Outsider

There is a residential building. We can only see windows and fire escapes from the street, but those doors seem never to have been opened, and those windows never closed— even in a rainy day. Through the windows, we can see a variety of objects hanging or laying there: an empty soy sauce bottle, a cookie box wrapped with a red plastic bag, an old refrigerator, pale blue underpants and a clean white sheet hanging on a red string. These objects that are consistently there make this building lifeless.

Perhaps it is not just this residential building, but the entire Chinatown that never opens or closes.

San Francisco’s Chinatown, as a bridge between eastern and western culture, is not an unfamiliar place to Chinese or American nationals. It was once the only way that most Americans got in touch with Chinese culture, and was also the American dream to many immigrants from China.

However, nowadays local westerners consider Chinatown as a neighborhood filled with chaos: with restaurants that violate a litany of fire and health codes, and open markets that are full of crowds and crazy people. It is a tourists trap located between Union Square and Fisherman’s Wharf, and there is no culture in a tourist place. People come and go, no one really stays in this area, and so there is no culture.

I had stubbornly believed that San Franciscans are saying this because they are outsiders that have never really tried to understand the culture of Chinatown. As a Chinese national, I was trying to start this Chinatown project with an "insider" perspective… until I realized that the country that I had been born and raised in is totally different from this place.

China is rapidly developing. Modernization and urbanization never stops. Chinese students and immigrants coming to the US are no longer staying trapped in the Chinatown, but are getting to know the other parts of San Francisco, the real America. However, time seems frozen in Chinatown. Everything stays the same as decades ago. Chinatown exists in a separate space, and the rules of time out there work different than the neighboring area. Those immigrants, who have been living here since the time paused, maintaining the streets and the lifestyle, become the culture of Chinatown. They are the outsiders of the modern world.

局外人

这是一栋居民楼，临街的这一面布满了窗户和逃生梯的门，那些逃生梯的门好像从来没有打开过，那些窗户好像也从来未曾关上，即使是在下着雨的日子里。透过这些窗户，可以看到住户们悬挂着或者码放着各式各样的物件，酱油瓶子，套了一层红色塑料袋的饼干盒，被墙遮挡住一半的冰箱，悬挂在窗帘绳儿上的浅蓝色的秋裤或是洗白的床单。这些常年不变的却与生活息息相关的小物件，让这栋居民楼显得没有一点儿生气。

或者并不只是这一栋楼，而是整个中国城。

中国城这样一个地方，作为东西方文化的一个连接点，我想无论是中国人还是美国人都不会陌生。这里或许是大部分美国人了解中国文化的唯一来源，也或许是许多华人的美国梦。

然而，时间改变了人们对于中国城的认识。现在的中国城在当地人的眼中已经成为了一个旅游景点，一个有着拥挤杂乱的露天市场和大量卫生不达标的餐馆的地方，一个位于联合广场和渔人码头之间的“疯狂”街区。而旅游景点，是没有文化可言的。人群来来往往，却没有人真正停留，也就留不住所谓的文化。

我也曾固执地认为，这是因为他们是局外人。我试图用一个自以为是的“局内人”的角度去开始这个中国城的主题，却发现自己所生长的中国和这里完全不同。中国在飞快的变化着，现代化的脚步从未停歇。现在来美国的中国人不再被局限在这一个街区里，他们逐渐熟悉了中国城之外的旧金山。可中国城并没有随着时代的发展而变化，时间在这个地方仿佛是静止的，这里的一切还保持着几十年前的模样。中国城停留在了一个独立的空间之中，外界的时间法则在这里并不适用。那些从几十年前开始便生活在这里的人们，维持着他们的一直以来的生活形态，成为了这个时代的局外人。