Before facing the real wilderness, all we do is boldly poeticize its ruthlessness and tolerance

1

People who have lived in cities for a long time will not remember how our ancestors walked on the wild land a long time ago. We had just started walking at that time.

It’s really too far away, those memories. Whether abstract or figurative. At this point we have learned to fly. In the belly of a giant machine, of course. At the beginning of a long journey, the plane accelerates rapidly along the runway and then soars into the sky. Looking down from the small window, for a short period of time, you can see the entire city being completely unfolded in your field of vision. The lights, streets and moving vehicles are all displayed in detail, like large and exquisite toys. An artist once painted a painting of this kind of scene, and it was truly a remarkable presentation, an overlook that fills humanity with a sense of accomplishment. At the same time, it’s only when you look down from a high altitude that you realize how amazingly similar these cities are. If the bird's-eye view can be maintained for a long time, we may be able to see the smallness and abruptness of cities on the entire continent. However, the gaze was cut short as the plane ascended into the stratosphere. We are embraced by white clouds or darkness, turn off our headlamps and sink into sleep in a pleasant void. Until he landed safely in another city.

Loro Piana cape, trousers and sandals

Long distance flights between cities are just that. Like jump cuts in movies, large sections of empty shots are omitted.

Only older people will like trains - the kind of slow transportation that can feel the sound of sleepers. Some people will think of the beasts in the crotch of our ancestors in ancient times, in the train. The train goes to a warmer place. Outside the window are soft farmland and ponds, and it rains occasionally. The train went to a cold place, the earth became more and more silent, the snow became thicker and thicker, and not a single footprint was seen. Rotten branches grew above the snowdrifts. However, there is smoke and a platform in the distance.

The train blew its whistle in the heart of the night, and its heartbreaking song ran through the wilderness, like the cry of a beast. It was a tamed wail.

For humans, a journey is defined by a starting point and an ending point. And to reach the wilderness, you cannot set a destination. It requires us to completely abandon any kind of civilization. But contemporary civilization covers every continent.

2

An anthropologist once said that if he went into hibernation and was awakened in the distant future and needed a book to understand that era, he would ask for a copy of the fashions of the time. picture album.

JW Anderson headscarf, Uniqlo shirt, Loewe skirt, short boots, Chloé belt

"What to wear?" is an eternal question of mankind. Clothing is the ultimate weapon for humans to challenge the wilderness - when our ancestors were no longer naked, it was the time when they completely broke with nature. Not knowing what to wear means that human civilization is facing an essential challenge.

There is a type of place where nothing is appropriate to wear, and that is the abandoned city where humans have evacuated.

In the vast western part of China, cities are like ringworm, unevenly distributed on the land. There are long stretches of Gobi and desert between cities. Abandoned cities were scattered across the Gobi and deserts. They are often only a few decades old and have been abandoned due to policy changes or energy exhaustion. This kind of abandonment is often a mutation rather than a natural occurrence. They are suddenly thrown away at a certain node in history and become specimens.

No train or bus transportation can reach the abandoned city, they are hyperlinks that die suddenly during the journey. They retain the complete appearance of a city, with factories, dormitories, schools, parks, canteens, and even prisons, but without a trace of human habitation. Driving into an abandoned city is very much like driving into a dream, as if time has gone back decades, and the people living here have disappeared en masse just a second ago.

Chanel top, culottes, straw hat and waist chain, Samuel Guì Yang shirt

The abandoned city is suitable for photography, especially for showing avant-garde fashion. The kind of clothing and location planning that does not require practical functions create a romance that blends déjà vu with transcendence. But, off camera, walking in the ruined city, you can’t see yourself. You'll feel like everything you're wearing is wrong. Not wearing clothes is even more wrong. Every photo you take of someone showing up is extremely ugly and out of place. Nature shows its power here, leaving you at a loss. This is not wilderness, this is something wilder than wilderness.

In the west, civilization is thin, and the abandoned city is an abandoned corpse on the film of civilization. At this time, the only way is to recruit a tour group to fight the terrorism of the abandoned city with the noise of moving ants. The jackets uniformly distributed by tour groups are the salvation of mankind.

3

In ancient China, the wilderness of intellectuals was the wilderness of ink landscapes, a political concept. "Hermits in the city" is the self-deception of the little bourgeoisie. The most advanced hermits must hide in the wilderness, but the paradox is that these hermits are extremely famous and easy to find. The self-exile of literati seems noble, but it is actually an invitation to favor. Their wilderness consists only of gestures. This is the dialectic of Eastern pragmatism.

The wilderness of the common people is full of myths and rare animals. Blank means knowing nothing, and when it comes to fashion, you have to point your finger. It is terrifying to be unable to judge, so the common people fill it with simple imagination. Every place that has not been visited is full of gods or monsters.

Edition shirt, top and sundress, Loewe boots

The beautiful fantasy about the wilderness has flown too far, and the real history seems boring, until now. In order to comfort themselves, people create heroes, and in order to establish heroes, people create public enemies. Walking out of the cinema, fear of terrifying mutant creatures, evil aliens and mad scientists never actually entered reality. But in the best epic and fantasy literature, ancient songs forever sing about the wild dragons. The passage of time and the development of science and technology have brought about the illusion that the journey is really a sea of ??stars. In fact, the barren mountains outside the city are enough to starve to death for exploring college students.

The times are in fashion albums, and truth is in popular culture. In the computer game that was popular a few years ago, the virtual protagonist walked on the map, killing all directions and making achievements. One day, there was a glitch in the game, and the man suddenly left the map, staggered into the void of nothing. The computer malfunctioned and the system crashed. He was the only one who walked forward into the virtual wilderness - until the power was unplugged and everything returned to zero.

4

In Australia, which is surrounded by the sea in the southern hemisphere, people will realize their loneliness and admit that all land is actually an island. In Australia, all cities are abandoned cities that are still alive.

JW Anderson shirt, Fendi dress

Australia's cities are scattered along the coastline, and the oceanic climate makes the weather changeable. The weather forecast is nonsense for a week and then corrected day by day. In the most prosperous business district in the city center, the sun was shining brightly at noon, and white-collar workers taking their lunch break were sitting on the white stone steps of the State Library, munching on sandwiches. Suddenly, sand and rocks flew, and a heavy rain started in the sunshine, instantly soaking suits and shoes. Gray business suit. This is something that can happen every day.

Therefore, there is no fashion here. The most suitable attire is tights under a thin summer skirt, boots, a raincoat, and an umbrella in hand. Even so, jackets are still unforgivable here. This is the final bottom line of contemporary urban civilization.

When the weather is nice, the beach is sweet, with the sea as blue and still as a postcard. The outskirts are mountainous, and on a certain section of the mountain road, the sea level is still above the road, which is really a strange and beautiful scenery. You look up at the sea. Then dark clouds come in, the sea roars and changes color, and gray-blue waves rock the bay and port. You turn on the wipers and speed toward the city. The city here is intertwined with the wilderness. Your road is straight, but you don't know what will happen in front of you. It rains heavily, so you change the air conditioner in the car to a heater. The road runs straight into a large expanse of reeds, which are common here and preserved wetlands of varying sizes in the city. The dark clouds are overwhelming, and you are scared. The reeds on the roadside are more than three meters high, blocking the sky and the sun in the strong wind. You can't see the horizon. The golden color of the reeds is on the left and right of the car window. You don't dare to stop or speed up. You are chased out of the reed field by something indescribable. The rain gradually subsided and the sun shone down again. You stopped the car and took off your windbreaker and threw your fingerless gloves on the newspaper in the back seat. A mansion by the sea, a local real estate advertisement in the newspaper said, twenty kilometers from the city center.

Chloé dress, Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello shirt, silk scarf, Loewe boots

Those Australian residents who set up their homes by the sea wear flip-flops all year round. On the streets in winter, there are people wearing thick fisherman sweaters, shorts and slippers waiting for the tram. This urban landscape ravaged by nature is sadder than skin cancer and hay fever.

If we go back further, the original sin belongs to the arrogant Europeans. They sailed from the gloomy continent of Europe and drove the brown-skinned natives to the great deserts of central Australia. The fierce sun shines on the thin skin of the Anglo-Saxon, leaving wrinkles and vicissitudes. And Aboriginal people roared and danced naked in the desert all the way to the 2019 rugby league field.

Such was their fragmented conquest.

5

Large cities with concentrated populations are places with the highest density of civilization. These cities are more like models than models – they have a purely artificial sculptural feel, efficient, cold, yet stunningly beautiful.

Loro Piana hunting shirt (used as outerwear), blouse, trousers, straw hat and sandals

Parks are eyebrow-penciled moles on the faces of large cities. Parks are small pockets of wilderness, cooped up in urban life to satisfy people's competitive urges, like paintings from airplanes overlooking cities. People herd dogs in the park – small wild beasts bred in captivity. Human cubs and pet dogs were running and playing on the grass. Their guardians smiled and watched while taking out plastic bags to pick up fresh dog poop. This may be the place where we are most undefended when facing nature. We ran along the edge of the green lawn, exercised, kneaded bread and threw it to the pigeons and sparrows.

Gaze at the beautiful and clean lake. This is where poetry is born. Perhaps the biggest risk is having your wallet snatched away on your way home at nightfall. That's part of the urban legend, too.

Is there any noise in the song of the city? some.

Shantou is the most prosperous city in southeastern China. In the center of Shantou lies the "Small Park". It was an old urban dream. The radial arcade complex was built by overseas Chinese who returned from the Nanyang gold rush in the 1930s. If compared, it is a miniature, young Roman Colosseum. The pure white three- and four-story arcades have been in disrepair for a long time. Rococo patterns are carved on the arcades, window frames, and door frames, and their shapes have become difficult to discern due to the erosion of wind and rain. This is an old dream that Shantou is forgetting, but it is full of people. It is also the most popular tourist attraction in Shantou.

Loro Piana knitted sweater, straw hat

Deep in the small park there is a nightclub from the last century, which is now in ruins and full of wild cats urinating. But there are still residents on the second floor. A bamboo pole was set up outside the window to dry autumn clothes and trousers. On the old building next to it, the word "Department Store" is written in simple fonts, and a large photo of Li Ka-shing hangs in the shop across the street. One afternoon, a small fire broke out here. A fire truck separated the tourist crowd and squeezed into the side street, the black smoke extinguished. Then, an old woman carrying a bag of vegetables walked past the firefighters, and Shi Shiran walked into the fire scene and went home to cook.

In an old alley, the former wealthy courtyard is dilapidated and the wooden door is tightly closed, leaving no one to speculate on the glory and wealth of the past. There are fat leaves sticking out of the ridge of the roof, swaying in the wind. Push open that door and you will scream in surprise. The building complex inside the gate has disappeared. The ruins are densely covered with huge and strong dripping Guanyin. The thick roots have trampled the traces of human beings under them. The thick green rushes towards you, as if it has been waiting for you for a long time. You will be strangled immediately.

You close the door in shock and join the tourists holding selfie sticks high. You are soothed by the familiar smell of sweat and language. This is the voice of the wilderness, and it shows its claws under the most unexpected encounters.

Written by: Ye San

Photographed by: Yu Cong

Styling: Jojo Qian

Hair style: Zhang Fan

Makeup: Xin Miao

Producer: Yu Zhuoyi

Photography Assistant: Xu Yongcong

Costume Assistant: Josh

Digital Post-production: Color Lab

Arranged by: Antoine Yang

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