Hometown 家乡故里

My hometown is a classic town in southern China. I remember when I was in elementary school, the town was surrounded by water and featured mostly two story southern style houses. Along the narrow streets were many shops and markets where groceries, clothes, fresh food and fruits were traded. In the early morning, I often was woke up by the noise from people selling vegetables, steamed buns, soybean milk, congee, Youtiao, etc. on the main street (my house is only one house away from the street). Almost everyone or every family knew each other, because they had been living here for many generations. This ordinary town in Southern China was the birthplace of many extraordinary people including Daxueshi (prime minister equivalent) and successful businessman in Qing dynasty. Their residencies are kept as original as possible ( I know not). The town remained literally unchanged until I went to college. But every year since then when I came back to see my parents, I always found something different. So much has changed in the past 30 years that I couldn’t even recognize it for what it was. However, the street were widened at the cost of disappearance of rivers. It is especially disturbing that typical southern-style houses are gradually replaced by modern buildings and apartments. Sometimes I get confused about what my hometown should look like. Because of this, I took some pictures of the town, hoping to keep the last moments of this old town, so that my childhood memories don’t fade away over time.

These photos are not taken at the same time and not in the order of the year when photo was taken.

我的家乡是中国南方的一个经典小镇。记得上小学的时候，小镇曾是四面环水，有的是南方风格两层楼的房子。商店和市场多座落在狭窄的街道两边，在那里买卖杂货、衣服、新鲜食品和水果。清晨，我常常被大街上卖菜、包子、豆浆、粥、油条玉田等的人吵醒（我家离街只隔一排屋子）。几乎每个人或每个家庭都互相认识，因为他们世代生活在这里。这座中国南方的普通小镇，曾是清朝大学士等许多杰出人物或名人的诞生地。他们的住所尽可能保持着原始状态（但我知道不是）。在我上大学之前，这个小镇几乎没有改变。但从那以后，每年回来看望父母，我总能发现一些不一样的东西。过去20年，变化如此之大，以至于我都认不出它的本来面目了。但是，街道的拓宽是以河流消失为代价的。尤其令人不爽 的是典型的南方风格的房屋逐渐被现代建筑和公寓所取代。有时我对我的家乡应该是什么样子感到困惑。因为如此，我拍了一些小镇的照片，希望能留住这座老城区的最后一刻，让我的童年记忆不会随着时间的流逝而褪色。

这些照片不是同时拍摄的，也不是按照照片拍摄年份的顺序拍摄的。