A child in the country smells of crop fields burning. The disappearance of farming family’s backyards that host travellers for home cooked meals shifts the tone of remembrance from 1990s to 2010s in Sichuan, after which comes the pronounced needs to impress the collective mind that include solid highways leading to new airport and territories under development.
A child in the country memorises Chengdu. The view has been replaced, of dimly lit houses far beyond land that was interacted upon for harvest. The drive to the foot of mountains no longer makes visible road side fruit trucks with light bulbs hanging on ropes. The mountains rendered into mere destinations passing through hard shoulders.
What is unnoticeable and at once convenient spells out the ways to alter one’s existing connections to place. Relying on senses, memories reveal houses with burnt logs, of the still gentle and warm lights, of an internal world unfolding in a car seat.
Senses alone are not capable of upholding rationales of absence.
