Pangzhen

The real culture behind it

镇 first meant to press down or hold in place — the 镇 of 镇守, “to garrison” — and became the word for a garrison town, then, from the Song dynasty on, for the market towns that sat between village and county seat. 庞 means huge or sprawling and is also a surname, so the name can read as “the sprawling town” or “the Pang family’s town”.

The rain is inherited. Pangzhen was the heart of Soulframe Liang’s first game, Rainblood (雨血), whose title joins rain and blood. The game’s architecture draws on ancient towns and villages in Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang and Hebei (Jiefang Daily), and composer Bo Caisheng wrote Pangzhen’s music in seven-beat time to make the player feel “groundless”. One reading, ours: a town whose very rhythm will not let you settle.