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February 14, 2026MOUNTAIN CITY MEMORIES
Paper-cut outdoor light installation Materials: acrylic, aluminum, wood Outdoor Installation Creation: 2026
MOUNTAIN CITY MEMORIES
Mountain City Memories draws on the hollow-cut language of traditional Chinese paper-cutting and transforms it into a large-scale outdoor light installation. Built with aluminum, acrylic, and internal lighting, eleven interconnected scenes reconstruct fragments of everyday life in old Chongqing. The work explores how traditional craft can be reinterpreted through contemporary materials, scale, and public space—becoming a shared experience of light, memory, and place.
《邻里时光》Neighbors
小时候，家门总开着，怕热。
梳头、纳鞋底、织毛衣，家里的活都拿到外面做，敞亮。
有人路过，摆几句龙门阵，爽朗一笑。
现在，家门总关着，怕冷。
家事、职场、心情都写在朋友圈，仅自己可见。
有人路过，小心翼翼侧过身子。
仿佛与昨天的你擦肩而过。
When I was small, our doors were always open, for fear of the heat.
Combing hair, stitching shoe soles, knitting sweaters:
all the housework was carried outside, into the open light.
Someone passing would stop to spin a yarn,
then go on their way with a hearty laugh.
Now our doors are always shut, for fear of the cold.
Family troubles, work, our moods, all posted online,
visible to “Only Me.”
Someone passing turns sideways, careful not to brush against us,
as if brushing past the you of yesterday.
《游戏》Games
格子总是会跳着跳着就淡了。
铁环总是会滚着滚着就倒了。
斗鸡总是会斗着斗着就摔了。
滑梯总是会滑着滑着就旧了。
而朋友，总是会走着走着就散了。
The hopscotch squares fade as we hop and hop.
The iron hoop topples as it rolls and rolls.
The rooster fights end in a tumble as we clash and clash.
The slide grows old as we slide and slide.
And friends drift apart as we walk and walk.
《过年》New Year
谁不想过年呢？
零嘴、舞龙、新衣，烟花。
拿着压岁钱，美美睡一觉，醒来就是明年。
什么时候开始不想过年了呢？
或许，是我再也没有压岁钱了吧。
也或许，是发给我压岁钱那些人的面孔，陆续模糊了吧。
骗子！压岁钱，明明就没有压住岁月啊！
Who doesn’t long for New Year?
Snacks, dragon dances, new clothes, fireworks.
Clutch your New Year money, sleep a sweet sleep,
and wake up in the year to come.
When did I stop longing for it?
Perhaps when there was no more New Year money for me.
Or perhaps when the faces of those who gave it
began, one by one, to blur.
Liars! They said this money would hold back the years,
yet it never held back a single one!
《裁缝铺》
The Tailor’s Shop
妈妈说，一件衣服要有里有面。
可我总在捡漏哥哥姐姐穿剩下的衣服。
等过年了，才能扯几尺布。
裁缝郑重其事用皮尺量我的尺寸。
我便时时去看，哒哒哒的缝纫机啊，
哪一件才是我的新衣服呢？
妈妈，即便还要等好久，但是我还是好欢喜。
因为我的新衣服，有里又有面。
Mother said a good garment must have both a lining and a face.
Yet I always wore what my brother and sister outgrew.
Only at New Year could we buy a few feet of cloth.
The tailor took my measurements with his tape, solemn as a ceremony.
Then I kept going back to look. Da-da-da went the sewing machine.
Which one, which one would be my new clothes?
Mother, even though I had to wait so long, I was so happy,
because my new clothes had a lining and a face.
《夏夜》Summer Nights
大人的蒲扇、水井里的西瓜、凉床上的夜空、
虫子的啁啾中，跑来跑去。
你把萤火虫装进瓶子里，可是它终究会暗去。
就好像你想把童年装进记忆里，可它终将也会忘却。
The grown-ups’ palm-leaf fans, watermelons cooling in the well,
the night sky above the bamboo bed,
and through the chirring of insects, you ran back and forth.
You caught fireflies in a jar, but their light went out in the end,
just as you try to keep childhood in your memory,
and in the end, it too will be forgotten.
《露天电影》The Open-Air Cinema
你不认识李连杰，
但是却带着小板凳、军用水壶、手电筒，
高一脚低一程，夜里赶了几里地，
奔赴一场露天电影。
而今，你开上了汽车。
但是好像很少有什么值得你义无反顾的奔赴。
是啊，李连杰已经老了。
You had never heard of Jet Li,
yet with a little stool, an army canteen and a flashlight,
stumbling high and low, you walked miles through the night
to reach an open-air film.
Now you drive a car,
yet there seems so little left
worth rushing toward without a second thought.
Yes. Jet Li has grown old.
《农忙》The Harvest Break
还记得农忙假吗？
农忙其实是假的，但是假却是真的。
没有玩具的孩子，漫山遍野处处都是玩具。
以放牛的名义，在河沟里打滚，草垛里捉迷藏，在河里摸鱼……
后来和老家的大伯打电话，他念叨说又到了农忙。
可是，我的假期却没有了。
Remember the harvest break?
The farm work was only for show,
but the holiday was for real.
For children with no toys,
the whole hillside was full of toys.
Sent out to mind the buffalo, we rolled in the ditches,
played hide-and-seek in the haystacks, felt for fish in the stream…
Years later, on the phone with my uncle back home,
he mentioned that harvest time had come round again.
But my holiday was gone.
《赶场》Market Day
赶场，
有人肩挑手扛背负，担住生计。
有人用一辆自行车，载着全家。
草绳挂起的五花肉，爸爸看了好几眼。
几尺花布，妈妈摸了又摸。
可是，那时我好傻，只会盯着供销社玻璃柜里的水果糖。
如果一切可以重来，我只想再看看你们年轻的模样。
Market day.
Some came with loads on their shoulders, in their arms, on their backs,
carrying the weight of a living.
Some came on a single bicycle,
the whole family on board.
At the pork belly hung on straw rope, Father looked, and looked again.
The few feet of flowered cloth, Mother touched, and touched again.
But I was such a fool back then.
All I could see were the fruit candies
behind the glass of the co-op counter.
If I could live it all once more,
I would only want to look again
at how young you both were.
《放学》After School
最爱的当然是放学。
口袋里几个钢镚，买不起小卖部里的酸梅粉、泡泡糖、水果糖……
坐在台阶上看连环画，看到天边擦黑，才想起回家。
可是……可是……
我怎么也找不着回家的路了。
原来，我已经放学太久了呀。
What I loved most, of course, was the end of the school day.
A few coins in my pocket were never enough
for the sour-plum powder, the bubble gum, the fruit candy in the corner shop.
So I sat on the steps with my picture-books
until the edge of the sky went dark,
and only then remembered to go home.
But… but…
Now I cannot find my way home at all.
Ah, school let out so very long ago.
《屋檐》The Eaves
从前慢，车马、邮件都慢。
都怪邮递员，那封手写的信，三十多年还没送到你手上。
半开的窗里，桌上饭菜尚有余温，
座上的人都似曾相识……而你，
依然还是那个屋檐下，呆呆望着屋梁上腊肉的少年。
Once, everything moved slowly: carts, horses, letters.
Blame the postman.
That handwritten letter has wandered thirty-some years
and still has not reached your hands.
Through the half-open window, the dishes on the table are still warm,
and every face around it seems one you’ve known…
And you are still that boy beneath the eaves,
gazing up, lost, at the cured pork hanging from the beams.
《缆车》The Cable Car
长在江岸的吊脚楼，船来船往的朝天门。
可是朋友啊，缆车其实不是网红，也不是景点。
小时候，从长江这一头，到长江那一头，觉得好远好远。
现在看，从人生那一头，到人生这一头，我已经走了好远好远。
Stilt houses rooted along the riverbanks,
boats coming and going at Chaotianmen.
But my friend, the cable car was never an internet sensation,
nor a sight for tourists.
As a child, from this end of the Yangtze to that end,
it seemed so very far.
Now I see that from that end of life to this end,
I have come so very far.
