"Cars Story": Peach Blossoms on the Side of the Highway

You can think of Cars as the American animated version of Peach Blossom Land. "In Taiyuan of Jin Dynasty, the people of Wuling fished for their business, they traveled along the river, and they forgot the distance..." The fishermen found the Peach Blossom Spring at the end of the river, and McQueen strayed from the highway into the town of Route 66. The homogeneity of rivers to fishermen and highways to racing cars is self-evident. Forgotten western towns and hideaways have much in common, such as their hospitable residents, old-fashioned lifestyles, and tribal relationships. Even their isolation is the same. McQueen is red outside, but no one in the town knows him. Taoyuan people simply "don't know there is Han, no matter Wei Jin".

However, Taoyuan people are a group of pre-Qin remnants who came here to avoid the war. They have no illusions about the outside world. Although the residents of the town on Highway 66 do not like this era of hurricane and rush, they are always left out of the reality. Still unhappy. After the people of Wuling left Peach Blossom Garden, Peach Blossom Garden mysteriously disappeared from people's sight. After McQueen left, the residents of Route 66 will make a high-profile appearance at the racetrack as a logistics team. Shen Congwen wrote in "Taoyuan and Yuanzhou", "All Chinese scholars, probably since the Tang Dynasty, are destined to read a "Peach Blossom Spring"..." As the eternal spiritual home of Chinese intellectuals, Peach Blossom Spring is not of the present. The more empty this place, the better, because there is nothing, so there is no way to deprive it. No matter how decayed reality, there is always a place to retreat.

The American-style "Peach Blossom Land" is pragmatic and efficient, offering a cure for a manic, smug, but not hopeless interloper, including mentors, lovers, and besties. His mentor, Dr. Hudson, guides his life, his lover Lisa teaches him the gentleness of a man, and his best friend's stubbornness allows him to maintain the harmless nature of a child. This paradise on the side of the highway, although it is a gesture of birth, has made all preparations for entering the WTO, and finally conquered the whole world through the spokesperson of McQueen.

In my opinion, it's not so much a teenage coming-of-age story as it's a fable about modernity, full of metaphors. Although the seasoned and prudent car king has good character and driving skills, in front of the energetic young people, the supporting role is doomed early in the morning. The wheels of the times are rolling forward, unstoppable, but we always have a choice between Roadhog and McQueen. Is it as reckless, rampant, and utilitarian like Roadhog, or like McQueen returning from a small town, full of classical nostalgia, turning back three times on the road of modernization? Roadhog gets the trophy, McQueen gets the respect, cheers, and happiness—and the film has the right answer.

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