"Oh you, what subway do you take without shoes?" Do you know who sits on the subway every day? The big people in Zhongnanhai: the president of the country, the prime minister, foreigners, all take the subway to work. Do you wear a torn plastic shoe for the Prime Minister to look at, is it an eyesore? Let the foreigner stare, chill is not chilling? We in the Beijing subway can't afford to lose this person, so there is a special shoe check at the door, and if you don't wear leather shoes, you won't let you in. ”
More than a decade ago, Zhang Tianyi first came to Beijing with her parents to see relatives, and the son of the relatives told her the rules of taking the subway: wear leather shoes. Over the years, this story became the opening anecdote of her essay "Iron Underground", which was included in the prose collection "Ink". In this article, Zhang Tianyi wrote about the subway appearance of Moscow, Paris, Beijing, Xi'an and other different cities, and wrote down various reverie about the subway.
"Ink" book cover
Recently, the surging news (www.thepaper.cn) interviewed the writer Zhang Tianyi, talking to her about the subways in various countries in the world, the habit of riding the subway and the strange things on the late-night subway.
Zhang Tianyi and Mr. Zhang like to guess what others are reading on the subway, and the two have "tactical" cooperation, and even design a response if she sees others reading her books. In Zhang Tianyi's view, the relationship between people and people on the transportation is forced to be very close, which will produce a sense of paradoxical intimacy, which is very subtle and embarrassing.
Zhang Tianyi
The Paper: In your article "Underground Rail", you talked about the subways of China, Japan, and the Soviet Union, and which cities in the world have you taken subways? What are the characteristics of the subway in different cities?
Zhang Tianyi: The purpose of subways in all countries is the same, that is, to transport people quickly, and in the subway, they are all hurried passers-by. Someone once mentioned that people on foreign subways are reading books, people on Chinese subways are not reading books, I think this is a comfort problem, foreign subways are very loose, Chinese subway people are crowded in cans like a cherry, at this time don't say reading books, watching a movie is very difficult.
I have been to Paris, Munich, Barcelona, the subways of these cities are more distinctive, intuitively there are very different places, it is automatic doors, no security check, passengers consciously buy tickets. Compared with the domestic subway, the cultural atmosphere in the subway of these cities is more messy, China's subway is clean and new, the breath of people, the traces are relatively small, the subway in these cities has a hundred years of history, and even can feel the emotions of people after the First World War. There will be a smell of urine, a homeless person, a graffiti in the subway station, and a mess of things painted on the car body, showing the appearance of no one to take care of and growing freely, but "rich" and "new" can only choose the same.
Paris Metro Line 1 Bastille Station
In 2017, there was a French movie "Goodbye from Heaven" that told the story of Paris veterans after World War I, and the film camera swept through the streets of Paris, and the subway station signs looked like branches, which was exactly the same as today's Paris subway station signs. The Paris Metro was built in the early 20th century, and in this film it will make people feel that she looks like 8 years old and 118 years old, just like a French woman, who will only increase her beautiful posture, but will not change her beauty. My favorite is also the Paris Metro, walking into the Paris Metro is like walking into a library of life, an exhibition hall, and you can feel that many invisible people leave that page of their lives here.
The symbol of the Paris Metro
The Paper: Now the subway stations in Beijing and Shanghai are also trying to be more cultural, such as Nanjing East Road Station in Shanghai, Yuanmingyuan Station in Beijing, etc. How do you view these efforts?
Zhang Tianyi: I feel good about this kind of effort and arrangement made by the subway station, because for foreign tourists, the subway station is the first attraction. Everyone who goes to the Yuanmingyuan and sees the relief of the Big Water Method inside the station is like the Yuanmingyuan coming to greet you in advance, like the opening of a movie. Beijing's Beitucheng Station is in the style of blue and white porcelain, and this design is also very beautiful. But the design style of the entire line is a bit unsympathetic, which seems to be the best done by Xi'an Metro.
I didn't quite understand these efforts made by subway stations before, and I felt that convenience in the subway was the most important thing, and it was better to build a few more women's toilets in the subway station, after all, beauty is secondary, first of all, to make people feel convenient and comfortable. The toilets on Line 1 of the Beijing subway are particularly few and difficult to find, and the ventilation is not good in summer, and the lights are not very bright, so there are unsatisfactory places. But Line 1 was the first to be built in Beijing, and if You look at Line 1 as a scenic spot, you will think that Line 1 has a different interesting place, which is quite cute.
Yuanmingyuan Station on the Beijing Subway
The Paper: What do you usually do on the subway?
Zhang Tianyi: When I go to the subway when I am particularly tired, I feel very numb, but this is already an inseparable part of life, so I began to learn to get along with the subway. I like to read mystery and detective novels on the subway, and sometimes when I read detective novels, I will think that if there is only one person living on the subway, who dies first, look at the subway, there is a love for Xiu En, in the detective novel, Xiu En Ai must die first; there is a noisy middle-aged woman at the other end, wow, she should die a second.
I also have a little hobby on the subway, which is to read books that other people are reading. There are not many people reading books in the subway, and I often walk from this carriage to that carriage to see if anyone is reading a book, and if someone is reading a book, I will stand next to him and see what book he is reading. I once wrote this as a novel "The Book Guesser", and the interest of writing about a boy is to guess other people's books, he never guessed wrong, only one girl's book he guessed wrong, and then they became lovers, they went to the subway, on the plane to guess other people's books.
I'm a fan of this myself, and my husband and I do this when we take the subway. He would help me, I looked at this end, he went around to see that he was taller, and he could see a few words from the book coming up to me and I knew, "Oh, this man is looking at Holmes." Some people will roll up the cover and can't see it, and he will go over and ask, "Hello, what time is it?" "As soon as the man's book was closed, I saw it. I can guess 60% of the books, because in the subway everyone likes to read the books are actually several, marriage and love, success studies, Chai Jing, Jiang Xun's books, in the subway are more popular. Girls will be more difficult to guess than boys, some read novels, poetry collections, and some read North Island, and men read more books like Ma Yun taught you ten tricks. Once a writer friend was particularly pleased to tell me: "I saw someone reading my book on the subway today, and I was red!" "I would also expect someone to read my book on the subway, and if I met, and I rehearsed silently in my mind, I would go over and say to him, 'This book looks good', and then he might say ,'This author is well written,' and I'd say to him,' and if he said, "No, no, no, this book is a waste of money, and I want to throw it away after reading it," then I'll go and I won't admit it.
I think there seem to be a lot of people with this fetish, I have encountered myself when reading books, and once I felt that there was a girl next to me who had been reading my books, so I closed the book on my knees and let her see the title of the book, and then I felt her breathe a sigh of relief. Sometimes I can't guess what the book is, and then the person who reads it gets out of the car and feels sorry. In particular, when you see some book covers that are still very beautiful, you will feel that you will never know or meet this book, just like meeting a very beautiful or handsome passerby, but the other party will soon leave.
The Paper: You mentioned in the article that the Beijing subway broadcast has always claimed that "begging and selling art" is strictly prohibited, but there are many artists in the Paris metro who seem to make the subway more cultural, and they are also selling art, what is the difference between this?
Zhang Tianyi: One is selling misery, and the other is selling art. I have not seen too miserable homeless people in Paris, and the homeless people who sell art on the Beijing subway will have extensive burns or physical disabilities. There are many people in Europe who can play musical instruments, and they may be poor in their families, and they will have a legacy from childhood, so the level of selling artists is not bad, so that you feel that he still has dignity and uses his own craftsmanship to exchange money.
Singers in the Barcelona metro
Surging News: Shared bicycles are popular, bicycles have become a topic of concern, you have warm memories in the article "Bicycle", in comparison, is the current shared bicycle an extension of the cold subway?
Zhang Tianyi: Shared bicycles are shared by everyone and do not belong to one person, so people seem to be unable to project feelings and time on them. But it is also possible that because sharing bicycles is a new thing, maybe after we use it for a few years, it will have feelings with people and become the memories of the next generation.
There are also many interesting phenomena around sharing bicycles, sometimes there is only one shared bicycle within a radius of several hundred meters, I will hear a lot of noise coming from behind on the street, in my mother's words, sharing bicycles "do not go out of the road", that is, it is very difficult to ride. My mother is in the university for the elderly, they have a school newspaper, there is a large page to teach the elderly how to learn to ride a shared bicycle step by step, there is a picture on it, the old lady who wrote the article rides on the shared bicycle, advocating that everyone should not be afraid of new things, we elderly people riding shared bicycles is also very cool. Another phenomenon is that I have seen people who go to the city to work may ride a shared bicycle for the first time, they like cars very much, and they will always ride with a bell all the way.
The Paper: There have been some writers who have written about transportation before, and the more famous ones like Alain De Botton wrote about the feeling of flying in "The Art of Travel". Did you read about public transportation when you were writing The Underground Iron and The Bicycle? Do you have any pieces that impressed you?
Zhang Tianyi: I didn't read these books in particular before, and I was afraid that my thoughts would be affected after reading them. WhiteHead had a copy of Underground Railroad, which I bought and never dared to read, only to find out later that it wasn't about the subway. Other works also have some impressions, such as Zhang Ailing's "Blockade", about a couple of men and women sitting on the tram, because this road is blocked, they began to talk, talking about marriage, the blockade was lifted, they returned to the previous world, what just happened was like a nap. There is also Márquez's "Sleeping Beauty Flight", the story takes place on the plane, the male protagonist likes the girl sitting next to him, but the girl has been sleeping, the man has been standing by and watching the girl, after the plane landed, the girl woke up and left. I was deeply touched because I also had a boyfriend who chatted in the car for a night, got out of the car, exchanged contact information, and later became a boyfriend. On the transportation, the relationship between people and people is forced to be very close, and the difference disappears at once, which will produce a sense of paradoxical intimacy, very subtle and awkward, and there is a very trance feeling. At that time, it was easy to develop a sense of dependence on someone who was sitting side by side and was interesting.