The bank of the Yangtze River, the Tianjin of Jialing, is my hometown Chongqing. Fuling, where the story takes place, flows down the Yangtze River from the intersection of the two rivers, about 100 km to the east, and reaches the intersection of the Yangtze River and Wujiang River. In the 1990s, an American followed Chinese-American friendly volunteers and settled in such a quiet and lively town, but he was relatively far from the forefront of the world. He lived for two years. That is, Fuling is not an administrative region of Chongqing, but a small prefecture-level city in Sichuan. He has a job teaching English literature in Fuling Teachers College. He has studied Chinese and even Sichuan dialect. He lives like a local. Many times, there are only two outsiders in the city, he and his partner. Although I am in a busy city, I seem to be isolated from the world. In his spare time, he will wander around the city, go camping in the mountains and experience the strange and lively life in this strange country from his own unique perspective. Fuling, a small town at the intersection of Wujiang River and Yangtze River, like his Walden Lake, gave him a quiet and noisy perspective of himself and the world.

His name is Peter Hessler, and I prefer to call him He Wei by his Chinese name. Fuling, written by him in the 1990s, somehow has a kind of vitality, and it appears before our eyes through time, which makes me believe that this is what it really looks like. He Wei's language always carries a simple and delicate thinking, not proud of profundity, but nuanced. Vendors and pawns on the street, rice fields in the mountains, car horns outside the window, all of which he put into his heart, chewed slowly, and then tasted some long aftertaste. It was here that he silently observed and tried, and then Hua Song wrote everything about this autobiographical novel Jiangcheng. But I think there are thousands of Qian Qian in his thought books, and it's hard to describe and describe a book that can't be finished.

When I first read this book, I was still studying in Hangzhou. At that time, I was young and inexperienced, but I gave up halfway for various reasons. When I looked at it again, I was already in a foreign country, and outsiders like him were rare. People around you will look at He Wei like Fuling people, and cast curious and uneasy eyes. When I returned home, although I had forgotten what the book said, it was a coincidence that I stuffed the book into my luggage and took it to Germany. I have nothing to do. After reading a few pages, I can't help but sigh, this is my life now! So I read it. Strangely, an American's words really brought me a little homesickness comfort. They are like the water of Wujiang River, which makes people read clearly and smoothly, and thus slowly flows to the end of time.

He Wei spent part of his life in Fuling working and teaching, and most of his other time exploring the city and talking with people. He will camp by the Wujiang River in the spring of March and read autobiographical novels by Ted Will Hemmes. In the dim light, in a simple tent, one can examine one's heart most clearly. This life is a bit of a fishing bridge. Just like Thoreau lived in seclusion by Walden Lake, when external stimuli were cut off, a person's inner world would flourish.

Of course, he will also deal with many different people, such as students, teachers, leaders at school, and friends he met in off-campus gossip. These contacts are warm and kind, and sometimes they will be alienated. But he is very brave, like Don Quixote who fought against windmills, and stepped into some people's hearts. But as a "foreigner", he often feels that he can only be an outsider forever.

Language barrier will be an obstacle at first, and even make him feel embarrassed. This is what I felt when I first arrived in Germany. Language barriers will make people feel that this clumsiness is not only manifested in language, but also makes people feel as if they have degenerated into a young child, stumbling and making baby. But it is precisely because of this that we can observe a different world with clear eyes like children. In our eyes, there is no prejudice, no experience, everything is the first time, everything is fresh.

When reading this book, I sometimes map He Wei's experience to myself. When I first arrived in Germany, the biggest pressure was that things that used to be easy to do became several times more difficult, not to mention things that were already difficult. Taking shopping as an example, as a girl, shopping in China is a kind of entertainment or even enjoyment, but it has become a task in a strange foreign country. First of all, there are some differences between the types of shops in Germany and those in China, which leads to many daily necessities not knowing where to buy them. Fortunately, I can ask some seniors. For example, trash cans and brooms are not as ubiquitous in Germany as in China, because their supermarkets only have food and daily necessities, which are only available in a few household goods stores. The second is to understand the packaging and labels, because the brands and types of goods are different, so the text on the packaging and labels of each product must be carefully read to see if it is what you need. As a result, it takes more than two hours to go to the supermarket every time, but I don't buy much.

Then there is the feeling of being a foreigner in a small city. Although Asian faces are not uncommon in my small city, they are enough to make many people stare at me curiously, just like we observe giant pandas: alas, that's how they eat! Most young people in Germany are polite, but not for those over 50. Even if he sits opposite the bus, he will stare at you, and even if I find him, I won't look away. It is slightly better than that He Wei can cause thirty or forty people to watch in Fuling. As a foreigner, there is always a feeling that it is difficult to integrate, but sometimes you will feel a friendly warmth. Due to the lack of common cultural atmosphere, many things that German friends talk about will make people confused, such as movies, celebrities and childhood memories. Their jokes are a bit difficult to laugh at, even if they are understood, it is hard to understand why they are laughing their heads off. But maybe the motivation to get close to others will always overcome the barriers. I have also made some good friends in this strange country. They will patiently correct my German and drink and chat together. I will also gain the favor of some strangers from time to time. Sometimes when we take out mobile navigation, there are always old men and women who think that we are tourists, either want to go to the railway station or the main church, so they enthusiastically show us the way, but in fact, we want to go to the shopping mall. Of course, on the whole, there will be more lonely times than in my hometown. No old friends I have known for many years, no uncles and aunts who watched me grow up. After all, I am still attached to this small town where I live day and night.

After reading this book, He Wei will leave Fuling. He took the time to say goodbye to everything here. I also have a sense of loss in my heart: will he never come back? Will the people and places he cares about never be seen again? I can't help worrying about where he went and how his life was after he left Fuling. After searching online, I learned that his family moved to Chengdu, Sichuan in August 20 19, and taught at Pittsburgh College of Sichuan University in autumn 20 19. I don't know how to feel moved by the happy ending. After all, he came back, and he was no longer separated from the scenic figures he was concerned about.

Fuling is no longer Walden Lake in his dream, but his hometown where he can often go home.