‘Trembling in Another’s Fulfilment’: The Space of the Hutong and Its Significance to Mr. Yang

Abstract

This chapter title might look strange, but I find no better way to reveal the situation that the Hutong residents are currently facing. To show the struggle which Hutong dwellers’ currently face, I decided to use this title for the first chapter. And this is also my main purpose of the chapter. Opposite the block where I was living in the Hutong area of Beijing, I found lots of walls were labelled by official planners with the following character ‘Chai’, which means to be demolished, removed or dismantled. This is a typical Chinese symbol with the white Chinese character of Chai (拆) in the centre surrounded by a white circle to show imminent demolition, as is shown on the wall in the picture above. What this symbol means to the Hutong resident can be clearly read from my informants’ responses: ‘Where shall we go if they demolish these yards? We have been here for many generations. How can they let us go in such an easy way? Firstly, we cannot afford to buy another apartment with the modest compensation; secondly, it is even hard for us to believe that we are being expelled or will have been expelled from houses inherited from our forefathers’. An informant of mine, Ms. Lin, tried to make their situation more clear and understandable to me by giving me a metaphor in the following way: ‘It is like owning an old album for a very long time; you put all your happy and unhappy emotional memories into it, but suddenly one day, someone comes to you and tells you, “I would like to buy this album from you for a non-negotiable price, because I want to have it and will put it to another use”. How ridiculous!’ But what is the point for the state or the local state government to conduct this process of displacement? One quick and strong answer might be, ‘the local state is urbanised in China’s great urban transformation’ (You-tien 2009: 10). To be more specific, ‘as land rents become one of the most important sources of local revenue and capital accumulation, local state leaders identify themselves as city promoters and devote themselves to boosting the property value. Property prices are used to measure the success of urban development, and are openly referenced by local leaders as a primary political mandate. Mayors don suits and embark on road shows to promote real-estate projects in their cities, and compete with one another to hire advertising gurus for help in developing “urban strategic development plans” aimed at improving the image of their cities and boosting property values. City marketing and property value boosting are performed at both the ideological and political levels. High-profile urban project and property values are viewed as indicators of modernization, which in turn measure the political achievement of local state leaders’ (Hsing 2009: 9).