(2022-2023)
Howling river is a letter i wrote to my beloved hometown and this age of uncertainty.
The howl of excavators resonates throughout this riverside town. To the west of this town, a project called Western Land and Sea New Corridor is in full swing. Aiming to connect the Silk Road Economic Belt, this corridor will open up the trade exchanges between Western China and ASEAN. My hometown, Baise, is included in this corridor as one of the sites, and it is the first time for this town to connect with a national cross-regional development project. The elderly in town are saying this corridor might connect to this town's future.
However, It won't be the future for local young people. By the time this corridor generates enough revenue for this town, the soaring unemployment and the dispirited living environment will already be enough to force them to lose all their optimism.
In the past three years, the COVID-19 epidemic made this town lose all its vigor overnight. The economic downturn has brought to the surface all the issues once obscured by the illusion of development. Malls are being closed down; the previously crowded People's Park is becoming deserted; abandoned concrete blocks and overgrown lots are reflecting the bursting of the real estate bubble, and the unpaid salaries of civil servants are reminding the depletion of the civil treasuries; issues of aging population, wealth disparity, and pollution are also further aggravated.