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The first city of Internet celebrities has never been a cultural desert

The first city of Internet celebrities has never been a cultural desert

The first city of Internet celebrities has never been a cultural desert

Author | Tunna

Edit | Yan Fei

Title map | Figureworm Creative

Start in a bookstore and return to public life

On a Sunday in mid-May, after several consecutive nights of rain, the summer season is approaching, which is the most comfortable season in Chongqing.

After 8 p.m., the sky darkened and crowds and traffic rushed to Chongqing's Ninth Street. The merchants along the street had already prepared drinks, and the waiters came in and out faster than the rhythm of DJ dance music in their ears. Since the expansion of the city to the north, the Yanghe Road area of Jiangbei has been transformed for many years and has become the new nightless center of Chongqing City, "Ninth Street".

The fourth village of Liyuchi, a few tens of meters away, is close to the edge of the "city that never sleeps" and has not yet been included in the commercial territory of Ninth Street. Thanks to relatively low rents, this old neighbourhood hides a number of stylized shops. Still, it's an area that most people won't set foot in.

The first city of Internet celebrities has never been a cultural desert

Night view of Chongqing Ninth Street. (Photo/Visual China)

The emergence of anonymous bookstores changed this old community. In the moss-streenled garden, young people stood in circles several times, and in the center of the crowd, an open-air debate was going on.

This is the first time that the "Bright Dialogue" series of debates has been moved to Chongqing and outdoors. The moderator of the debate was Zhang Ying, a lawyer who rushed from Chengdu, and the pros and cons debaters were from the temporary selection of the scene, and the theme of the debate was "my own life is already very painful, do you still care about social issues".

The debate was originally planned to be held in the bookstore, but the number of participants was much larger than expected, so it naturally spilled into the community garden in front of the bookstore - this scene reminded Zhang Ying of Athens, where Socrates was more than 2,000 years ago.

The first city of Internet celebrities has never been a cultural desert

(Photo: Anonymous Bookstore)

The "Bright Dialogue" debate takes its name from Xu's book of the same name, and his WeChat group announcement reads: "For a long time, we need to continue to learn how to listen, understand and respect others. Here, let us be civil, goodwill and restrained..."

Without a microphone, listening becomes more focused. Zhang Ying noticed the sound of water droplets falling on the ground, so she whispered to the crowd in a circle: "Did you find out?" When we are quiet, very small sounds can be heard. The scene fell silent, as if comprehending the sound of this sentence.

As the night grew darker, they returned to the bookstore out of concern for the volume. Nearly a hundred people remained at the scene, gathered in rooms of less than 20 square meters, standing, sitting, crowded into chairs, the floor, and the aisles. Those who could not enter the house leaned on the windowsill and pricked up their ears.

According to prior agreement, the specific content of the debate will remain in the memory of the participants of the evening. I can only reveal that people wept that night.

The first city of Internet celebrities has never been a cultural desert

People who can't squeeze into the bookstore gather around the window of the bookstore to listen. (Photo: Anonymous Bookstore)

The sentence that impressed me the most came from a middle school history teacher on site. In a speech on behalf of Zhengfang, she said to everyone with a deafening momentum: "Would you rather live in falsehood or in reality?" As long as you live in reality, open your eyes to the world! It's about caring about society! ”

Another debater said: "We may like people who are stronger, more alive, more combative, and I certainly appreciate those who are brave, but I think a good society, it should allow and accommodate people who may not be too mature, not too strong, it should allow us to appreciate the virtues of vulnerability." ”

As the debate drew to a close, many listeners who had intended to remain silent were aroused to express themselves. No one pays attention to winning or losing anymore, and many people even "change the flag" and rethink this debate. By midnight, most of the people left one after another, but there was still no shortage of voices at the scene.

The first city of Internet celebrities has never been a cultural desert

(Photo: Anonymous Bookstore)

Sociologist Habermas believes that the public sphere cannot be separated from private life, and the problems discussed in the public sphere often come from people's real feelings in private life, and consensus is always formed and expressed and mastered in communication. It is not important to use words and make sentences, and mutual understanding in communication is the real rationality.

Over the past two years, "bright conversations" have been staged in Chengdu over and over again, with organizers hoping to start a public conversation that is rational and sustainable.

Such a dialogue in Chongqing was the original intention of Anonymous Bookstore.

Sheddin is a former media personality and owner Moby who plans events at the bookstore all year round. When they started Anonymous Bookstore, they had a plan to provide a place where the public would have the opportunity to engage in serious discussions. The bookstore doesn't have to be too big, but it needs to be close to young people and close to the community. On the toilet door, six glass squares are pasted with six large words "Return to public life".

The first city of Internet celebrities has never been a cultural desert

(Photo: Photo by Li Yun)

On the toilet door of the bookstore, six glass squares are pasted with six large words "Return to public life".

Since the opening date of December 8, 2022, more than 30 events have been held here. Open to everyone, there is no charge, no reservations, and perhaps the only requirement is to "speak Mandarin as much as possible" — Sheding says the event is not just for local participants, and since you want to participate in public discussions, it's best to use a common language.

At an event, everyone talked about Hu Xinyu's suicide. A 19-year-old high school graduate shared a personal experience that left a deep impression on Moby. Later, she invited three students from the super middle school to talk about their high school life, which attracted many super high school teachers and rural teachers to participate. Moby was inspired to contact the teachers and talk about middle school from another side.

This kind of idea of "catching people" on the spot allows anonymous bookstores without any activity funds to always find sharing guests, and also makes the boundaries of the participants in the event continue to expand.

When there were no guests, the bookstore screened the film, and Li Wei, a young director based in Chongqing, was responsible for helping them choose the film. The first season is called "Whose Three Gorges", and four documentaries related to the Three Gorges are shown, which also echo the city where it is located. After the lockdown was lifted, Southeast Asia has once again become a popular overseas travel destination, but many people know little about Southeast Asia except for the perspective of tourists, so the selection of films for the second season also closely revolves around the theme of "Southeast Asia".

Many people who come to the anonymous bookstore will describe it as "an oasis in the cultural desert". Although people have different understandings of public life, and some people don't even know what "public life" is, it doesn't seem to matter.

After a long period of the pandemic, perhaps dialogue and exchanges between people and the little cultural space that has grown in the city are an increasingly important public life.

A city's spiritual specialties

Chongqing, where the adjective prefix has been increased from 3D, 5D to 8D, and the appeal of the city itself is beyond doubt. Countless people have made it a graduation destination, and a very small number of them have set their trip to Chongqing as a "check-in point" in a small office building in an office building.

It was the studio of the independent publishing brand Bydeya, located in the red earth of Chongqing's Jiangbei District. This small book-making workshop, because it published a series of books on philosophy and humanities and social sciences such as Žižek, Nietzsche, Lyotard, Lacan, Foucault, Levinas and other philosophies and social sciences regardless of the trend, has become the "light of Chongqing" in the hearts of many readers, and is also laughed at by the industry as "Chongqing's spiritual specialties".

The first city of Internet celebrities has never been a cultural desert

(Photo/Photo by New Weekly)

Baideya's editor told me that a high school student in Kaili, Guizhou, read the book published by Baideya, chose the philosophy department of Taiyuan University, and made a special trip to Baideya's office this year for a "pilgrimage"...

Originally a brand of Chongqing University Press, Baideya was taken from the transliteration of the ancient Greek word "παιδεία" (Paideia), which means the ideal education provided by the ancient Greek city-state for citizens, and Lan Jiang, a professor of philosophy at Nanjing University, translated it as "Baideya" and edited the "Humanities Series" under the Bydeya brand.

In 2017, in order to gain greater freedom, Zou Rong and Ren Xujun decided to set up their own portals, separate the Bydeya series from Chongqing University Press, and set up the Bydeya Book Studio to continue to introduce and publish books that seem unpopular and difficult. In 2020, 25-year-old Liang Jingyi finished studying history from Germany and returned to her hometown of Chongqing to join Baydeya. In her first year, she surprised the two seniors with a list of 45 topics. In 2022, another partner working remotely from Nanjing joined the team.

The first city of Internet celebrities has never been a cultural desert

(Photo/Douban Station)

Some of the books published by Bydeya.

Real and vivid interaction is a big motivation for Bedja's book.

At a book market, a young man who had bought "Don't Ask Me What Is Hip Hop 1" came to inquire about the progress of the sequel. Taking this opportunity, Ren Xujun recommended books about Foucault and Agamben to him.

Another time, a lady with small children came to Bedya's stall and asked them to recommend a book. Ren Xujun recommended Lyotard's "Alien Knowledge", but muttered in his heart: If it is a fragmented reading, will this book be too difficult? Unexpectedly, after a while, this mother came back to thank Ren Xujun, saying that this book inspired her a lot. Ren Xujun was pleasantly surprised that a philosophy book that was difficult to understand in the editor's opinion could also meet the right readers.

The first city of Internet celebrities has never been a cultural desert

Alien Knowledge, by Jean-François Lyotard, translated by Zhou Hui, Bydey Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing, 2022-3

But in the face of the affection expressed by readers, they are very cautious. Recently, the gender scandal in the publishing industry has led them to think about halo and power, and when asked if they think their work has the power to change others, they do not hesitate to deny: "Trying to change or shape others is a very dangerous and false idea." The idea itself is influential, but when the book is made, the practitioner has to pull himself a little farther away. ”

From the perspective of geographical coordinates, Baideya, which is rooted in Chongqing, is also "pulling a little farther" either intentionally or unintentionally.

For Zou Rong, a native of Chongqing, the diet and climate of his hometown shape a person, and those "stubborn places" in Chongqing remain with him, and he will not be able to adapt to other places.

For Ren Xujun, although he has no special feelings for the region, working in Chongqing is still a good choice: the three editors on duty are all from the Sichuan-Chongqing region, and the low rent greatly reduces the cost of starting or living here; The ease of access to the Internet and transportation largely offsets the barriers to working from a distance. At the same time, although Chongqing's cultural industry is relatively weak, practitioners rarely have the opportunity to communicate with their peers, but they also save time and energy spent on interpersonal relationships. Being isolated from the "center" and "circle" avoids distractions and allows you to focus more on the matter at hand.

All in all, in this familiar second-tier city, Bydeya's editors have achieved a harmonious integration of work rhythm, lifestyle and attitude to life.

The first city of Internet celebrities has never been a cultural desert

(Photo/Figureworm Creative)

In Chongqing, Bydeya's editors have achieved a harmonious integration of work rhythm, lifestyle and attitude to life.

At 5 p.m., the editors left work on time and went their separate ways to the city. Ren Xujun and I took Rail Line 6, crossed the Bisejialing River, which had not yet risen at high tide, from Hongdi Station to Xiaoshizi Station, and walked towards the Blade Book Tavern on Wuyi Road in Jiefangbei.

Blade Book Tavern is one of Chongqing's well-known literary landmarks. When we arrived, the boss, Jiang Lingzheng, was chatting with his friends in the book industry, Liu Ao and Nie Wenshuai, and the poet Velvet Fall, who "flashed" to Chongqing.

"Over the years, some well-educated young people have begun to flee the north and return to their hometowns, bringing a new vitality to the city. Although Chongqing's cultural atmosphere is far less than that of Chengdu, the good news is that there is still mobility. Mobility is a very important thing, and flow will produce various needs. Regardless of people or thoughts, solidification and singularity are terrible. Flow is a feast. ”

"Originally, culture, the word means farming, now is the stage of planting seeds... Chongqing requires people from all walks of life and all kinds of people willing to do many small things, to fill in many gaps and details, in order to complete the final puzzle piece by piece. ”

The first city of Internet celebrities has never been a cultural desert

At the "Night Banquet" scene, people listened attentively to the guests sharing their experiences. (Photo/Blade Book Tavern Video Number)

Jiang Ling is an old acquaintance of Ren Xujun, who has always tried to find a balance between independence and business. After doing a reading club at the Blade Book Tavern for several years, he decided to change the reading club to a longer-term reading plan, signing up for a year, drawing up his own book list, and taking everyone to read and discuss together. He wanted to establish longer-term communication and understanding with the people who attended the book club.

At the Liberation Monument at night, the smell of hot pot and alcohol wafts in the air. The cultural workers around me talked about the anecdotes of their hometown: the "Taiping Bridge", which was rebuilt every year and washed down every year, the TV series "The Long Season" and the writer Ginter, the real horror story of the village...

At 12 midnight, the bell not far away rings in the rain, the bookstore has closed, the music in the house is playing, and Velvet Fall is pacing while reading poetry:

"Small exercises to lower the tone, small exercises to listen / Occasionally to be the other / Occasionally, more unfortunate than the unfortunate / Small exercises ..."

The first city of Internet celebrities has never been a cultural desert

Late at night, the poet Velvet died reading poems to his friends at the Blade Book Tavern. (Photo: Photo by Jiang Ling)

The vitality and helplessness of the "art factory"

Compared with the plain areas of the Sichuan Basin, Chongqing people living in the mountains are accustomed to finding a way to survive in the rush, and the "leisure" is far less than that of Chengdu next door.

Perhaps time is squeezed too much by survival, and chronic tension and scarcity have exacerbated residents' sense of public culture. There is no shortage of outstanding writers and artists, but there are not a few decent salons or exhibitions throughout the year.

In contrast to the barrenness of culture is the lively city life. As a result, the most vocal prodigals and the most cynical critics, sometimes parallel and sometimes staggered, haunt the same hot pot restaurant in the same district of the same city.

Huangjueping, the residence of the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts (hereinafter referred to as "Chuanmei"), is a haunt of strange people. Here, colorful graffiti spreads around the main street, covering building facades, shop roller shutters and roadside telephone poles, hence the nickname "Graffiti Street" by locals. Before becoming an Internet celebrity check-in place, Huangjueping was a "literary enclave" in Chongqing, exuding a temperament that was incompatible with the entire city.

The first city of Internet celebrities has never been a cultural desert

The traffic teahouse in Huangjueping is widely favored by tourists. (Photo/Photo by New Weekly)

Li Yifan, who grew up in Huangjueping, entered the public eye because of the out-of-circle documentary "Kill Matt, I Love You". His mother was a literature teacher at Chuanmei, and later, he went to study at the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing, and then went to Guangzhou to work, and finally returned to Huangjueping and entered the "art factory" of Chuanmei as an oil painting teacher.

"Art Factory" is Li Yifan's metaphor. He said that here, like the industrial city of Chongqing, the factory continues to produce art and culture, as well as artists. But what is produced, this place does not need and does not welcome, but it continues to flow out.

Kawanami's system has produced groups of outstanding students, but under the reputation of being too large, almost all resources from top to bottom are tilted within the system, and wild artists who break away from this framework can hardly compete for nutrients, and can only survive in the cracks.

Once, Li Yifan met a French university classmate on a plane, who was already a cultural official in Paris. She told me that there are more than 200 performances a day in Paris – and the French know very well that culture is a fishing thing, the equivalent of earthworms, to attract fish. And Chongqing is forcing earthworms to give birth to more small earthworms, and it is best to lay eggs. "I like Chongqing, but I didn't make a penny in Chongqing." Over the years, the best of them, including my best students, are long gone. ”

As for returning home, Li Yifan's reasons are also very strong: "The division of mountains and rivers, the intertwined urban-rural relationship, the multi-core urban form, the extreme weather... Chongqing is very different from other places, in fact, it has the force of creation. ”

The first city of Internet celebrities has never been a cultural desert

(Photo/Visual China)

In April 1939, American journalist Bai Xiude came to Chongqing, which was the wartime capital of the capital. He later wrote in the book: "In the first few weeks of my arrival in Chongqing, I was so fascinated by the city that I had forgotten my work and ambitions. ”

Corresponding to nature is the magical energy of the city, and Chongqing is good at nurturing absurd stories. In 2015, Hua Weicheng, a native of Hunan who teaches at Chongqing University, walked into the foreigner street and met his "muse", the homeless man Sun Zhiguo.

Chongqing Foreign Street is a nonsensical magical paradise suitable for all ages. Pyramids, Jesus statues, UFOs, haunted houses, crude parodies and whimsical postmodernist installations fill a generation of Chongqing people with weekend moments more fantastical than dreams. In Hua Weicheng's eyes, the foreigner street is a condensed version of Chongqing, like a big hot pot, where everything rolls.

On the blue swing of the foreigner street, Hua Weicheng met Sun Zhiguo, who looked dirty. Like the Greek gods, this homeless man was half-topless and chanting some confusing words in his mouth. Hua Weicheng's gaze follows Sun Zhiguo, integrating his vision of the foreigner street into his creations.

The first city of Internet celebrities has never been a cultural desert

(Photo/Little Red Book @ Hua Weicheng)

Hua Weicheng's foreigner street under the lens. In 2019, the foreigner street was officially demolished and moved from marbles to Fuling, far from the main urban area, and Sun Zhiguo, the "emperor of the foreigner street", also began to "go into exile". At the end of 2022, Hua Weicheng's documentary "Farewell to the Divine Amusement Park" filmed around the foreigner street and Sun Zhiguo was shortlisted for the Amsterdam Film Festival.

Hua Weicheng's photographic works about the foreigner street, in the Ji · Haus Space on display. Founded by artist Yang Shu and curator Ni Kun, this art space has been hosting exhibitions large and small for the past 17 years, and has become a starting point for many young artists.

Unfortunately, under the idea of the factory, art is always produced while being codified. Nowadays, the utensils of Huangjueping · The Haus space has also become a memory. When I met Ni Kun, he was wearing a T-shirt with the words "Virtue and Art" printed on it, and he told me that he was able to do so. The original site of Haus Space will be commercially developed and transformed into a kind of creative park, and the new site in Beibei has not yet been completed.

I didn't meet Yang Shu, it is said that he was busy hiding in the "illegal construction" to paint - Yang Shu's personal studio was converted from a parking lot, and he has been at peace with residents all these years, but he did not expect that during the epidemic, there was a conflict between residents and properties, and his studio became a victim. Now, residents near the parking lot spontaneously patrol and report that he is afraid to turn on the lights, so he can only secretly paint in the studio in the broad daylight.

Back to the community

Scholar Zhou Lin said that Chongqing's rivers and lakes have drift and scarcity, but also vitality and a certain degree of freedom.

"Specifically, rivers and lakes represent both wandering, turbulent, atomized individuals, want, roughness, recklessness, cruelty, creativity, vitality, tolerance, pluralism, uninhibitedness, and a certain degree of freedom, and in essence, rivers and lakes are a social space and social rules that exist among grassroots people, between wild and domesticated, and coexisting with formal institutions."

The ancestors of Chongqing, who did not admit defeat, had the blood of struggle flowing in their bodies. To a large extent, survival is fighting with the sky, the earth, and people – the resilient rivers and lakes are the living space that generations of Chongqing residents have competed for. Many practices of public space are hidden in the city's patchwork layout.

The first city of Internet celebrities has never been a cultural desert

(Photo/Screenshot of the TV series "The Last Stick")

In 2007, Liu Jinghuo, a teacher from Chuanmei, opened a Himalayan bookstore in Huangjueping Graffiti Street. Ten years later, the bookstore moved to a freezer, close to the surrounding kindergartens, secondary schools, universities and vocational schools. When I went to the bookstore to look for Liu Jinghuo, it was just after school time, and students and neighbors passed by from time to time to greet Liu Jinghuo.

Saying that it is a bookstore, the Himalayas bookstore does not sell books at all, nor does it have any commercial attributes. It's more like a public library, with free access to books and desks for those who wish to read. A small space connects the past and the future: first, the place where the bookstore is located was once one of the former sites of China Radio International during the Anti-Japanese War and a hub point for global information; Second, many books from the family of the deceased master, and the service targets are mainly students of all ages, starting from this small bookstore and going to the wider world.

The first city of Internet celebrities has never been a cultural desert

(Photo/Photo by New Weekly)

Himalayan Bookstore after relocation. When talking about the collection of books collected and the children who went out, Liu Jing lived like a treasure.

The Junge Library, also in Huangjueping, was filled with old geographical and historical books and materials from various districts of Chongqing in the bomb shelter. Today, it serves as an urban tourism promotion and community public space. The boss Gou Jun spends most of his time in the book house, and every week he will pay out of his own pocket to ask someone to give everyone a commentary, and residents living in the surrounding area will come to listen to it when they have time.

In the Nan'an district, young couples Xiaomo and Liangzi open their "house" (Chongqing for "home"). They plan events, cook, and even open up their living rooms and bedrooms when they travel, turning their "roof" into the "roof" of many people.

Various spontaneous attempts have sprung up, in the opposite direction of urban expansion, scattered in old neighborhoods and residential buildings, and single-handedly constructing the public life of the surrounding areas.

The first city of Internet celebrities has never been a cultural desert

Fog Reading Bookstore

Three years of new crown lockdown left too many unspeakable pains, perhaps the fatigue after the initial recovery from a serious illness, people who could not afford to go out, chose to go back - leaving the upward climb and inward rolling north to the broad and deep, abandoning the exhausting racing track, people in second-tier cities began to try to take root downward and spread outward.

There will always be pressure, and these efforts to rebuild your life require a firm heart and a certain economic foundation. When asked about their long-term plans, most space operators said they were not very confident in what they were doing. They just carry the ethereal and indifferent of the children of the rivers and lakes, "as long as they can do."

Before the idea of the anonymous bookstore took shape, Moby and Xie Ding went to ask Li Yifan's opinion. Li Yifan was very supportive, telling them that they could succeed. Later, when I asked Li Yifan if he saw hope in public life in Chongqing, he smiled and said, "No, I don't know, I just want to promote this." ”

Li Yifan said that he is now a role to fulfill others: "Whoever wants to do space, bookstore, and dialogue, I will definitely go to the scene." ”

The first city of Internet celebrities has never been a cultural desert

(Photo: Anonymous Bookstore)

At the end of 2022, Li Yifan was a guest in 706 Chongqing Youth Space and Anonymous Bookstore, chatting for hours.

Chongqing, like its map outline, is a microcosm of China. Thanks to the municipality's 80,000 square kilometers and population of 30 million, Chongqing's jurisdictions have been sending talents to the main city for many years – young people with ambition, energy and a sense of hometown that form the city's multicultural source. At the same time, with the rapid development of the economy, the difference between urban and rural areas has become increasingly prominent, as a public activity of social exchange, a present, public and serious dialogue, it is extremely urgent and necessary.

I grew up in Chongqing, and for the most part, the urge to leave was one of the driving forces behind my life. This time, after wandering in Chongqing as an observer for 10 days, I finally surrendered, admitting that I was tempted to go home:

In this super city that does not believe in eternity, the closest thing to eternity is only change and contradiction; It hugs everyone randomly and equally, and with each reunion, you have the opportunity to relive the surprise of the first meeting.

1.The Power of the Powerless, Vaclav Havel

2. Bright Dialogue: Eighteen Lectures on Public Reasoning, Xu Ben, CITIC Press

3. How did the publishing "small workshop" that started with the two become the "light of Chongqing publishing"? , Li Jing, publisher magazine

4. In Search of History: A Journalist and His 20th Century, Bai Xiude, CITIC Press

5. The UFO picked up the emperor of the foreigner street, Lao Gu, BIE and others

6. Zhou Lin: Chongqing's rivers and lakes have drift and scarcity, but also vitality and a certain degree of freedom

Proofreader: Lai Xiaoni

Operation: Ono

Typesetting: Wen Wenqing

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