Da Jing (both volumes sold together)

The View

Director Zhang Zanbo's non-fictional novel, "The Road to Heaven," returns after a decade. He lurks within the inner Mongolian community of "Wolf Anchor," a celebrity with millions of followers. This absurd epiphany explores the intersection of Chinese society and the livestream universe. A strange world between landscape and prison, online and offline, reality and illusion—all part of our playful desires. Zhang Zanbo's writing is like a vibrant documentary film series, woven onto the page. [The book also includes field photography.]

Inner Mongolia, China, a vast grassland with blue skies and white clouds, wolves, white deer, and Mongolian horses—its dark side is characterized by land grabbing for tourism, animal exploitation for profit, ecological destruction, the decline of tradition, and the increasingly obsessive trend of livestreaming and photography. Billions of people in China browse livestreaming platforms daily, a diverse array of influencers has emerged, and bizarre scenes spread like a virus both online and offline. As the world's largest camera producer, vast hordes of amateur photographers flock to the vast mountains and rivers, using their high-end cameras to create a cookie-cutter "collectivist aesthetic" of scenic beauty, animal portraits, and beautiful women. However, internet celebrities and photographers turn a blind eye to the harsh reality around them. With the help of beauty filters and Photoshop technology, they strive to transform the world into a utopia of "positive energy" and "peaceful times."

Zhang Zanbo lurked in the scenic landscapes of Inner Mongolia, closely observing the internet celebrities known as "wolf anchors" navigating the "livestreaming universe." They transported the vast grasslands and "wild wolves" of thousands of miles to diverse locations online, profiting from fan rewards and product promotions. Meanwhile, the "wolves" dancing with the wolf anchors were confined to cages, sustenance dwindling to a diet of frozen chicken racks. Behind the "beauties and wolves" on mobile screens lies a complex calculation of traffic figures, layered upon layer of packaging through rhetoric and "persona."

Influencers immerse themselves in the world of livestreaming, enjoying a dazzling array of digital gifts and the free love of their fans. They rack their brains to gain followers and become trending—sticking closely to the official, positive energy theme is the right path; straying too far can lead to downfall. In reality, influencers are like animals, disposable, disposable. When they're no longer popular, they create another one. Master and apprentice, and the journey begins anew! They continue to plunder natural scenery and animals, continuing their multi-faceted gaming life.

Once the emperor's hunting grounds, it has now become a tourist attraction, a collusion between officials and businessmen. The government's massive land expropriation has made life increasingly difficult for herders, who are forced to roam wherever there's water and pasture. Tourism tycoons, driven by dreams of fortune, plot their plans for the grasslands to generate ticket revenue while racking up wages for construction workers, guards, and horse trainers. Within the enclosed scenic area, cages of all kinds—wolves, horses, and deer—are erected for amateur photographers and tourists who, armed with cannons and cell phones, snap at the prey within, as if firing bullets without the gunpowder. Like their ancestor Genghis Khan, these young knights from Mongolia traveled thousands of miles just to work illegally in a foreign land. They had no job insurance and their wages were ripped off at every level. Their ancestors' glorious history and culture were quickly packaged into a "tourist attraction" at "China speed", and ultimately turned into a crudely made stage show for everyone to laugh at.

As the seasons change, winter turns to spring, and across this vast grassland, where natural landscapes overlap with man-made ones, and tourism and livestreaming industries thrive side by side, desires for money, fame, lust, power...all sorts of things flow undisguised. Deception, betrayal, violence, greed, oppression...numerous stories unfold at a dizzying pace, vividly painting a human world reflecting the current mental illness of Chinese people. Unruly, treacherous, treacherous, and ambitious—these animal-derived terms are actually human. Human society is the greatest animal world and jungle world.

Working alone and for extended periods in the countryside, Zhang Zanbo, through his pen and camera, coldly surveys the bizarre landscapes shaped by totalitarianism, capturing the absurd wonders of black humor and penetrating the bleak realities of contemporary China. He often confronts the most central and pressing questions of our times, offering his own sincere reflections and profound interrogations. Zhang Zanbo's writing is rich, nuanced, and profound, with a narrative structure and plot that resonates with the quality of a traditional chaptered novel. Perhaps this reaffirms the saying: in contemporary China, reality is far more dramatic, more captivating, and more stimulating than fictional films.

2024-12-17

春山出版

1448

9786267478332