Eight Days at Home 1

She rarely returned to her hometown since working in another city and settling there. Her father urged her on the phone to come back and visit the town, and even more so, he expected her to stay close to his home. He pried into her life, told her how he was getting old, and how the town had changed dramatically. She understood his implications and responded selectively. Her father relentlessly stated the details of the town, but she didn't feel much excitement about what he said. As she grew older, she gradually became an outsider to her hometown, and in her father's eyes, a fast-changing, selfish person with no respect for tradition.

The last time she talked to her father on the phone, she learned that the demolition of the town had begun. She could tell her father was sad about the demolition of their old house, and she decided to go back to her hometown for a visit. On the day of the demolition program, she went to No. 39 House alone. The arm and claw of the building demolition machine knocked the house apart, little by little. The concrete remnants of the exterior walls smashed down, making a loud, muddy, muffled and dull sound. Memories of corners of living rooms, kitchens, and bedrooms were exposed as the walls crumbled. She saw the part of her bedroom where the green forest that she painted in her childhood, finally exposed to sunlight. Soon, all of the rooms then got smashed to smithereens in the next instant. The lower half of the house had been mostly smashed off under the repeated pounding of the demolition machine, and the remnants of the structure, with only a few studs left, were beginning to falter. Was it almost over? She stared intently at the shaking debris. The jaws of the machine slowly reached out to one of the studs, and with a piercing penetrating sound, the entire structure of the house collapsed as the studs snapped.

Dust and sand floated up from the ground, announcing the end of the spectacular ritual. Looking at the ruins in front of her, she recalled the peace here had brought in the afternoon sun of yesteryear, and how they had silently bound her spirit and her body. She also recalled the demolition notice that had been delivered to home twelve years ago. She read the notice but not yet understood, but the distant plan was planted deeply in her mind.The plan in the notice, once unattainable, was finally being carried out, giving her some kind of answer amidst the smithereens - she was waking up from a big dream which had lasted more than a decade.

自从在外地工作定居后，她很少再回到家乡。父亲时常在电话里催促自己回来探望，更是期望自己能留在离家近的地方。他打探她的生活状况，向她倾诉自己是如何一点点老去，描述家乡何以发生了翻天覆地的变化。父亲如数家珍地陈述着故乡的点滴，她自然明白这当中的言外之意，于是选择性地回应。她早已回不去，也早已逐渐成为一名故乡的局外人，和父亲眼中忽视传统、变化太快、自私的人。

上一次电话和父亲联络，她得知小镇旧房拆除开始正式动工了。她从电话里听出了父亲对老房子的不舍，自己也决定在这个特殊的时候回一次家乡探望。回到家乡的第二天，她只身来到39号房子的附近，此时的房屋周围已围上了施工防护栏。她碰巧赶上工人们就位，等待了一会，便看见拆楼机被启动了。拆楼机的臂爪张开，将39号房屋一点点敲碎。外部墙壁的混凝土残渣砸落，发出巨大、浑浊、闷钝的声响。记忆中的客厅、厨房、卧室一角在墙壁崩塌后暴露在外，她看到儿时卧室的一角，墙上用颜料画下的绿色森林终于见到了阳光。而在下一个瞬间，所有的房间被连连砸成了粉碎，变成了尘土里面目模糊的碎砖瓦。在拆楼机的一次次敲击下，房子的下半部分被砸落了大部分，残余的结构仅剩几条墙柱，开始摇摇欲坠。快要结束了吗？她紧紧地盯着摇晃的残垣。拆楼机的钳爪缓缓伸向其中的一条墙柱，在刺耳的穿透声下，整个房子的结构随着墙柱的断裂，轰然倒塌。

地面飘起了大量的尘土和黄沙，宣告着这场盛大仪式的结束。望着眼前的废墟，她恍然地想起这些角落在昔日下午阳光下带来的平静，又如何悄无声息地束缚了她的精神和手脚。她还想起十二年前送上家门的那份拆迁通告书，儿时的自己阅读过后尚未理解其意，却把这项遥远的计划深深的印在了脑海里。通告里曾遥不可及的计划终于在当下被执行，在破碎的瓦砾之中冥冥给了她某种答案——她正在从一场十多年的大梦中渐渐醒来。

“Demolition in March, Signing of contracts in June,Construction in September, and Moving to a new home the following year.”

In 2019, the demolishment program started. The No.39 village house was dismantled together with other old buildings in the village.

“Responding to the call of the nation
 to build a civilized city and better dwellings”

An old billboard that posts local government propaganda. The visual content is changed every few years, mostly about urban renewal and rural urbanization.

As villagers' private land was reclaimed by the state to become state land, high-rise residential complex was built after razing the old buildings in the villages. Some of the new buildings are compensated as resettlement housing for local villagers to live, while others are left unsold and unoccupied.

The road that connects the village to the city. This is also the road for many container trucks going to the nearby port. A lot of villagers who used to live nearby were unhappy with the traffic as the trucks often block the road.

Temporary dwelling places for construction workers.

Unfinished constructions under urban renewal programs.