一样的古镇 不一样的乌镇

文/ 胡梓宸

乌镇西栅景区。The Wuzhen Xizha Scenic Area.

犹记得，那年中考刚考完，刷了整宿的剧，天一亮便和要好的一帮初中同学一起直奔乌镇了。如今想来，除了感叹年轻真好之外，还能清楚地记得当时有部挺火的电视剧叫《似水年华》，以及那句广告词“来过，便不曾离开”，给了许多人一个关于江南水乡的梦，即使是我们这些从小生长在江南的花季少男少女，也免不了对乌镇这个地方怀抱着憧憬与期待。如果说初中毕业时对乌镇的印象仅仅停留在“传统”二字上，那么时隔十几年后再次踏上这片土地时，我开始惊喜于它在保有“传统”内核的基础上又被赋予了“现代”的新颜。

这种“传统”包含了风土、历史、人文，乌镇人对故土的眷恋以及对文脉的传承；这种“现代”指的则是乌镇的保护再开发、对文化艺术的复兴，乌镇人对故土改造的热忱以及与文脉相结合的商脉革新。两者交织，既有诗情画意，又充满生机活力。

诗画乌镇，自然与人文的交融

欲说还休的江南烟雨，缓缓流淌的旧时光，斑驳婉转的小桥流水，丰姿柔媚的粉墙黛瓦，暖意氤氲的枕水人家，轻语摇曳的摇橹船，香茗袅袅的长街茶馆，悠长徘徊的青青石板路，随风飘扬的蓝印花布，还有深巷中背影婀娜、撑着油纸伞的一个丁香一样结着愁怨的姑娘……似乎所有充满诗意之词都应该用来形容这座江南水乡的美好与韵味，它如一抹浅浅的墨色，在一张柔软的宣纸上轻轻地描绘着，却没有任何一张画能尽善尽美地勾勒出所有人心目中的乌镇。

因为，它的内涵实在太丰富了。

乌镇不仅有雅致与市井并存的自然风光，更有无数人文历史故事。这里地处自古富饶优渥的杭嘉湖平原，北达苏州，南接杭州，号称“天上有苏杭，乌镇在湖心”。拥有7000多年文明史和1300多年建镇史的乌镇，以水为街，以岸为市，两岸民居建筑面向河水，形成了迷人的水乡风光，古老的大运河孕育了它丰沛的文化涵养和深厚的历史品格，使其成为“诗画江南”的独特代表。

历史上的乌镇曾出过64名进士、161名举人，昭明太子、沈约、裴休、鲍延博、夏同善、严辰、沈泽民、严独鹤、孔令境、茅盾……这些灵杰无不是乌镇的骄傲，同时也对故乡乌镇情有独钟。

活力乌镇，故土与热土的结合

谈到乌镇的蜕变，当地人常会想起一个人—陈向宏。与乌镇的先人前辈们一样，他对故土有一种难以割舍的情怀，与现实相结合，从而生发出更高的期待。在外人口中，他是乌镇旅游景区总裁、总设计师，也是乌镇戏剧节的发起人之一 ；身边一起工作的同事、下属习惯称他为“陈主任”；而他个人则常自诩“包工头”。但无论称呼如何，不可否认的是，这座栖居在桐乡之北的小镇之所以能成为人们现在看到的“中国乌镇”“世界互联网大会永久举办地”，陈向宏功不可没。

1999年大年初一，乌镇发生了一场大火，正是这场火灾，命运般地把陈向宏“带回”了故乡。时任桐乡市政府办公室主任的他，被市里派去安置受灾百姓。工作结束后，市领导便决定让陈向宏留在乌镇，而这一留便是二十多年。

陈向宏最初接手管理的乌镇，还默默无闻，甚至可以说是落寞的。他描述道：“我7岁离开乌镇，多年以后回来工作，已经看不到任何江南文化重镇的活力，只有衰败。它以前是个大镇，有好多国有和集体企业，经产业结构调整，一些工种已经没了，我小时候生活的那整条街上的邻居都不在了，都是附近乡村来这里做生意的人，河里的水是漆黑的，马桶直倒进去，一塌糊涂。对我来说，这样的乌镇是完全陌生的。”

乌镇早茶客。Zao Cha Ke (literally “morning tea drinkers”), an eatery serving breakfast in Wuzhen.

那时的他，开始立志要做“一样的古镇，不一样的乌镇”，要做“中国度假休闲古镇的标杆”，即使遭遇了冷眼嘲笑与挫折失败，也从未打消过这个乌镇人以及他带领的一批又一批乌镇人振兴家乡的信念。在经历几次转型后，乌镇终于在全国甚至全世界有了属于自己的地位。

在升级改造乌镇的过程中，最值得一提的便是对文化艺术的复兴。其中，木心美术馆已然成为乌镇一大标志性人文建筑，吸引着众多木心粉丝从五湖四海专程赶来。

早在1994年，旅美艺术家、作家木心回到乌镇，看到物是人非的故土，伤感地写下《乌镇》一文：“永别了，我不会再来。”1998年，经人推荐，陈向宏看到了这篇《乌镇》，才知道原来木心也出生于乌镇。骨子里深爱家乡的人，在心意上是可以相通的，陈向宏说，“我能读懂木心文章的那些情感”。此后，他便开始四处打听木心的消息。

“把木心先生请回乌镇，是我人生中值得骄傲的事情。”陈向宏这样回忆自己与木心的缘分。2002年，木心亲自题名的3000平方米故居“晚晴小筑”正式开工。2006年，陈向宏将木心请回乌镇，当时木心79岁，在故乡安享了人生的最后时光。“乌镇在这件事情上是纯粹的，我跟全公司的人讲，我们是认了一个爷爷回来，完全是家乡人民对一个漂泊在海外多年的艺术家的尊敬。”陈向宏如此坦露心声。

2011年，木心在乌镇逝世。2015年，木心美术馆正式开馆。开馆以来，木心美术馆陆续举办“林风眠与木心”“尼采与木心”“莎士比亚与汤显祖”“木心的讲述：大英图书馆珍宝展”“塔中之塔—木心耶鲁藏品高仿及文学手稿真迹展”“古波斯诗抄本”“文学的舅舅：巴尔扎克”“米修与木心”“当文学成为影视—我的天才女友”等多个重要展览。2018年，美术馆举办木心音乐会，多位音乐人同唱《从前慢》。

虽然木心没能亲眼看到美术馆的落成，但在弥留之际，由贝聿铭的学生林兵和冈本博设计的美术馆方案刚好出来，他仿佛是预言似地说了句：“风啊，水啊，一顶桥。”近四年后建成的美术馆，与他当初那句话的描述几乎如出一辙，也恰恰印证了人与故乡的双向奔赴—念念不忘，必有回响。

人与故乡的牵绊，还来源于抹不掉的儿时记忆。比如，在江南小镇人的印象中，曾经每天下午是听书的，那是小镇重要的社交文艺活动。如今，令人欣喜和骄傲的是，一种富有现代感的艺术表达形式，让这个江南水乡旧时流传下来的各种传统故事得以重现。

2013年，第一届乌镇戏剧节开启，首次将戏剧表演与古镇风貌融合，精心选择的表演场所（如剧院、露天剧场、街边、商铺等）与多样化的戏剧表演形式，让游客在欣赏戏剧的同时感受乌镇的文化底蕴。11个日夜，6台国际大戏、12部25场公演和青年竞演、120组艺术团队580场古镇嘉年华演出、12次中外大师的小镇对话，3场顶尖欧丁戏剧工作坊、17580名入场观众、18.3万名游客及当地居民参与、139家媒体聚焦，中外200多名艺术家、专家和明星齐聚乌镇。时任首届戏剧节荣誉主席的Robert Brustein在《纽约评论》中评价说：“乌镇戏剧节希望有一天能够成为像阿维尼翁或爱丁堡一样的重大国际戏剧事件。照首届的成绩，他们一定能达成。”直至今日，乌镇戏剧节已成功举办8届，其成功使乌镇的影响力延伸至文化、娱乐市场，并成为乌镇的新名片。

沧海桑田，阅尽万千，中国人最富有诗意的情怀之一便是回归故乡。而乌镇的活力，很大程度上也来自乌镇人对故土的深切爱恋以及让热土变得越来越好的不懈实践。

现代乌镇，文脉与商脉的融合

20世纪90年代末的乌镇，相比江浙沪的其他水乡，没有任何优势，起步也最晚。当时对古镇的打造与宣传最流行的是挂红灯笼、讲故事—说说这里来了多少个皇帝、出了多少个秀才。但陈向宏认为，得走自己的路，既要注重文脉的传承，又要用商业化的思维，思考如何让年轻人回来，让他们在大城市里享受的一切，在这里也能找得到，只有这样，才能真正找到新的生机与活力。

在回答“传统”与“现代”之间的关系、现代古镇究竟该是怎样的这些问题上，乌镇的保护与商业再开发中有两个细节尤为发人深思。

木心美术馆。The Muxin Art Museum.

乌镇戏剧节的古镇嘉年华演出。Performers at the annual Wuzhen Theater Festival.

第一个故事发生在西栅搬迁征地时，9个月花光了用已改造的东栅抵押给银行的所有资金，但当时最主要的压力还是因为“历史街区再利用”理念的提出在全国前所未有，从部分专家到领导、群众都对这一模式都心存疑虑，有不同意见，许多人都觉得老街就应该维持从前的生活状态，比如在河边淘米、洗衣，甚至最好还有每天早上挨家挨户倒马桶的场景出现在游客的相机镜头中，否则乌镇西栅将不再是“原汁原味”的古镇。但是，乌镇的实践最终证明，那些回不去的生活方式并非决定成败的关键因素，只要传统人文精神的内核还在，古镇应该是给现代人住的，而不是专给人看的。

第二个细节则与乌镇之所以能成为世界互联网大会永久会址有关。当在上海住酒店要上网却还只能配一根网线时，乌镇西栅景区就已完成了主干光纤的地埋铺设，为智慧乌镇打下了坚实的基础。截至2017年，景区已完成了WIFI全覆盖工程，共有WIFI-AP位3600个，涵盖了景区各酒店、客房、餐饮、会议室、老街等公共休闲区，实现了景区无线信号全覆盖。早在2002年，景区就完成了乌镇官网的上线，2006 年乌镇预订网开发上线，同年景区正式上线了电子售检票系统。目前，游客可通过乌镇景区官方微信公众号、预订网、乌镇手机网等多渠道购买景区电子票，扫码即可进入景区，景区内所有酒店店铺均支持支付宝和微信支付，真正实现了不带钱包游乌镇。同时，景区还针对住宿客人推出人脸识别服务，办理入住后只需“刷脸”，在退房前便可无限次出入景区。此外，景区在游览车和摇橹船上逐步安装了GPS和北斗双模定位系统，并且设立监控调度室，通过精准定位实现车船的智慧调度。

可以说，没有乌镇十几年的旅游发展及传统生活下现代化配套设施的完备，世界互联网大会这样一个国际化的国家级会议不可能把乌镇作为永久会址。当年为差异化游客体验而采取的以旧修旧、管线地埋、更新民宿配套设施等一系列的小改进，终于为乌镇带来了“质变”的效果。

与文脉相结合的商脉给古镇注入源源不断的生命力的最大表现，就在于不仅能让年轻人因现代化老街、因戏剧节、因各种文化艺术场馆等而喜欢来这里，更因为工作机会的增多、生活的便利等而让年轻人愿意留在这里。正如陈向宏所说：“‘小桥流水人家’是很多中国古镇的特色，但理想的水镇，既要有小桥流水的生活，也要有不亚于任何一个大城市的现代文明，不该回避商业化，反而应该擅长用最商业的方式把人留住。”

商业化并不可怕，忠于文脉传承的商业既有人情味也有长远发展前景。需要坚守的底线是什么？是自然、传统、人文、历史和情怀。需要求变的是什么？是产业、文化形态、生活质量和当地居民的理念心态。关于“诗画江南、活力浙江”的释义，或许这便是乌镇带给我们的启示吧。

Wuzhen: An Ancient Water Town like No Other

By Hu Zichen

乌镇互联网国际会展中心。Painted by Wu Peng.

My first impression of Wuzhen, when I graduated from junior high, was all about “tradition”. Over a decade later when I stepped on the shoreland of this water town again, I was surprised by how it had put on a “modern” face while preserving its core of“tradition”.

Its “traditional” side includes natural, historical and cultural landscapes, Wuzhen people’s attachment to their hometown, and their cultural heritage. Its “modern” side refers to the preservation and redevelopment of Wuzhen, the revival of local culture and art,the enthusiasm of Wuzhen people for the transformation of their hometown, and the innovative combination of commercial and cultural atmosphere. Both sides are interwoven, poetic and full of vitality.

It seems that all poetic words should be gathered to describe the temperament of this water town in(south of the Yangtze River). It is like a touch of light ink gently dripped on a piece of soft rice paper. But not a single painting could perfectly outline the image of Wuzhen in different people’s minds because it is so rich in connotation.

Wuzhen has a natural scenery featuring urban and street culture, and it also tells countless stories about its humanistic history. It is located in the rich and fertile Hangzhou-Jiaxing-Huzhou Plain since ancient times, reaching Suzhou in the north and Hangzhou in the south. With more than 7,000 years of civilization and 1,300 years of town history, Wuzhen takes the waterway as the street and the shore as the market. It is blessed with charming unique scenery formed by the water-facing residential buildings on both sides of the river, a rich cultural connotation and a profound historical character nurtured by the ancient Grand Canal, which make Wuzhen a representative of the picturesque.

When it comes to the renovation of Wuzhen, locals often think of one person — Chen Xianghong. Like his ancestors in Wuzhen, Chen has an unbreakable affection for his hometown:he expects this land to become better than it is now. Chen is the president and chief designer of Wuzhen’s scenic area, and one of the initiators of the Wuzhen Theater Festival. His colleagues used to call him “Director Chen”; yet he often jokes about himself being a “contractor”. But regardless of the titles, it is undeniable that Chen is credited with making this town, which resides in the north of Tongxiang city, the “Wuzhen of China”, the permanent venue of the World Internet Conference ... in general, the way it is widely recognized today.

On the first day of the Chinese New Year in 1999, a fire broke out in Wuzhen, and it was this fire that brought Chen “back”to his hometown as fate would have it. As the then director of the Tongxiang Municipal Government Office, he was sent to settle compensations for the fire-affected victims. After his job was done,the municipal authorities decided to let Chen stay in Wuzhen.That “stay”, it later turned out, has lasted for more than 20 years.

When Chen initially took over the management of Wuzhen,it was an obscure or even desolate place. “I left Wuzhen at the age of seven. Years later I returned to work, only to find nothing but decay. There was not a trace of the old-time vitality of acultural town. It used to be a big town, with many state-owned and collectively owned companies. After industrial restructuring,some types of work had gone, and my childhood neighbors, a whole street of them, had gone. I saw businessmen from nearby villages everywhere, the river was pitch black, and people pouring toilets straight into the water ... a total mess. For me, this Wuzhen was completely foreign,” Chen recalled.

From then on, he decided to make Wuzhen stand out from the rest of ancient towns as “the benchmark of China’s resort and leisure town”, regardless of cold-eyed ridicule and frustrating failures. After several transformations, Wuzhen has finally made its name in the entire country and even the whole world.

In the process of Wuzhen’s upgrading, the most noteworthy thing is the revival of local culture and art. Among them, the Muxin Art Museum has become a major humanistic landmark in Wuzhen, attracting many fans of Mu Xin (1927-2011) from all over the world.

As early as 1994, the artist and writer Mu Xin returned to Wuzhen. Seeing everything was different in his hometown, he wrote an article titled “Wuzhen” sadly: “Farewell. I will never come back.” In 1998, Chen was recommended to read this article and found out that Mu was also a Wuzhen native. Chen said, “I could connect with the emotions expressed in his article.” After that, he began to ask around for news of Mu.

“Inviting Mr. Mu Xin back to Wuzhen is something I’m proud of in my life,” Chen spoke of his relationship with Mu. In 2002, Mu’s 3,000-square-meter residence came into construction.And in 2006, Chen invited him back to Wuzhen. Mu was 79 years old then and got to spend the last days in his hometown.“Wuzhen is pure in this matter. I told the whole company that we are welcoming back a grandfather. We were doing this out of sheer respect for an artist who has been drifting overseas for many years,”Chen poured out his most heartfelt emotions.

In 2011, Mu Xin passed away in Wuzhen; and in 2015, the Muxin Art Museum was officially opened.

Although Mu was not able to see the completion of the museum with his own eyes, the plan designed by I.M. Pei’s students Lin Bing and Hiroshi Okamoto came out just in time.He even responded with a prophecy-like sentence: “Wind, water and a bridge.” The art museum that was finished nearly four years later almost mirrors his “wind-water-bridge” prophecy. It is also a testament to the mutual affection between people and their hometown: “Something that stays in your mind will someday spring up in your life.”

乌镇西栅景区。Painted by Wu Peng.

In 2013, the first Wuzhen Theater Festival was held,integrating theater performances with the ancient town’s landscape for the first time. Carefully selected performance venues (such as theaters, amphitheaters, streets, stores, etc.) and diverse forms of theater performances allow visitors to experience the cultural heritage of Wuzhen while enjoying the plays. Until now, WuzhenTheater Festival has been successfully run for eight years, making the town influential in the cultural and entertainment sectors.

In the late 1990s, Wuzhen had no advantage over other water towns in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai; plus it started pretty late.At that time, the most popular way of promoting ancient towns was to hang red lanterns and tell stories — talking about how many emperors and scholars came out from there. But Chen believed that Wuzhen had to go its own way. Attention should be paid to its cultural heritage, and also to commercialization. They must figure out how to get young people back and recreate big city things here for their enjoyment. Only in this way could real vitality be restored.

What is the relationship between “traditional” and “modern”?What should a modern ancient town look like? In answer to the above questions, two particularly thought-provoking stories about Wuzhen’s development are noteworthy.

The first story happened during the relocation and land acquisition of its Xizha Scenic Area in the west. The biggest pressure occurred in the middle of promoting the “reuse the historic district” concept: it was unprecedented nationwide, and thus much doubted by experts, leaders and the general public.Many people had different opinions about this model, claiming that the old streets should maintain a lifestyle from the old days,like doing daily chores by the river — rice washing, laundry, and even toilet cleaning. Otherwise, the scenic zone would no longer be the “original” ancient town. However, the practice of Wuzhen has ultimately proved that those outdated ways of life are not the key determinants of success or failure, as long as the core of the traditional humanistic spirit is still there. After all, the ancient town should be for modern people to live, not for them to see.

乌镇西栅景区。The Wuzhen Xizha Scenic Area.

The second story has to do with what makes Wuzhen the permanent home of the World Internet Conference. When hotel rooms in Shanghai still had one network cable for internet access, Wuzhen’s Xizha Scenic Area had already completed the underground setup of the backbone fiber, laying a solid foundation for intelligent Wuzhen. As of 2017, the WiFi full coverage project was completed in the whole scenic area, with a total of 3,600 WiFi-AP points, covering all the public leisure places such as hotels, guest rooms, restaurants, meeting rooms and old streets.As early as 2002, the official website of Wuzhen’s scenic area was already launched; in 2006, the online booking system was released,followed by the online electronic ticketing system. Now visitors can buy electronic tickets through the official WeChat account,the booking network, the mobile network and other channels.They could enter the scenic area by QR code scanning, and pay their bills in all the hotels and stores through Alipay and WeChat.At the same time, Wuzhen’s scenic area also provides a special face recognition service for hotel guests, who after check-in and before check-out enjoy unlimited access back to the scenic area simply by“face swiping”. In addition, the tour buses and sculling boats of the scenic area have been gradually installed with GPS and Beidou dual-mode positioning system, and monitoring rooms have also been set up, realizing intelligent scheduling of vehicles based on accurate positioning.

It can be said that without the tourism development in Wuzhen for more than a decade and the completion of modern facilities supporting a traditional lifestyle, Wuzhen couldn’t be chosen as a permanent venue for such a high-level international conference in China. A series of small improvements for customized visitor experience such as repairing the old, burying the pipelines, updating the B&B facilities, etc., has finally brought a fundamental change to Wuzhen.

Commercialization is not horrible; businesses that are faithful to local cultural heritage are both humanistic and promising.

What is the bottom line that we need to stick to? It is nature, tradition, humanity, history and sentiment. What needs to be changed? Industrial and cultural patterns, quality of life,the mindset of local residents ... On the interpretation of the“Picturesque and Dynamic Zhejiang”, this may be the answer brought to us by Wuzhen.