April 27, 2008
Residents protest on Taikang Lu
Taikang Lu has developed rapidly in the last few months — expanding from the original alleyway into a sprawling collection of labyrinthine lanes populated by galleries, arty shops, and some great restaurants. However, the revitalisation of Taikang Lu hasn't been welcomed by everyone. Yesterday, on a gloriously sunny afternoon that saw large numbers of people flock to the area, some local residents decided to voice their dissent against the ongoing development.
Three white and blue banners were unfurled on one of the lanes — two suspended from a washing line and one hung under the windows of a residential block. The banners carried a simple message:
"坚决反对一切扰民行为“
"Resolutely oppose all activities that disturb residents"”让我平静生活“
"Let me live a peaceful life"”还我安居环境“
"and have a peaceful living environment"
Naturally, these banners caused much consternation on the ground and it wasn't long before a small crowd gathered. The police showed up and, after initially seeming unsure what to do, decided to enter the building adjacent to the washing line and tackle the first two banners. As they were halfway through removing the banners, a woman who lived in the building (and who Shanghaiist guesses was responsible for putting up the signs in the first place) returned from the shops.
Finding two policemen on her balcony tearing down the washing line, the woman shrieked loudly and attempted to wrestle the banners from them. This caused a large group of residents to run into the building, quickly followed by other policemen, and chaos ensued — with lots of heated arguing and finger pointing — before the police were able to get everyone out of the building and carry the banners away. While shouted arguments between residents and business people continued, the police turned their attention to the banner hung below the windows of the residential building. After around fifteen minutes of trying, they still seemed unable to gain access to the building and instead attempted to diffuse the situation with big smiles and a "nothing to see here folks, please be on your way" routine. Shanghaiist was moved along, as were most people who had witnessed the preceding events, presumably whilst the police tackled the remaining banner. When we returned a little while later, the final banner had disappeared as well.
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What time did it happened?
I was there with my afraid around 3.
Send in the stormtroppers!
The middle aged people must be harmonized!
@hotshotdebut
The banners were there from lunchtime (at least) and the police started taking them down about 2pm. The whole incident lasted around an hour
i was there with my afraid too. my very afraid.
this isn't a china story, it's a gentrification story. not that taikang lu is harlem above 135th or Houston's Fifth Ward or anything, but it's the same story. Yuppies coming into a neighborhood, upsetting everyone with their cafes and art galleries and design studios and saying they really like the neighborhood, and then slowly making it so expensive that the original residents can't afford to live there anymore.*
*I'm just as guilty in partaking in gentrification related cafe-sitting and scrennplay writing as the next urban-ist reader, but one does cringe at the stomping all over the current residents in the name of "progress"
@ T,
Especially when you consider how many middle aged and older people live around there.
I guess at least it's somewhat better a model of "progress" than either simply leveling a neighborhood and putting up another giant retail-office-residential complex or doing a high-end international brand-name theme-park simulacrum like Xintiandi.* But yeah, it's definitely the same basic gentrification story.
*Not that I don't spend a few RMB at Xintiandi now and then.
watch dvd all day = a forigner living and working in China, and is critising China and Chinese everyday.
what a sucker of the earth!
tell me where you come from, you are a disgrace of your country !
watch shit all day
all you know is going to Xintiandi !
fucken dumb, Xintiandi is way behind the trendy places to club now in shanghai !! it became a place for the tourists many years ago !!
but well, a dumb fuck like you have no sense of what is NEW and what is OLD !
Same goes to the image you have with China !! you still living in the PAST !!
nanhy
what i said to watch shit all day applies to you as well.
you are just the same kind !
I agree with Comrade Lee: we were all better off in 1982.
Some people criticize things no matter where they are. It's called having a brain.
Earth people, New York and California
Earth people, I was born on Jupiter
I've been involved in business and community aspects of Taikang Lu for almost 4 years so feel a bit qualified to comment on what's happening there. It is a lot more complicated than the "same basic gentrification story."
After taking into account the chaos of redeveloping the South side of the street (mass-relocation, protests, alleged corruption/intimidation/etc.) that resulted in it being leveled to build a shopping mall and metro station, a different choice was made for the North side - the status of which has been in limbo for the last 4 years.
In this case it was about an experiment that overlooked the fact that the neighborhood is over 90% zoned residential and giving residents an option to sub-lease buildings to which they have occupation rights. Businesses can move in and do not need to get formally licensed. This give residents the chance to become landlords and earn a good monthly income *if* they 1. want to and 2. have a desirable location.
Obviously #1 and/or 2 are not present for everyone living on Taikang Lu and leads to feelings of inequity. There's also been an incredible level of change to the residents' environment because of the fast pace at which these conversions have happened and the rate at which tourist traffic has increased in the last 3 months.
Also, looking at a lot of the [poor] renovations that have been done and the [lack of] quality of several of the business, one wishes that there had been a better selection process in who got in but as tends to happen, market forces of supply, demand and competition are coming into play and will hopefully help correct some things - rents are going up, bad businesses are failing and some sort of new equilibrium is reached.
As someone who has been regularly working there for several years, I too find it annoying and disruptive at times so I can empathize with wanting some peace and quiet.
Thanks for that inside info, robdotr. I guess things are never "the same basic story," really. I really respect the effort to make of Taikang Lu a more organic and grass-roots kind of urban space. I hope the problems with the neighbors can be successfully resolved.
I dunno robdotr - that does sound an awful like gentrification issues that are happening elsewhere globally - I mean I am sure that there's millions of projects all of which have good intentions at the beginning - but the issues you list could easily have come from midtown Houston/3rd Ward (which I lived through) or say, the Mission District in San Francisco or Brooklyn/Harlem in New York.
Sure, each area has unique issues - but it's not all that unique.
But the "foreigner" factor in Taikang Lu definitely makes a difference... I mean, it's analogous to primarily white yuppies moving in on the heels of primarily white artists into what had previously been a Latino or African-American neighborhood in many American cities, but still... there's a big difference when you factor in China-specific "outsider" issues. But I do think that a lot of the basic economic dynamics and feelings on all sides tend to be the same.
@ Lili,
China smells bad.