Brave New World 【美麗新世界】

美麗新世界 

    我每天溜狗都會經過這兒，穿過高架路下的柏油路與濕地，再走上一條小斜坡，眼前遠山與天橋的景色就會呈現。

     腳下所走的是行車路，石壆下是一條出海的河流，前方的行人天橋卻通往一片空地，正對著空地的是偌大的火車站。空地現在是跳蚤市場，假日裡人來人往，小孩踩著單車，狗與狗主在溜躂；有時候你會看見附近的居民在橋邊垂釣，又或附近種田的專門把自己的收成拿到橋上擺賣；有時候你又會看到專程到這兒拍攝候鳥的人士。

    住在這兒的村民會對我說：從前在這兒擔水耕田很辛苦！也有村民笑著對我說：小時候在田邊看見這兒的景色真是美極了！我可以想像八百多年前族人為了逃避戰亂，從中土遷到此處，看見這裡有山、有水，於是就定居在這裡，把一片沃土開拓出錦田阡陌。

   為了發展，這裡的土地早在二十多年前已被開拓興建鐵路站，本來因為經濟不景而擱置的發展藍圖亦將重新啟動。遠山下農人在收割的情景也許只能在博物館的巨幅照片中去感受。可以預見不久的將來，遠山下將會出現一座座樓房，商場食肆應運而生，人們憧景著這一片土地所帶來的新生活。

    借反烏托邦文學作品——「美麗新世界」為題：我們所期待的美好世界，是否我們想要的？

Brave New World

    Every day I walk my dog through here, through the asphalt road and wetland under elevated highway, and then walk up a small slope, the scenery of the distant mountains and the little bridge will be emerged.

    The road at my feet is a traffic road. Below the parapet wall is a river that goes to the sea. In front of the pedestrian bridge leads to a open space with huge railway station.  The open space is a Sunday market now.  During holidays, people come and go, children are on bicycles, and dogs and dog owners are strolling around; sometimes you will see neighborhood fishing by the bridge, or nearby farmers who bring their own harvest specially and sometimes you will see people who make a special trip here to take pictures of migratory birds.

    Original inhabitants said to me: “It was very hard to carry water to irrigate the paddy fields here!”  Some villagers also smiled and said to me:” When I was child, I saw the field scenery here is really beautiful!”   I could imagine when people escaped war from central China more than 800 years ago, they settled down here and opened up thousand paddy fields from a piece of fertile soil by seeing mountains and water here.

    For urban development, there was opened up to build a railway station more than 20 years ago, although the plan for development  was put on hold because of economic crisis but will be restarted soon. The harvesting scene of the farmers in the distant mountains may only be felt in the huge photos of the museum. It is foreseeable that in the near future, buildings will appear under the distant mountains, shopping malls and restaurants will emerge as times go by, and people will look forward to the new life from this land.

    Borrowing the name of dystopian social science fiction novel: "Brave new world" as the topic: what the beautiful world we are looking forward to, is this what we want?