Beijing. Is there truly such a thing as an "urban village"?
北京。難道“城中村”真實存在？
Pockets of land turn inside out and back, are torn apart and sown again differently, unwanted elements dropped aside into obscurity. They morph from affluence, to dereliction, to cramped opportunity, to showpiece. Villages become suburbs become nothing. Well, not nothing, let’s say they’re “green”...
一小塊一小塊的地，像口袋一樣被從里到外翻轉再折回去，被拆開又用不同的方式縫起來，無人收拾的元素被忘卻。它們從富裕中現形，再走向衰落破敗、局促困頓，最后成為展品。村子變成城郊，變為虛無。嗯，也不是虛無，是一片“綠地”。
Names and functions change. In 1939, invaders discover quality clay deposits in the decayed dynasty’s hunting grounds east of the Ming wall. Dabeiyao (Big North Kiln) is built, both the oven and the community named after it. A section of Dabeiyao hurriedly fulfills the wartime purpose of a Huàshīyíng (bodies camp). When the war is over something less gloomy is due; its name (un)comfortably switches to Huàshíyíng (fossils camp). In their waves, its inhabitants accommodate each new local industry filling the grassroots workforce vacuum and feeding economic growth over the decades. Surviving all the way from the industrial period, to the construction period, to the digital age somehow without being swept under the tide of rapid gentrification, it is surrounded and outnumbered by glassy behemoths of really, really central (although not completely central).....business.
名字和功能隨著時間發生改變。1939年，在沒落王朝都城的城墻東邊，入侵者發現了優質細土。大北窯的歷史自此開始——既是描述當時最高的煙囪，也成為這一地區的代名詞。戰爭時期，大北窯的一小塊地被征用做“化尸營”；戰爭結束后，進入欣欣向榮的新時代，這個陰郁的名字被改為更得體的“化石營”。一波一波的浪潮，這里的居民是一批批隨著產業變遷而流動至此的務工人員，滋養著幾十年來的經濟發展。神奇的是，這一小塊地沒有被快速高檔化的浪潮淹沒，一路從工業時代、大建高樓時代，存活至信息時代，被高聳的玻璃巨獸包圍、壓制，處于核心商業的中央……
Truths, semi-realities, and fantasies follow:
如下，一些真實、半虛構、幻想：
Veil over the patchwork reality with facades, both glitzy and/or rustic, streamlining the fetishisation of rich cultural heritage and domesticated nature for commercial growth.
錯落有致的現實被浮華或質樸的外墻掩映，對古老的文化符號的迷戀和為商業發展而馴化的自然像流水線一樣批量生產。
All that sand is utterly useless when it’s just lying on the sea bed like that.
假如砂石只是靜靜躺在海床上，它們將毫無用處。
When it comes to finding both fortune and discarded tiles, their uncertain shapes, ceramic on ceramic, chance is a dance. There may not be many opportunities to crack out that jazz hand.
無論是求財致富，還是被遺棄的瓷磚，無定形，瓷片堆著瓷片，運氣是一場亂舞——不是每次都能甩出那別具一格的爵士手。
Bold moves are for the greater good. Although, along the way there might be some who are "cute without the e".
大膽的行動是為了更大的利益，雖然沿路一定有些被“割傷”的人。
Grey isn’t a shade, it’s a colour, a magnificent colour at that. It’s the colour of the bricks, or the tiles pretending to be bricks, and the cement that binds them. Though sometimes it must be fenced in behind far more shimmery glass surfaces.
灰，不是一個色度，是一種顏色，一種偉大的顏色。磚塊、想要成為磚塊的瓷磚、將兩者合為一體的水泥，都是灰色的。雖然有些時候，要把灰色囚禁在閃閃發光的玻璃表面之后。
It doesn’t matter whether brownfield land can become greenfield once again or not.
棄置的棕地能不能再一次變回自然的綠地，無關緊要了。
Yes, we still need your steel for this area. No, you can’t make it here anymore, move further out.
是的，這個地區仍然需要你的鋼材。不，你不能再在這里生產了，搬遠點。
If a corner is cut you may not find out what is really around it.
假如一個角落被切開，你可能再也無法看清它的原貌。
