Shikumen Culture Week – Bit of a Sick Joke I Suppose

Shanghai continues to erode its ever dwindling unique cultural heritage by bulldozing shikumen housing across the city from north to south and east to west. Every week more is knocked down. Presumably at the current rate of destruction and with preservation orders being widely ignored eventually none will be left – except that is the awful ersatz that is the Xintiandi, ‘developed’  with its privatised space, long removed residents and thuggish security guards. Just how ersatz their interpretation of shikumen culture is becomes plainly evident at their so-called Shikumen Cultural Week which as you can see features little beyond a lot of opportunities to sell qipaos (Shanghai Tang are a major tenant) and some drawings by ‘shikumen residents’, who will presumably have to be bussed in from some far flung housing estate of high rises where they’ve been ‘relocated’ to. It doesn’t get much more pathetic than this and not a little sad!!

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