Library

A thirty-year-old office worker moved out of the busy city and lived in the suburban town of Chedundun. From then on, he commuted by train. He walked in the fields on weekends, watching clouds, flowers, animals, and people. Chedun Town is located outside Shanghai's Outer Ring Road and on the edge of Songjiang District. One word "Dun" is earthy and silly, two words "Dun" is a bit cute, so "I", along with people who also love bird watching, affectionately call it "Chedundun". It is very close to the city, and the pace of development is always approaching; but it also seems to be abandoned by the city, leaving many hidden corners. There are hoopoes, egrets, deer, raccoon dogs, rabbits, water towers, sluices, and small huts; 114 species of visible birds and 93 species of olfactory wild flowers. "I" observe everything with my eyes and measure the world around me with my feet, determined to patrol and explore the 16 villages in Chedundun like a wild dog. At first, "I" only looked at birds, not much else, let alone people. Gradually, I started to see what the birds eat, where they live, and what they do. Start with birds, and gradually also look at insects, flowers, sky, water, trains, and boats. As time goes by, I find that everything can be observed. The bird is no longer an independent observation object, but a small corner of a huge whole. Human beings are an integral part of this and are no longer excluded. So "I" started to look at people again. Spring, summer, autumn and winter, the four seasons come and go. "I" experienced decline and growth together with the flowers, birds, fish, insects, village roads and rivers here, and wrote a hundred observation notes for it. This is not a "fresh and peaceful" pastoral book. "My" rural life is not that convenient, and sometimes even looks gray and weird. Others think "ugh - sloppy!", But I feel - free. I originally wanted to live like a wild dog, running wild and barking in the fields, but I found that the "dog" got up, and I truly became a "person".