Introduction to "County Floating World"
This is a panoramic and realistic group portrait feature focusing on a contemporary small town in central China. It uses an ordinary county town beside rivers and lakes as a microcosm to describe the ups and downs and desperate situations of millions of ordinary people in small towns.
Under the tide of the times, the county has already fallen into structural collapse: industrial parks are deserted, manufacturing has withdrawn, the construction industry has stalled, and unfinished real estate has sealed the city's depression; offline entities are struggling to support themselves, and profits are being siphoned off by Internet platforms, making it difficult to get rich through hard work. The population continues to flow out in one direction, and young people are forced to leave or stay behind to accept their fate, and their homeland becomes a gentle siege.
The novel uses ten life clues in parallel, connecting young people who fled, left-behind migrant workers, unemployed middle-aged people, merchants in the market, grassroots institutions, married men and women, entrepreneurs who returned home, etc. It describes the true ecology of the county: low wages are solidified, favors override rules, social circles lock up the class, acquaintances and public opinion are internally divided, the educational class is solidified, and marriages are compromised.
There is no counterattack drama, no chicken soup redemption. Everyone is struggling to survive on a land with no increment, and is repeatedly pulled between stability and hopelessness, persistence and escape, compromise and unwillingness.
The ups and downs of all living beings are the epitome of the times. It tells the story of the decline of contemporary county towns, and also writes about the ordinary and stubbornness of a generation trapped in their hometown and traveling to mountains and seas.
