Way down deep in Suzhou’s south lies the crown jewel in all of China’s Jiangnan water towns. Affording deep contemplation, millennium-old authenticity, untroubled tranquility among the blossoms and credentials in poetry beyond compare; all are about to come knocking in Lili.
苏州南部深处坐落着中国所有江南水乡皇冠上的明珠。深沉的沉思，千年的真实，花丛中的无忧无虑的宁静，无与伦比的诗意；所有人都快要来敲莉莉的门了。
“Now my black eyes
Wake up earlier than the night written on the trees
I see the white breeze of pear trees
Playing with the speckled shadows on the walls
As if it came from another spring
As if it were another soul walking nimbly on my feet.”
“现在我的黑眼睛比树上写的夜早醒了，看见梨树的白风，玩弄着墙上斑驳的影子，仿佛来自另一个春天，又仿佛是另一个灵魂，敏捷地走在我的脚上。”
[Excerpt from the poem “Now My Black Eyes” by Lan Lan translated by Fan Jinghua]
【摘自范景华译兰兰诗《现在我的黑眼睛》】
The celebrations around the pear blossoms of Lili Ancient Town kicked off on 2 April, 2024. and last until 19 May. For good reason; folklore states that the town is dominated by pear blossoms at this time annually.
黎里古镇梨花节于2024年4月2日拉开帷幕，持续至5月19日。有充分的理由；民间传说每年这个时候梨花盛开。
This year’s outing sees Lili laying on a specially curated spring experience, in which the focus is culture, sightseeing and serenity; cue activities such as flower arranging with expert instruction.
今年的出游，丽丽精心策划了一场春天体验，重点是文化、观光和宁静；在专家指导下进行插花等提示活动。
They are nods to a peaceful past. And one in which nothing much happened for half a millennium or more. It’s precisely what gives Lili its charm.
它们是对和平过去的致敬。半个世纪或更久以来，没有发生过什么大事。这正是莉莉的魅力所在。
It also presented somewhat of a conundrum to the tourist-eyeing officialdom of today. The southern parts of Jiangsu are literally awash with water towns, drawing in the hoards with their social-media opportunities, brides to be and the trappings of consumerism. Yet, despite having been rated among China’s “Top Ten Towns & Villages for Slow Travel” in 2012, Lili now seeks to forge a new path, one featuring touristic sustainability with an eye on that which has never been done before.
这也给当今关注游客的官方机构带来了一些难题。江苏南部地区到处都是水乡，以其社交媒体机会、准新娘和消费主义的象征吸引着大量囤积者。然而，尽管在2012年被评为中国“十大慢行村镇”，丽丽现在正寻求开辟一条新的道路，一条以旅游可持续发展为特色的道路，着眼于前所未见的道路。
Hence today, Lili is home to a museum dedicated not to Chinese royalty as one might expect, but the exact opposite; the plain, working-class pseudo wealthy. And as a visit reveals, there is truly nothing like it, in China or literally anywhere else on Earth.
因此，今天，丽丽成为了一座博物馆的所在地，该博物馆并非像人们想象的那样专门展示中国皇室，而是恰恰相反。普通的工薪阶层伪富人。正如一次访问所揭示的那样，无论在中国还是地球上的任何其他地方，确实没有类似的事情。
American Mitch Dudeck is Founder of the Six Arts Museum and was the China founding partner of an international law firm. Coming to the Middle Kingdom in 1981, when he wasn’t scratching out a living in legal speak, Dudeck was scavenging far and wide. He’d become addicted to China’s folk arts; common treasures that were then more often than not being destroyed in pursuit of a better life and the name of progress. There’s the cute, the not-so cuddly and even an entire pawn shop.
美国人米奇·杜德克（Mitch Dudeck）是六美术馆的创始人，也是一家国际律师事务所的中国创始合伙人。 1981 年，杜德克来到中国，当时他还没有靠法律界谋生，他就开始四处搜刮。他对中国的民间艺术产生了浓厚的兴趣。当时，为了追求更好的生活和以进步的名义，这些共同的财富常常被摧毁。有可爱的，不那么可爱的，甚至还有整个当铺。
Some 40,000 items in fact, painstakingly collected and in some cases, restored, but all preserved in their originality, and now on display in that which is the largest of its kind anywhere and the first major museum funded by a foreigner in China.
事实上，大约有 40,000 件物品经过精心收集，在某些情况下还得到了修复，但都保留了其原汁原味，现在在中国同类博物馆中规模最大、也是由外国人资助的第一个大型博物馆中展出。
Those same pieces of folk art, selected from the many tens of thousands more accumulated in warehouses in Shanghai that Dudeck keeps for purpose, have also made for the perfect materials with which to build the Six Arts Hotel on the same site. Therein, some 5,000 pieces of folk art comprise the Hotel’s decoration, making each of the 50 irregularly-shaped rooms bespoke, although creaking wooden floorboards and red push-button 1990s telephones connecting guests with reception do seem to be a standard.
这些民间艺术品是从杜德克专门保留在上海仓库中的数以万计的民间艺术品中挑选出来的，它们也成为了在同一地点建造六艺酒店的完美材料。其中，约 5,000 件民间艺术品构成了酒店的装饰，使 50 间形状不规则的客房每间都是定制的，尽管吱吱作响的木地板和连接客人与接待处的 90 年代红色按钮电话似乎是标准配置。
It is that kind of preservation which has in fact turned out to be a watchword for Lili, either by accident or design. Today, the town’s river can also perhaps be termed a canal on account of its gates which for eons have been lowered to prevent access by outsiders, including those with hostile intentions.
事实上，这种保护已成为莉莉的口号，无论是偶然还是有意为之。如今，该镇的河流或许也可以被称为运河，因为它的闸门已经被降低了亿万年，以防止外来者（包括那些怀有敌意的人）进入。
As a result, it is said, Lili was left unscathed by the Second Sino-Japanese War; the gates on the river had been the key to saving many lives.
据说，在抗日战争中，丽丽毫发无伤。河上的闸门是拯救许多生命的关键。
The river, meanwhile, has been pivotal to life itself in Lili since time immortal. And commerce. Dating back to the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BCE), Lili stands apart from other Jiangnan water towns for its verandas.
与此同时，这条河自古以来就对莉莉的生命本身至关重要。还有商业。黎里的历史可以追溯到春秋时期（公元前770-476年），因其阳台而与其他江南水乡不同。
With almost 800 years of history, the piazzas that still today line much of the waterway providing shelter from sun and rain were the result of imaginative local entrepreneurs. With the Jiangnan area already then a focal point of commerce, same seated verandas were also ideal for displaying the countless products for sale by local tradespeople.
拥有近 800 年历史的广场，至今仍沿大部分水道排列，提供遮阳避雨的场所，是富有想象力的当地企业家的成果。由于江南地区当时已成为商业中心，同样的座位阳台也非常适合展示当地商人出售的无数产品。
Facilitating it all back then, all 256 homes in the ancient town also had their own mooring on the river, comprised of a stone jetty and an accompanying pair of steps descending to the water. There, villagers would receive sundries by way of a kind of ancient form of express courier delivery.
为了方便这一切，古镇上的所有 256 栋房屋在河上都有自己的停泊处，由一个石头码头和一对通向水面的台阶组成。在那里，村民们会通过一种古老的快递方式接收杂物。
The moorings remain one of Lili’s star attractions in the online age, while the significance or coincidence of 256 being 2 to the power of 8 remains something over which scholars still pontificate today.
停泊处仍然是莉莉在网络时代的明星景点之一，而 256 是 2 的 8 次方的意义或巧合仍然是学者们至今仍在争论的问题。
Many of their forefathers are also to be found in a kind of “Who’s Who” for Lili. Most noteworthy is Liu Yazi (1887-1958), the poet and social activist regarded as the “last outstanding poet of the traditional school”. That activist nature within Liu became a key objective for the South Society, the country’s largest literature and poetry organisation during the late Qing dynasty, which he co-founded in Lili.
他们的许多祖先也可以在Lili的“Who’s Who”中找到。 最值得注意的是刘亚子（1887-1958），这位诗人和社会活动家被认为是“传统学派最后一位杰出诗人”。 刘内部的激进天性成为南方社会的一个关键目标，南方社会是清朝晚期中国最大的文学和诗歌组织，他在李里共同创立了该组织。
So while the tour groups have of late also began to come knocking at Lili’s door, rampant commercialism will not be. That Starbucks is relegated away from the beautiful canal to a run-of-the-mill street in the town of Lili itself is the best evidence of all for the smart, deliberate moves which have been made by local authorities to keep Lili largely as it has been for the past thousand years.
因此，虽然旅游团最近也开始敲Lili的门，但猖獗的商业主义不会。 星巴克从美丽的运河被贬低到莉莉镇的一条普通街道上，这是地方当局为保持莉莉在过去一千年中基本上保持的明智、刻意的举措的最好证据。
And while those Yuan Dynasty entrepreneurs under the verandas may now be gone, the perennial pear blossom has not escaped the attention of local bakers. Among the speciality products for sale along the banks of the Lichuan River today is Begonia Cake. Could anything else be more fitting?
虽然那些在阳台下的元朝企业家现在可能已经走了，但多年生的梨花并没有逃脱当地面包师的注意。 今天在利川河畔出售的特色产品中，有海棠花蛋糕。 还有什么更合适的吗？
