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Dazexiang

Ivan Yi-fan Hu · 2024.2.13–20

No ticket needed because

the place you have come to

is not one you're encouraged to visit

where is the entrance

you must make your way past starch sausages

stinky tofu toy guns

and

horns suona

electronic dance music

The great marsh is nowhere to be seen

what happened two thousand years ago

there's no way to check

but you trip over a bamboo skewer

a plastic bottle smiles at you

on that rainy day

did the nine hundred conscripts

lie like this too

But what you share

is more than this

are they born of different stock

calling yourself King Chen

you still need

the name Zhang Chu

red writing on a white strip inside a fish

a fox's cry beside the campfire

are they different stock after all

you want to prove

you belonged among them all along

Your coachman cuts off your head

you remember the words

you spoke that year while ploughing

but these too

are drowned in merry music

who will mention

the forbidden song of praise

You would never have thought

the person livestreaming

would use it as an advertisement

the display board says

after the sale

the surplus value

will go toward

building a beautiful Dazexiang

First draft, afternoon of 13 February 2024, Dazexiang, Suzhou, Anhui

Revised 16 February

Revised 20 February

All Rights Reserved © Ivan Yi-fan Hu