent day by day. It’s just that in these days, I don’t know when, there are more shooting scenes, more image effects, and more appearances in other people’s eyes. But fortunately, life is ultimately yours, and you can decide how you want to live it. Just like the old man who fried fried dough sticks there, after finishing the live broadcast, he put away the shelf, wiped his hands clean, then picked up a freshly fried fried dough stick, took a bite, and then said to his wife: "The heat is just right today, you can try it too."
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