Beijing. Is there truly such a thing as an "urban village"?

北京。难道“城中村”真实存在？

Pockets of land turn inside out and back, are torn apart and sown again differently, unwanted elements dropped aside into obscurity. They morph from affluence, to dereliction, to cramped opportunity, to showpiece. Villages become suburbs become nothing. Well, not nothing, let’s say they’re “green”...

一小块一小块的地，像口袋一样被从里到外翻转再折回去，被拆开又用不同的方式缝起来，无人收拾的元素被忘却。它们从富裕中现形，再走向衰落破败、局促困顿，最后成为展品。村子变成城郊，变为虚无。嗯，也不是虚无，是一片“绿地”。

Names and functions change. In 1939, invaders discover quality clay deposits in the decayed dynasty’s hunting grounds east of the Ming wall. Dabeiyao (Big North Kiln) is built, both the oven and the community named after it. A section of Dabeiyao hurriedly fulfills the wartime purpose of a Huàshīyíng (bodies camp). When the war is over something less gloomy is due; its name (un)comfortably switches to Huàshíyíng (fossils camp). In their waves, its inhabitants accommodate each new local industry filling the grassroots workforce vacuum and feeding economic growth over the decades. Surviving all the way from the industrial period, to the construction period, to the digital age somehow without being swept under the tide of rapid gentrification, it is surrounded and outnumbered by glassy behemoths of really, really central (although not completely central).....business.

名字和功能随着时间发生改变。1939年，在没落王朝都城的城墙东边，入侵者发现了优质细土。大北窑的历史自此开始——既是描述当时最高的烟囱，也成为这一地区的代名词。战争时期，大北窑的一小块地被征用做“化尸营”；战争结束后，进入欣欣向荣的新时代，这个阴郁的名字被改为更得体的“化石营”。一波一波的浪潮，这里的居民是一批批随着产业变迁而流动至此的务工人员，滋养着几十年来的经济发展。神奇的是，这一小块地没有被快速高档化的浪潮淹没，一路从工业时代、大建高楼时代，存活至信息时代，被高耸的玻璃巨兽包围、压制，处于核心商业的中央……

Truths, semi-realities, and fantasies follow:

如下，一些真实、半虚构、幻想：

Veil over the patchwork reality with facades, both glitzy and/or rustic, streamlining the fetishisation of rich cultural heritage and domesticated nature for commercial growth.

错落有致的现实被浮华或质朴的外墙掩映，对古老的文化符号的迷恋和为商业发展而驯化的自然像流水线一样批量生产。

All that sand is utterly useless when it’s just lying on the sea bed like that.

假如砂石只是静静躺在海床上，它们将毫无用处。

When it comes to finding both fortune and discarded tiles, their uncertain shapes, ceramic on ceramic, chance is a dance. There may not be many opportunities to crack out that jazz hand.

无论是求财致富，还是被遗弃的瓷砖，无定形，瓷片堆着瓷片，运气是一场乱舞——不是每次都能甩出那别具一格的爵士手。

Bold moves are for the greater good. Although, along the way there might be some who are "cute without the e".

大胆的行动是为了更大的利益，虽然沿路一定有些被“割伤”的人。

Grey isn’t a shade, it’s a colour, a magnificent colour at that. It’s the colour of the bricks, or the tiles pretending to be bricks, and the cement that binds them. Though sometimes it must be fenced in behind far more shimmery glass surfaces.

灰，不是一个色度，是一种颜色，一种伟大的颜色。砖块、想要成为砖块的瓷砖、将两者合为一体的水泥，都是灰色的。虽然有些时候，要把灰色囚禁在闪闪发光的玻璃表面之后。

It doesn’t matter whether brownfield land can become greenfield once again or not.

弃置的棕地能不能再一次变回自然的绿地，无关紧要了。

Yes, we still need your steel for this area. No, you can’t make it here anymore, move further out.

是的，这个地区仍然需要你的钢材。不，你不能再在这里生产了，搬远点。

If a corner is cut you may not find out what is really around it.

假如一个角落被切开，你可能再也无法看清它的原貌。