Jottings from the Granite Studio

h/t CDT: A hutong not too far from the Granite Studio is going under the wrecker’s ball (er, hammer) to make way for a new residential development. Gentrification marches on, if you like your nice hutong home, be very nervous about the yuppy with the espresso, the laowai with an expat package, or the Taiyuan coal mine boss with a man purse and two ernai (would that be a sinai?).

About 24 homes in Dongsi Batiao (just inside the second ring, south of the main Dongsi Shitiao and not too far away from the CCP-kitsch restaurant The Red Capital Club) will be razed to make way for the new building project. And people are pissed.

Richard Spencer, who happens to live in the neighborhood, blogged about the planned demolition and the spirited response:

The latest cause celebre in the Chinese papers is the “chai” or demolition order handed out to residents of Dongsi Ba Tiao…

There has been an outcry in all the papers, from the Beijing News to China Daily. But it’s too late. Even though there is a preservation order in place over the whole area, this doesn’t matter. Various reasons are given - the deal to hand the houses over to the developer was made before the preservation order was put in place; a document asserting that the houses are of no historical architectural merit.

A certain amount of urban renewal is a good thing and many of the families who had to live in a little pingfang and share a public toilet with their whole neighborhood were happy to relocate to new apartments, but like much in Beijing there’s an underbelly to the whole process. First, many who wished to stay were not given the option. Second, those forced to move frequently complain that they are compensated too little and forced to live far outside the city, away from convenient public transportation or markets. They moved to apartment complexes that didn’t have the sense of community that really made the hutongs the living heart of Beijing. Finally, many of the remaining hutong homes are currently being gutted and remodeled as upscale bars, eateries, or exquisite (and ludicrously expensive) trophy homes for foreigners and rich Chinese. Sure the new hutongs look good (and smell a lot better) but the whole feel has as about as much authenticity as the “Asian Collection Aisle” at your local Pier One.

I suppose if that’s what it takes to save the hutongs then so be it. God knows the state of Vermont has turned “luxury quaint” into a whole artform. But the wholesale destruction of the hutongs just to put up more soulsucking high rises that will look dated within ten years just doesn’t make sense to me. It’s no longer about providing better living options for city residents…it’s about rich developers selling luxury apartments to yuppies and the city of Beijing trying to hide anything (or anyone) that doesn’t fit the desired image for 2008.