The auspicious light and feathers are all gold, jade, pearls and shells
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Just as social culture shapes our personality, the relationship between space and human life is also closely related. Not only the basic needs of housing, but also the need for insight and cultivation.
Master of modern architecture Le. Kirby once proposed architectural theories such as “Architecture is a machine for living”, “Five Principles of Architecture”, and “Glorious City”, which reshaped the relationship between people and space. It also allowed me to think about my past experiences of living and staying in different cities and places, and projected them into the epitome of Ge Fang’s life.
And the German philosopher Martin. Heidegger also said, “The treasure hunter only has a searchlight in his hand. The direction the searchlight points determines what he “sees” and also makes him “unable to see” other treasures.”
Holding a searchlight in hand, I went back to the beginning of my memory. My impression of the first space in my life was at the north gate of Hsinchu City. In the impression, a traditional Minnan-style building can be vaguely seen, with sparse flowers and trees on both sides, and at the end of the corridor is a huge greenhouse, in which various rare orchids are planted.
It was the environment where my father grew up, and it was also the place where I was first conceived. Although my memory is extremely vague, I still remember a little white dog wagging its tail at me in a friendly manner from time to time. As a child, I took small steps and chased and played with the white dog in the garden.
The grandfather with white hair once worked as a [Hsinchu City Beimen Elementary School](https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%96%B0%E7%AB%B9%E5%B8%82%E5%8C%97%E 5%8D%80%E5%8C%97%E9%96%80%E5%9C%8B%E6%B0%91%E5%B0%8F%E5%AD%B8) The first principal and education bureau inspector had a scholarly style, just like a figure from the annals of history. All this combines my first impression of my hometown and my imagination of the Windy City.
The transformation of space often creates completely different conversations. After my sister was born, our family moved to Taipei City. My parents first rented a house in Neihu, and then finally settled in Minsheng Community. It was an American-style community with many parks, green spaces and schools. The summer evening breeze accompanied my carefree childhood, and the sound of reading loudly echoed in the small apartment facing south.
Friends all know that I am addicted to reading. This is actually a habit I have developed since I was a child. I have read the inspirational book “A Boat in the Ocean” recommended by my mother at least a thousand times, and I was most impressed. In the afternoon sunlight that refracts into the room, the yellowed pages of the book look particularly dazzling and brilliant, as if they are leading the little sailors who are about to set sail towards the great waterway.
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When I was in the fifth grade of elementary school, I went abroad with my father for the first time. In the icy Chiba (https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8D%83%E8%91%89%E5%B8%82), peanuts were everywhere as far as the eye could see near a friend’s house. When I visited the old place many years later, the vast peanut field turned into Tokyo Disneyland (https://www.tokyodisneyresort.jp/top.html).
When I was a child, I grabbed a hand full of toy airplanes, which suddenly turned into huge steel wings in the sky. I lamented the rapid changes in time and space, and felt even more insignificant.
[Marcel. Proust](https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%A6%AC%E5%A1%9E%E7%88%BE%C2%B7%E6%99%AE%E9%AD%AF% E6%96%AF%E7%89%B9) believes that people’s lives only form “real life” in memories, and “the life in memories is more realistic than the real life at that time.” When I was a child, I couldn’t understand this logic, but now I think about it, it is indeed true.
I still remember going back to Hsinchu to visit graves at the end of February, and wandering in front of the [Nagu Hall on Dapingding in Xiangshan] (http://dep-hcfaa.hccg.gov.tw/web/SG?command=display&pageID=24573&page=view). I had a panoramic view of Hsinchu. The seemingly ordinary sea and sky were all moving.
Standing in this familiar scenery, I suddenly had a different understanding: whether it was the longing for my father or the inexplicable longing for my hometown, in the tears that came from the corners of my eyes, they gradually intertwined and merged into a dense network of memories. It is said that memories are often more real than reality, but they also inadvertently wrap themselves up airtight.
Oh, the fragments of life in just a few decades are like a marquee, constantly rotating in different spaces and aspects, like a pair of puppets on a music box, dancing spontaneously, or like a program with a broken structure, running in circles endlessly.
From Hsinchu to Taipei, and then from Taipei to Tokyo. No matter when or where you are, whether you are accompanied by your family or alone, the question in your heart is always-how can you face your true self and bravely embark on an unknown journey? Then, in your limited life, do something meaningful and make those lost years the happiest memories.
The poems and articles of our ancestors, to others, are just flowing clouds and flowing water, but to our descendants, they are like gold, jade, and pearls. ──Qing. Li Luyuan’s “Qilu Lamp” Chapter 92
★ Featured image credit: Sandy Millar
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