Question: What do Termites and Communists Have in Common?

Answer: they’re both a major threat to Shanghai’s heritage and historic architecture

Many thanks to the young people (and they really are very young actually) over at Shanghaiist who drew my attention to this story from the Shanghai Daily (what do you mean you don’t subscribe!!) about the threat termites are to Shanghai’s historic buildings. The article cites any number of historic buildings with termite problems but imagine the situation in those buildings where nobody’s going to call pest control. I can tell you from experience that sub-division of old buildings hasn’t helped – unless the entire structure and surrounding gardens are treated then invariably the treatment will be ineffectual. In Shanghai’s current phase of high levels of alienation, people being arsey for the sake of it and downright unfriendly there’s always one person in the building who refuses to have their rooms treated. Usually it’s because they don’t want to pay or just downright pig ignorant.

Termites are nothing new in Shanghai – Shanghailanders were complaining about them in the nineteenth century. Of course the government could step in and launch and fund an eradication campaign but as they’re not keen to pay for healthcare or pensions it’s unlikely they’ll be paying for termite eradication and architecture preservation.

Apparently it’s about RMB300 to eradicate a nest of termites – communists unfortunately are a bit harder to eradicate (but not, let us always remember, impossible!).