Going back to your childhood is part of growing up

My dad always had these vinyl records and I never understood why. CD’s were long out and in comparison vinyl records are big and every four songs you have to turn them around. The sound quality isn’t that good either; they’re riddled with cracking noises. Also, I didn’t like his music, because what was popular when I was a teenager was very different. But now, almost twenty years later, I love vinyl records. Not the new ones you see in the stores, but the ones my dad has. What I have in that imagination is partly myself too. I think when we grow up, we first wander to explore ourselves, but we develop too far, either because we wanted to separate from our family and create our own identities, or we’re influenced by our friends. But we will come back to our roots, one way or another. I think that’s why I love vinyl, among other things I didn’t like as a child. Going back to your childhood is part of growing up.

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People of Nantong

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I’m carrying Hasse around in Nantong (南通), in the historical block surrounded by the Haohe River (濠河) — while Eva in the hospital visits a sick relative. Hasse, being a seven month old baby, is a true 显眼包 (eye-catcher), so dozens of bypassers turn their head or want to touch her (which I quickly have […]
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Cozy market alleys and pot stickers

Cozy market alleys and pot stickers

We’re in  Zhuqiao Village (祝桥镇), again. I love these old streets, filled with market stands or scooters and trikes parked everywhere. These alleys are so full of life, devoid of big brands with their uniform protocols and brand guidelines. And because the whole scale of it is smaller than modern shopping malls, everything feels so […]
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Forgotten patch of land

Forgotten patch of land

The hardest thing to get in Shanghai is silence and solitude, yet there’s this strip nearby our apartment that does provide these things — a patch of land that city developers had no use for. The first time I came here and entered, suddenly something felt weird until I realized it was the absence of […]
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Cobblestones and Lions in Longmen

Cobblestones and Lions in Longmen

I know I take too many photos, and I know I should remove some for brevity. But it feels to me that each of these views is worth capturing, as if to store it in a jar for storage. When I no longer live in China, I want to look back on these trips, to […]
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