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| Not long after Shen Peng’s grandfather died, his grandmother visited the site of the house where she and her husband once lived. The government had demolished the house, in northern China, nearly 15 years before as part of a redevelopment project. The site still hadn’t been developed, and she could barely walk around the family’s old plot because the grass was so overgrown. |
| 申鹏的祖父去世后不久，他的祖母重访她和丈夫居住的房子旧址。近15年前，作为一个重建项目的一部分，政府拆除了这座位于中国北方的房子。那块地目前还没有开发，因为杂草丛生，她几乎无法在老房子周围走动。 |
| Mr. Shen wondered: Could he help her relive her memories another way? |
| 申鹏想，能不能用另一种方式帮她重温旧梦？ |
| For more than six months, he labored in secret after his day job as a hairdresser. Finally, Mr. Shen, now 31, presented his grandmother with a surprise — a handcrafted 1:20 scale replica of her old home. |
| 过去的六个多月里，在日常的理发师工作之余，他一直在悄悄做事。最后，31岁的申鹏给了祖母一个惊喜——一个手工制作、1:20的祖母旧居复制品。 |
| There was the wire clothesline in the courtyard, draped with a blue blanket cut into the size of a postage stamp. There was the rickety bicycle, outside a shed constructed with foam boards and plaster. Mr. Shen had even traveled to the site of the old house to better recreate the fragment of brick wall that still remained. |
| 院子里的铁丝晾衣绳上搭着一张邮票大小的蓝色毯子，用泡沫板和灰泥搭成的棚子外面，有一辆摇摇晃晃的自行车。沈鹏甚至去了老房子的原址，以便更好地再现残存的砖墙碎片。 |
| The project led him into a small but growing community of artists in China filling an increasingly urgent demand: miniature replicas of homes that have been demolished, remodeled or otherwise swept away by China’s modernization. |
| 这个项目将他带入了一个规模虽小但却日益壮大的中国艺术家群体，他们正在满足一个日益迫切的需求：为那些在中国现代化过程中被拆除、改造或以其他方式被摧毁的房屋制作微型复制品。 |
| Designing and collecting miniatures has long been a hobby in the West. In northern Europe during the 17th century, dollhouses were a way for the wealthy to show off their properties; nowadays aficionados cite reasons ranging from escapism to aspirational interior design. But in China, where artists say the form is relatively new, miniatures have become a way to reckon with a society that has changed at a dizzying pace. |
| 在西方，设计和收集微缩模型早已成为一种爱好。在17世纪的北欧，玩偶屋是富人炫耀财产的方式。如今，爱好者们的理由多种多样，从逃避现实到追求理想的室内设计。但在中国，艺术家们说，这种形式相对较新，微缩模型已经成为一种与迅速变化、令人眼花缭乱的社会相抗衡的方式。 |
| Over the past 40 years, China has transformed from one of the world’s poorest countries into its second-largest economy. The share of city residents has tripled, and vast numbers of Chinese have seen the structures of their childhoods disappear, often through government redevelopment campaigns. |
| 在过去40年里，中国从世界上最贫穷的国家之一转变为世界第二大经济体。城市居民占比增加了两倍，大量中国人目睹自己童年时代的建筑在政府的重建运动中消失。 |
| “Nobody would actually want to live in these houses again. Once people have gotten used to nice things, they can’t handle these shabby ones,” Mr. Shen said. But “the pace of life now is too fast. Just because you live in a high-rise doesn’t mean you’re happy.” |
| “你说真正的让你去住，没有几个人愿意。人一旦习惯了好，适应不了这个破的，”申鹏说。但是，“现在生活节奏太快，真正住在楼房的人不一定特别快乐。” |
| The miniatures “offer a kind of spiritual enjoyment,” he said, “when all your material needs are satisfied.” |
| 当所有的物质需求都得到满足时，他说，这些微缩模型“带来一些精神上的享受”。 |
| The craft remains relatively niche: On Chinese social media, artists with sizable followings number only about a dozen. But the artists’ posts about their creations can amass hundreds of thousands of likes. Mr. Shen has 400,000 followers on Douyin, China’s TikTok. |
| 这种工艺仍然相对小众：在中国的社交媒体上，拥有大量粉丝的艺术家只有十几个左右。但他们相关创作的帖子可以积累数十万个赞。申鹏在抖音上有40万粉丝。 |
| Their pieces vary by budget and geography. Homes in northern China were often one-story, built from stone or mud, while those in the south were taller and wooden. Some miniatures recreate only a home’s exterior, sparsely accented with details like a tiny chicken in the yard. Others have intricate interiors with working light bulbs and family portraits on the walls. |
| 他们的作品因预算和地理位置而异。中国北方的房屋通常是石头或泥土的平房，而南方的房屋更高，用木头建造。一些微缩模型只重现房屋的外观，零星点缀了一些细节，比如院子里的一只小鸡。另一些则有复杂的内部装饰，灯泡可以正常工作，墙上挂着全家福。 |
| If the artists are lucky, their clients provide photographs. But often they must work from memories. (Cameras, artists point out, were a luxury until relatively recently.) |
| 如果这些艺术家够幸运，他们的客户还会提供照片。但他们往往必须从记忆中寻找线索。（艺术家们指出，照相机直到前不久还是奢侈品。） |
| That was the case for Mr. Shen as he crafted his grandparents’ house, and then his own childhood home. Both were near Baoding, now a city of nine million in Hebei Province. His grandparents’ house was razed around 2005. Mr. Shen’s father then rebuilt their family home, in a village on the city’s outskirts. Mr. Shen now lives there with his wife and young son. |
| 申鹏在制作祖父母的房子和自己儿时的家时就是如此。这两座房子都在保定附近，保定现在是河北省一个有900万人口的城市。2005年左右，他祖父母的房子被夷为平地。后来申鹏的父亲在城郊的一个村子里重建了他们的家。申鹏现在同妻子和年幼的儿子住在那里。 |
| The idea for a miniature came from another artist he’d seen online, who had recreated his own grandmother’s home. Mr. Shen had little formal art training, but he bought about $3,000 worth of equipment — acrylic sheets, spray paint, various tools for poking, etching and sculpting — and followed online tutorials. |
| 他在网上看到另一位艺术家重现了自己祖母的家，于是萌生了制作微缩模型的想法。申鹏几乎没有接受过正式的艺术培训，但他买了价值约2万元的设备——亚克力板、喷漆、各种用于戳、蚀刻和雕刻的工具——并按照网上的教程进行制作。 |
| The bricks he ordered, from a vendor of children’s model-house kits, were too big, so he made his own plaster mold, scratching out individual blocks with a pen. To recreate shrubbery, he foraged the mountains nearby for dried flowers. He researched the average height of gates in countryside homes in the 1970s, then scaled down. |
| 他从一家儿童模型屋供应商那里订购的砖块太大了，所以他自己做了一个石膏模具，用笔把一块块的砖块刮出来。为了重建灌木丛，他在附近的山上寻找干花。他研究了20世纪70年代农村家庭大门的平均高度，然后按比例缩小。 |
| His recollections determined the level of detail. He left his grandparents’ roof unadorned, having never paid attention to it as a child. But the inside of his childhood home is elaborate. He pasted a tiny portrait of Mao Zedong above the single bed that he had shared with his sister and parents. On an exterior wall, he glued a propaganda banner exhorting villagers to “Have fewer children, plant more trees” — a once-ubiquitous slogan promoting China’s now-loosened one-child policy. (He also took the artistic liberty of hanging up academic awards he hadn’t won.) |
| 他的记忆决定了细节可以到什么程度。对祖父母家的屋顶，他没有做任何装饰，因为他小时候没有注意过。但他童年的家内部很精致。在房子的外墙，他贴了一条宣传标语，告诫村民们“少生孩子多种树”——这是一个曾经无处不在的口号，用来宣传中国现在已经放松的独生子女政策。（他还充分发挥艺术创作自由，挂出了一些自己没有获得过的学业表彰。） |
| “When I was a teenager, I never thought about nostalgia,” Mr. Shen said. “But once you’re at a certain age, with generations above and below you and all kinds of pressure, the past feels more precious.” |
| “我们90后，十几岁时没有考虑过会怀念以前。但是你到了一定的年龄段儿，上有老下有小，压力之余，会想到很宝贵的丢失的以前，”申鹏说。 |
| Mr. Shen had spent virtually his entire life in his village, but he knew that eventually he would need to move to a city, to give his son better opportunities. “If we don’t leave a record, those born after the 2000s won’t have any impression of this,” he said. |
| 申鹏几乎一辈子都生活在村里，但他知道，为了给儿子更好的机会，他最终需要搬到城市去。“如果我们不记录的话，00后我感觉更不记得，他们脑子里根本没有这种印象，”他说。 |
| Mr. Shen has turned down commission requests, opting to work only on pieces with which he has a personal connection. But others have made this a full-time career. |
| 申鹏拒绝委托创作的请求，只选择与他有私人关系的作品。但也有人把这当成全职工作。 |
| Li Yizhong, 40, used to make large-scale sculptures for office buildings and museums around Jinan, the capital of Shandong Province, in eastern China. But after a friend requested a miniature of his demolished childhood home as a favor, Mr. Li posted the finished product on social media and found himself flooded with inquiries. He now has more than 1.5 million followers on Douyin. |
| 40岁的李义中曾经为中国东部山东省省会济南的办公楼和博物馆制作大型雕塑。后来一位朋友请求他帮忙做一个被拆除的童年住宅的微缩模型，李义中在社交媒体上发布了成品，发现自己收到了大量咨询。他现在在抖音上有150多万粉丝。 |
| “This is more meaningful” than his previous work, said Mr. Li, who works with several assistants. “There’s more feeling, more warmth.” |
| 与几个助手一起工作的李义中说，这比起他以前的工作“有意思，有意义”，“它又多了一个情感，多了一点温度。” |
| Each project is an exercise in intimacy and collaboration. At the beginning of the roughly one-month process, Mr. Li sends the client digital renderings of the miniature. Throughout, he confirms details such as the pattern of bricks in the courtyard, and sends photos of his progress. |
| 每个项目都需要亲密与合作。在大约一个月的制作过程开始时，李义中会向客户发送微缩模型的数字效果图。在整个过程中，他会确认细节，比如院子里砖块的图案，并向客户发送进度照片。 |
| Some clients adjust their instructions as faded memories come into focus. Mr. Li recalled one prospective client who spent most of an hourlong phone call crying as she reminisced about her old home. Projects for customers without photos are the most challenging, but those are the customers most desperate to regain a vision of their old home. |
| 随着淡忘的记忆逐渐清晰，一些客户会重新调整他们的指示。李义中回忆起一位潜在客户，她打了一个小时的电话，哭着回忆自己的老家。没有照片的客户的项目最具挑战性，但正是这些客户最渴望重新看到他们的老房子。 |
| “Maybe your wall had some cracks, or a mouse burrowed through it, but you don’t remember exactly how damaged it was,” Mr. Li said. “We’re always afraid to hear the phrase, ‘It just doesn’t feel right.’” |
| “有可能你墙上有裂缝，或者说有老鼠洞有破损，但破到什么程度你可能都不记得，”李义中说。“就怕领导说这么一句‘感觉不对’。” |
| About half of Mr. Li’s clients are in their 30s; the rest are older. Most, like himself, were carried by China’s economic boom from the countryside to the cities, finding education and jobs that allowed them to afford nostalgia. Mr. Li’s miniatures cost between $1,400 and $7,000, in a city where the average disposable income for urban residents is about $8,000 per year. He has made about 80 in all. |
| 李义中的客户中大约有一半是30多岁；也有人年龄更大。大多数人像他一样，随着中国的经济繁荣从农村来到城市，接受教育，找到工作，从而有能力怀旧。在一个城市居民年平均可支配收入约为5.6万元的城市，李义中的微缩模型的价格在1万元到5万元之间。他总共制作了大约80件。 |
| Younger viewers on social media can find the urge to document these old houses confusing. Some comment disbelievingly on how run-down the houses look. Even some of Mr. Li’s assistants, many of whom are recent art school graduates, said they had little familiarity with the countryside. |
| 对于记录这些老房子的冲动，社交媒体上的年轻观众可能理解不了。一些人评论说，这些房子怎么会看起来这么破旧。在李义中的助手当中，不少是刚从学校毕业的，甚至就连他们也说不了解农村的情况。 |
| But there are still young people who have experienced, and long for, the older way of life. |
| 但仍有一些年轻人经历过并向往过去的生活方式。 |
| Last summer, Lu Qinghuan, now 21, spent one month with Mr. Li as an apprentice, learning to make the Shandong village home where his grandparents raised him. |
| 去年夏天，21岁的芦庆欢跟着李义中当了一个月的学徒，学习如何把祖父母在山东农村的房子做成微缩模型，他是祖父母带大的。 |
| Mr. Lu had mixed feelings about his own journey away from the countryside, first to a small city for middle school, then to the bigger coastal city of Yantai for a degree in materials science. He was put off by the competitiveness of cities, and he missed his grandfather, an elementary schoolteacher, who had instilled in him the importance of education. |
| 对于离开农村的经历，芦庆欢的心情很复杂。他先是到一个小城市读中学，然后到烟台这座更大的沿海城市攻读材料科学学位。城市的竞争激烈让他感到难以适应，而且他也很想念当小学老师的祖父，是他让芦庆欢明白读书的重要。 |
| “Today very few young people stay in their hometowns,” Mr. Lu said. “This is a natural progression. There’s no way to decisively say whether some things are good or bad.” |
| “目前呢，作为一个青年人，肯定是以这个工作为主，咱们，很少在家里面呆，”芦庆欢说。“它确实代表着一个特定时间段里面应该发生的事情。有些事情没法单纯批判是好是坏。” |
| He settled on a compromise: After graduating from college, rather than compete for an office job, he would make miniatures full-time. |
| 他想出了一个折中的办法：大学毕业后，他没有去竞争办公室工作，而是全职制作微缩模型。 |
| Mr. Lu recently finished one for Li Shanshan, a restaurateur in Yantai, who had ordered a replica of her mother’s childhood home for her mother’s 70th birthday. Her original plan was to build a display case for the $950 miniature, but after she unveiled the miniature to her extended family over a video call, the group erupted with stories. They debated what kind of flowers had grown around the house and discussed whether to order additions, such as a figurine of her grandfather. |
| 芦庆欢最近为烟台餐馆老板李珊珊制作了一套微缩模型，那是她给母亲七十大寿的礼物，是母亲儿时住所的复制品。她原本计划为这个价值7000元人民币的微缩模型做一个陈列柜，但通过视频电话向一大家子展示了这个模型后，大家纷纷回忆起往事来。他们争论房子周围当年种的是什么花，并讨论是否再订购一些东西，比如她祖父的小塑像。 |
| Ms. Li, 43, is now considering taking the miniature on a tour to show relatives who live elsewhere in China. “It’s not just something that you look at twice and then leave there,” she said. “Are you kidding? This is my old house. It’s just that I can’t go in.” |
| 43岁的李珊珊现在正在考虑带着这个微缩模型，给那些生活在中国其他地方的亲戚们看看。“它并不是说看两眼就放那了，”她说。“开玩笑！就是我的老房子，只是它现在不能进去住。” |
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