“The more local something is, the more valuable it becomes.” Take the time to become an anthropologist of your hometown.

Text & Photos /“European Northbound Travel Observation Diary”by Tsai Fuda

The more local, the more valuable.

“I’ve walked into many cities, yet it felt like walking into a mirror. In my mind, I felt like I’d been here before. I step out, only to end up in the same place again.” These few short lines were jotted down in a travel notebook. The world looks so similar because this is the version most people prefer.

Every time I visit places untouched by excessive polishing, I find them even more enchanting.

Drifting along the Nine Bend Stream, the boatman O gently paddles the boat, introducing us along the way to his “home,” where generations have lived. The steep cliffs on both sides are marked with historical inscriptions left by scholars and poets, and there are families fishing by the stream.

“Hey, look up—just a few hundred meters above the water surface, you’ll see the ‘hanging coffins’ from 3,800 years ago, buried within the cliffs. How those coffins were placed so high on the cliff face remains a mystery to this day.”

The murmuring sound of flowing water, the shouts of Boatman O, the chirping of insects and birds, and the clinking of bamboo rafts—all without any added embellishments—still create a painting-like scene. The uniquely local, original way of life, the phrase “people moving through a painting,” once just words, now takes on vivid imagery and life, all right here in my memory.

We’re all chasing after the waves, but forget to admire the most moving essence that creates those waves: water. How a city “grows” from the land, bearing fruit of a uniquely local cultural life, will be the absolute factor that captures the world’s attention.

“The more local it is, actually, the more value it holds.”

How much time are you willing to spend becoming an anthropologist of your own hometown? And then, when the time is right, becoming the hand that gives it a gentle push forward.