At 2 o'clock in the morning, the spring breeze in Dali at the end of March was steep, but the streets of the ancient city were very lively. If you don't pay attention to your feet, you may kick someone's wine glass and mobile phone. A foldable bed, desk, and a small lamp are standard at most roadside stalls. Many young people sat around the floor, drinking and chatting.
Search for "Dali" on social platforms, and there is no shortage of such recommendations - be sure to go to the ancient city of Dali once in the early morning. As the first small Chinese city to accept backpackers from all over the world, Dali belongs to tourists and tour groups during the day, while the ancient city is scattered with young people who indulge in drinking and singing late at night.
△ The excitement of the ancient city of Dali will not dissipate with the nightfall, and there are many stalls on Renmin Road and Guangwu Road. (Photo/Visual China)
Ten years ago, in the 406th issue of the magazine "Dali, Make People Smaller", "New Weekly" depicted a tolerant and vibrant Dali in the collision of cultures. Ten years later, when we look back at this land and the people who "float" here, how has it changed?
A subplot of an elite narrative
Is Dali's sense of relaxation real, or is it an artificially created urban landscape? On social platforms, "resign from Dachang and go to Dali" seems to have become a traffic password, scattered in the small courtyards between Cangshan and Erhai Lake, crowded with young people from GAP.
△ Search topic # in a book to leave Dali, a total of nearly 10,000 notes. The first stop for many young people after leaving their jobs is still Dali. (Photo/Xiaohongshu)
Yang Xiang, who has been working in Beijing since graduation, decided to resign and go to Dali. In addition to wanting to find a small town with beautiful mountains and rivers to rest and learn languages, she also wants to satisfy a curiosity - how can people who believe in elitism tolerate themselves to accept a life of "lying flat"?
To find out, Yang Xiang rented a bed in the youth community. In Dali, there are many youth communities hidden in the villages, forming internal activity groups with the community as a unit, and the communities maintain friendly ties not far from each other.
Yang Xiang's community is not large, with about 20 members, and there are various activities almost every day. The only difference is that these activities are almost all free and have no threshold. The simplest activity is every Thursday after dinner, where the "residents" of the community sit together to introduce new and old friends to each other and talk about recent gains.
△ Yang Xiang and his friends eat together in the community. (Photo/Provided by the interviewee)
In addition to this, there are a number of cross-community interest activities. During the week of the most social energy, Yang Xiang participated in three or four different kinds of activities in one go. Social activities that require careful preparation in first-tier cities, such as river tracing, frisbee, hiking, and camping, are much more relaxed in the vast natural environment.
While living in Beijing, Yang Xiang was unimpressed by a series of activities labeled "middle class". When she plunged into the public life of Dali, she had a new experience and cognition - she stripped off the layers of social attributes, leaving only the game itself. In the event, there is no need to worry about fighting equipment and relationships with others - "a group of young people experience the so-called middle-class life at a very low cost and in a minimalist way." ”
△ Yang Xiang and his friends participated in the river tracing activity. (Photo/Provided by the interviewee)
Former media person Sang Yu has traveled to Dali many times for interviews, so he got to know some new immigrants from Dali. When we talk about Dali and the people who "float" in Dali, a phenomenon gradually manifests itself - in Dali, most of them are the former urban elite, and the elite narrative also affects the ecology of this small city to a certain extent.
This is also verified by Yang Xiang's sojourn experience, most of the young people living in the community do not stay for long, and the few who live for more than a month are in the minority. It is undeniable that those who can truly enjoy life are always those who have found an anchor at this stage.
Yang Xiang met a young girl who came to complete her graduation thesis, she was in the stage of failing the graduate school entrance examination and had no offer, and she was visibly anxious every day. "I advised her to stay a few more days, but she told me, 'I'm not like you.'" Whether it is a digital nomad or a migrant worker who quits his job and takes a vacation, there is an anchor point, so he can enjoy the sunshine of Dali without burden.
△There are many small courtyards and B&B rooms for rent by Erhai Lake. (Photo/Visual China)
The social clock that envelops most people's lives does not completely bypass the small city, but rather makes Dali more like a man-made utopia, or a side copy of the life of the elite.
Whenever he introduces himself, Yang Xiang inevitably mentions his alma mater and work again and again, but no one cares too much. Although Dali has been firmly linked to the "petty bourgeoisie" and "middle class" in the eyes of the world, most people choose to try to dilute the so-called "sense of elitism" in internal interactions. The compliments, recognition, and unguarded socialization that are hard to come by in the workplace are easy to come by here.
As for the question that Yang Xiang wanted to get to the bottom of at the beginning, just like the word book she brought from thousands of miles away, it was quickly left behind. For those who stay for a short time, since they still have to return to order after leaving Dali, then in a low-cost copy of life, enjoying happiness is the first priority.
Labor & Rewards
Symbiosis with young people like Yang Xiang who came to Dali for a short time, as well as "new immigrants" who have lived in Dali for a long time. It is understood that there are nearly 100,000 "new Dali people" from home and abroad, and behind this huge number, there is also an increasingly heavy pressure on life.
As more and more urban migrants "flee back" to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, the idyllic utopian life of high above the clouds also seems to be shaky. Although the continuous emergence of self-media tries to show the relaxation of Dali, the increasing number of divination stalls in the ancient city seems to have secretly reflected the confusion and anxiety of young people.
This year is Liu Sha's seventh year in Dali, and unlike the young people who came here for a short time, she has taken root here. "Poetic", "relaxed" and "far away" are the first impressions of Dali in her memory.
△ In the early grass market, everyone was used to sitting on the ground and setting up stalls. (Photo/Provided by the interviewee)
From 2015 to 2017, it was the golden period for Dali to receive a large number of immigrants from first-tier cities. Dali, which was reformed by Western "hippies" and "backpackers", has absorbed the nutrients of Chinese literature and art, and its strong local atmosphere is mixed with a pioneering temperament. As presented in "As if there was light: Interviews with Dali", both artists and ordinary people can feel at home here.
In the process of living in Dali, Liu Sha got acquainted with a group of craftsmen, and thus realized that in Dali, you can survive with your hands. After the first three months of leisurely life, she threw herself into the cycle of "learning-doing-setting up a stall".
was asked, "Does moving to Dali mean lying flat?" At the time, she said that in the 7 years in Dali, she has never completely "lay flat". In the first two or three years, Liu Sha relied on her savings to live while enrolling in classes to study. At that time, her metalworking class in Dali cost more than 10,000 yuan a month; Subsequently, she learned South American rope braiding; In order to be able to better draw the details of the design, she also learned sketching from a local art teacher.
△ Liu Sha makes silver jewelry at home. (Photo/Photo provided by the interviewee)
If you want to "restart your life" in Dali, it is not an easy task that can be achieved in a short period of time. In horizontal comparison, Liu Sha's current work is not easier than when she worked in the company, and it is common to catch orders until the early hours of the morning in the tourist season. The place where I clocked in and out, from the office building to the souk, covered the whole week.
It has nothing to do with the time of moving to Dali, and in the context of seeking survival, "lying flat" is undoubtedly a false proposition. Like Liu Sha, the same is true for Lin Lin from a small town in the north. The long tug-of-war with the original family ended with the death of his mother. With a meager deposit, she came to Dali alone 5 years ago.
"The winter in the north is long and cold, but the sun in Dali is very warm, but you have to pay for it." Even though people say that Dali is cheap, Lin Lin still feels overstretched. I can't afford to rent a room of more than 1,000 yuan, and only a few hundred yuan dare to send a message for the agent to take it. From the moment she stepped into Dali, she diligently planned every minute, and the so-called public life was almost insulated from her, in addition to earning money every day.
△The sunshine of Dali is the reason why many people are attached to this place. (Photo/Visual China)
I have set up a stall, sold alcohol, taken care of a house for others, and written a copywriter remotely...... Although her friends joked that Lin Lin was the most "rolly" person in the city, only she knew that when she moved into a sunny one-bedroom apartment by Erhai Lake, the moment the sun filled the room, she finally said goodbye to the girl who was punished standing outside her home in the ice and snow.
If the exposed outer layer of Dali is an open-air show to show "relaxation", then ordinary people like Liu Sha and Lin Lin show the most ordinary core of the small town - no matter where they come from or where they come from, as long as they pay in their labor, they can harvest the most luxurious freedom here.
After working so hard for 7 years, Liu Sha's monthly income is enough to cover her daily needs. Although she jokingly said that she went to the market on time every week to "check in", it was because "the soul of the worker is always in my heart". But she knows very well that she no longer needs to rely on a "good job" to meet expectations from the outside world. At the same time, she is also very sure that every minute of working in Dali is for herself.
Cangshan and Erhai Lake, how can they change?
"If you've been scammed once, you'll never be fooled again." 120 yuan is the first tuition fee paid by Yang Xiang in Dali. Just because she was passing by a liquor stall in the early hours of the morning in the ancient city, she was unsuspectingly sold two bottles of wine — a beer that costs about 6 yuan at a convenience store — for 60 yuan a bottle.
This is a common deception in the ancient city, and young people who have just arrived and have a filter on Dali are very easy to be fooled. It's hard to imagine that the chill scene described at the beginning of the article would be a man-made and strange landscape. According to Liu Sha's recollection, around 2017, you can still see wandering singers singing on the street, with cardboard boxes of wine at their feet, and it is personal freedom to buy or not.
△ Search for "Dali Ancient City" on social platforms, and there is no shortage of such lightning protection stickers. (Photo/Screenshot of Xiaohongshu)
She used "escape" and "gold rush" to describe the current Dali. Many friends who came at the same time either left, or moved farther and farther, and simply "hid" in the mountains. "There are fewer and fewer interesting people" is the common feeling of Liu Sha and Lin Lin. It must be admitted that with the influx of new people, there are also old people who bid farewell to the rivers and lakes under this mountain.
With the end of the epidemic and the introduction of film and television dramas to cultural tourism, Dali has ushered in a large number of tourists at the same time, and gold diggers have also poured in. Among them, there are many bad money who drive out good money, and there are also new immigrants who drive the "old Dali" to be forced to "roll". Yang Xiang met all kinds of "makers" in his short sojourn life, including young "resigned" bloggers and middle-aged people who came to Dali to start a business for the second time.
△ Early Bed Sheet Factory Market. In the past, many people who came out of Dali would first choose to set up a stall to start a business. (Photo/Provided by the interviewee)
In recent years, Liu Sha has met some friends who have just come to Dali, and tried various methods within a month or two, just to survive here. Lin Lin said: "There are not many opportunities for Dali (to make money). "People come and go, and the rising cost of living inevitably presents a situation where there are more monks and less porridge.
Has the influx of different groups into Dali completely changed Dali's urban ecology?
Liu Sha does not agree with the statement that "the middle class is reforming Dali", in her opinion, Dali's cutting-edge is not inferior to big cities. For example, before coffee shops took over the streets of big cities, basking in the sun and drinking coffee were already one of the famous local lifestyles. Or like nature education, which has been sought after by the middle class in recent years, in fact, as early as 10 years ago, Dali already had such a children's school.
△In October 2020, in Dali, Yunnan, tourists read books in the Pioneer Shaxi Bai Bookstore. (Photo/Visual China)
In fact, in the past nearly half a century, Dali has been "exploded" many times. If you've ever attended the local markets every Friday or October, or smaller village markets, you'll find that Dali's strong sense of countryside still nourishes here.
I took the bus from Longweiguan, staggered for an hour to the ancient city, and then transferred to the bus extension to Toupu Village, the entrance of the market is facing the road, and most of the people who come and go are locals carrying baskets. 3 yuan for a cup of ice powder (a cold drink snack), 5 yuan for a large bag of cold vegetables, a few cents a pound of vegetables...... The village market retains its original appearance and is completely free from consumerism.
△ In August 2023, Dali, before the Torch Festival, at the residential market in Xizhou Ancient Town, small merchants selling buckets. (Photo/Visual China)
Whether it is natural, humanistic or even economic, the "old" of Dali brings natural blessings to its "new". As Liu Sha said, "Only in a relatively simple and affluent world can people have the energy to think about creation." "People fleeing the city rely on Dali's diverse and inclusive atmosphere and relatively low cost of living, and explore more possibilities here.
Although it is far away from the city, this does not prevent Dali from sensitively capturing new things. Cangshan and Erhai Lake will not change, and Dali is like a canvas, recording and displaying the hearts and demands of urban immigrants. Dali is not the answer, as the world changes, those who leave and those who stay will still continue to pursue the meaning of life.
Editor: Lu Yiming, typesetting: Golden Tide
Ahu
Have you ever been to Dali?
This article was first published in New Weekly No. 661
"County Drift"
Original title: ""Internet Celebrity First County" Dali: The Wind and Snow Moon Have Not Changed"
This issue of the magazine is now online and is selling well
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