Just like that

Jixiang Film Productions 吉祥一社电影制片厂

In October 2019, Jixing was invited to help film material in Yubulu Village, Guizhou Province, for the forthcoming exhibition ’Countryside, The Future’ at Guggenheim Museum New York. The exhibition conceived by Rem Koolhass and curated by Samir Bantal, Director of AMO, argues that the future is being built in the countryside. A topic that the discussions held in the Three Village Circular workshops are also exploring, albeit through different lenses.

He Jixing has been making films about Jixiang village and conducting research about the village’s history and present since 2016. This initiative by He Jixing also opens up conversations and reflections with fellow villagers across generations. Recently, Jixing has launched a series of screening events and workshops on the site where the village temple used to stand.

昨天是清明节，和往年一样，大家一起上山扫墓，野炊。今年对野外用火的管理更加的严格了，两架直升机一直在墓地上空盘旋，森林火警强行扑灭了许多家庭做饭的火，菜只煮熟了一半，唯有不欢而散，而我们幸免，下山后听人们议论才觉得更加幸运。

今天下午，Petra做了一大碗爆米花，她告诉我只放了很少的糖，玉米是Sarah从美国带过来的，电影还没结速爆米花好像就没有了，剩下的玉米还可以做一次爆米花。

今晚我们看了三部动画片：《小蝌蚪找妈妈》《雾中的小刺猬》《铁扇公主》

Yesterday was the Qing Ming Festival. As in previous years, everyone went up the mountain to sweep the graves and have picnics. This year, the fire prevention effort on the mountain is much stricter. Two helicopters have been hovering over the gravesites scattered on the mountainsides. The forest fire fighters have forcibly extinguished many families’ cooking fires. The dishes are only half cooked, so they are not happy, but our family is somehow spared. After listening to what people are saying as they go down the mountain, I feel even more fortunate.

This afternoon, Petra made a big bowl of popcorn. She told me that I should only add a small amount of sugar. The corn was brought by Sarah Lewison from the United States. The movie was not finished, but the popcorn was finished, and the rest of the corn she brought could still be popped on another occasion.

Tonight we watched three animations: Tadpoles Looking for Mom, Hedgehog in the Fog, and Iron Fan Princess.

2019年3月30日，星期六，果园里的土豆发芽已经好几天了。前天，村长在微信群里发了30号吉子水库开闸放水的通知，看到消息好心情又增加了一倍。房子周围和田野之间的沟渠已经干涸了整整一个冬天，但是很快它们又可以畅饮一番了。大人们也更加忙碌起来，休息了一整个冬天的田野又要生机勃勃了。下午妈妈不在家，我从家里拿了一块洗好的白色床单，挂在了活动中心的大松树下面，作为晚上电影放映的投影屏幕。四点左右，吉子水库的水来到了村子里，跑去河边看，水还是浑浊的。今天晚饭的时间比平时晚了一些，饭后我和Petra拿上设备来到活动中心的时候天马上就要黑了。在暮色中看到孩子们迫不及待的表情和动作，就像吉子水库的水又一次流过吉祥村。

On Saturday, March 30, 2019, I notice the potatoes in the orchard had started germinating many days ago. The day before yesterday, the village chief issued a notice in the village WeChat group that No. 30 Jizi Reservoir would open the floodgate today. This was good news. The ditches around the house and fields have been dry all winter. The villagers are busy working the fields that have rested for a whole winter. In the afternoon, with my mother out in the field, I take a clean white sheet from my home to the activity centre and hang it under the big pine tree to serve as screen for the evening movie. At about 4:30 in the afternoon, the water from the reservoir arrives in the village. I ran to the main ditch behind the studio and note the water is still muddy from it’s journey. Today’s dinner is a little later than usual. By the time Petra and I take the equipment to the activity centre, it is going dark. In the twilight, I recognize the eagerness, the sense of anticipation in the movements of the children waiting by the gate. Once the door has been unlocked, they – just like the water in the Jizi Reservoir that flows through Jixiang village – once again populate the space that had been a school during my childhood.

三月二十九号，星期五。午饭后，光照变得更强烈，马路上很少有行人，偶尔有车辆经过。村里的孩子们现在还在学校里急切的等待着周末的到来，希望他们的时间变得更快一些。等时间再过去一点，我要挨家挨户的去告知他们明天晚饭后在老年活动中心放电影的消息。准备给他们放映的是我的短片《昨晚爷爷做了一个梦》和毕赣的《路边野餐》。站在灼热的阳光下，莫名的有一点紧张。

Friday, March 29. After lunch, the light has become more intense, there are few pedestrians on the road; occasionally a vehicle passes. The children in the village are still at school anticipating the weekend, hoping that time will accelerate. As for me, I am trying to stretch time to go a little further. I am going door to door to inform families that after dinner tomorrow there will be a movie night at the Senior Activity Center. I will be showing my short film Grandfather Made a Dream Last Night and Bi Gan’s Roadside Picnic. As I am standing in the scorching sun, I am unexpectedly nervous.

顺着马路走到老年活动中心，院子里空无一人。紫外线变得更强了，拿在手里的相机有点微微发热。大概一周前，村里的老人们在这个院子里的松树下共同吃喝，度过三日的时光。我小学在这里读过两年，在这里急切等待周末的心情还记忆犹新。但时光飞逝，我从当年的我变成了现在的自己，每当散步，总会在这个院子里流连忘返。想到明晚的放映活动，除了紧张，时空的错乱感也更加严重了。许多的记忆和想法在脑海里同时发芽也在飘落着，就像三月拉市海的春天一样。

Going down the road to the old activity center, there is no one in the yard. The ultraviolet light has grown in intensity and the camera in my hand is a little bit hot. Just a week ago, the old people in the village gathered and drank under the pine tree in the yard, spending a total of three days together. Many years ago, when the activity center was an elementary school, I was a pupil here. I walked this way for two years and I recall the intensity with which I waited for the weekend. Whenever I take a walk, I will always linger in this yard. Time passes and I am changed. I changed myself to this present. Thinking of the screening activities tomorrow night, the sense of confusion in time and space is even more disorientating than my nervousness. Many memories and thoughts are sprouting and drifting through in my mind simultaneously, just like the blossoms around me in Jixiang Village in March.

The first event took place on Spring Equinox (21-03-2019), an annual event during which the older generation of the village meet and eat together for three days in the community centre. Like the old men and women, the community centre has also been affected by many changes during its lifetime. Going back to before the 1950’s when many of the older people present were children, the site hosted the village temple. It subsequently became a primary school for their children and finally a community center for the elderly. Jixing shared his film Village Temple on this occasion as a work in progress. The film is a semi-documentary, recording the event of the recent funeral of He Zhengkun, who played the Erhu in the local orchestra, as well as an interview with retired primary school teacher Mu Zhang about the site and its history.