Hipster Ex-Pat Hutong Dwellers – Are You a Mrs. Mascot of a Philip Flower?

The tag line for this blog is Mark Twain’s ‘history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.’ Reading Christina Larson’s recent piece on the Los Angeles Review of Books China blog, Two Views of a Hutong, definitely rhymed. Peking’s last few remaining hutongs as hipster ex-pat hangouts complete with plenty of bike riding, small dog ownership, tai-chi on the roof, gourmet granola shops (whatever they are!) and houses full of young folk from overseas apparently watching earnest documentaries and working for media companies or non-profits (same thing these days really). We could probably add to that anecdotes about searching for authentic food, language classes, developing a taste for Chinese opera, claiming years of long China service and extensive travel and repeatedly stating how much better and more authentic Peking is compared to the generally loathed arriviste alternative Shanghai. So here they are then, all these ex-pats in Peking seeking both the authentic China experience and modern comforts…nothing new though, thus was it ever, and I still believe Harold Acton perfectly captured both kinds of foreigner in Peking in his 1941 novel Peonies and Ponies.

Acton, the archetypal English aesthete resided in Peking between 1932 and 1939, studied Chinese, translated poetry and novels and hang out
(as much as anybody “hung out” in the 1930s) with the upper echelons of ex-pat society. The very readable Peonies and Ponies (and I wonder how many Peking hipsters have a copy on their hutong bookshelves these days?) gives us two types of ex-pat in the city, neatly condensed and still, I’m convinced, apposite today. So, Beijing ex-pat strolling your hutong after a DVD and some tai-chi in search of  high quality granola, are you a Mrs. Mascot or a Philip Flower?

Mrs. Mascot:

“Peking’s such loads of fun. Jugglers, fortune-tellers, acrobats, puppet-shows, temple tiffins, treasure hunts and Paomachang picnics – not to speak of costume jamborees, galas and fancy dress affairs – always something original! Home-made natural fun, not imported or artificially manufactured as in Shanghai. And there’s always a delicious spice of the unexpected.”

or Philip Flower:

“Sufficient to know and be profoundly grateful, to realise that he was as far as it was possible to be from post-war politics and the general jumpiness of Europe while comfortably within the orbit of its dubious civilisation, imbibing serenity from the geometrical quietude of China’s ancient capital. And everything about him still remained supernatural, brought grist for pantheistic reverie and wonder.”