Coming Down Alert – Nanluoguxiang

I haven’t been up to Peking for a while so apologies to all the Pekingren who know more about this than me – in fact I’m posting in the hope someone will clue me in? Rumour reaches me of the bulldozing of the old hutong at Nanluoguxiang. Nothing new in an old hutong being bulldozed in Peking of course, most of them already have ans the rest will sooner or later we can safely assume. We called time on architecture in Peking, with the exception of a few grand buildings, a long time ago – the destruction has gone too far now to turn back.

However, Nanluoguxiang was a success. Ask anyone who visited for the Olympics – it was the only ‘site’ anyone commented to me they found interesting. Put aside any snotty remarks about the tattiness of many of the shops (and many of them are but…), the repetitive nature of it all (and anyway neither Shanghai’s Taikang Road nor London’s Camden Market etc etc are particularly innovative places to hang unless your 17 and Japanese), at least it existed and was popular. Watching young Pekingers enjoying a weekend snapping photos of the older parts of the city was encouraging – were they reconnecting with their heritage? I hope so – certainly it seemed to attract more people than the latest piece of architectural Viagra from some Swiss-Dutch-Luxembourgeois wunderkind that nobody else in any other city globally would contemplate due to its ridiculousness, or some old fart Starchitect notching another one on the bedpost courtesy of Beijing Municipal Government. I don’t see so many people snapping those!

Anyway, a major row has been brewing over the destruction of some buildings along Nanluoguxiang (reported here by the AFP). I’ll leave the details to the foreign hack pack (if they can get roust themselves out of bed for this one) but it does result in the loss of several properties along the street for, wait for it, wait for it… ‘subway line construction’. The row is, as usual, about compensation, though once again a hutong is going. I have no idea whether the whole hutong will go – any news gratefully received.

Meanwhile I’m also told that another hutong, Beiluogu Xiang, that has been gentrifying and attracting interest from retailers and visitors, may be for the bulldozer before it even really gets going.

I have no idea what to take from all this except that none of this will stop till the last hutong is gone presumably. I’m afraid I don’t spend nearly enough time in Peking to be comprehensive on the destruction in the way China Rhyming tries with Shanghai but here’s a few previous posts on lost hutongs:

Gulou

Jinbao Jie

Dayuanfu Hutong

Beihe Hutong

Kuijiachang Hutong

Xinhai 100 – Taipei’s Dr. Sun Yat Sen Memorial House and Gardens

A few posts over the year naturally on the centenary of the republic revolution of 1911 – Xinhai.

Taipei’s Dr. Sun Yat Sen Memorial House and gardens seemed a possibly interesting place to visit on a New Year weekend in this year of the centenary celebrations of the found of the Chinese Republic, Xinhai. Though ultimately not, as the house was shut fr the holidays. Actually of all the SYS venues I’ve visited in Taiwan, the excellent SYS heritage trail in Hong Kong and the mausoleum in Nanking this is perhaps the worst location…or maybe not.

The house and gardens sit slightly uncomfortably between Taipei’s impressive (though rather ugly) main railway station and the city’s ugly bus terminal (show me a city with a pretty bus terminal I admit). The whole small complex, including the little Japanese style SYS Memorial House, is overlooked by one of Taipei’s numerous overhead expressways.

But let’s look on the bright side. Dr. Sun was, of course, a massive fan and advocate of the railways and efficient public transportation. He did draw up elaborate plans for the development of China’s rail network, some of which a only coming to fruition now with the build out of high speed rail. So perhaps the good Dr’s. Spirit rather enjoys being in such close proximity to the hub of the RoC’s rail network and I expect he’d have really liked the THSR high speed train to Kaohsiung. Perhaps if his ghost is anywhere, it’s wandering the concourses of the railway station?

…And Talking of Peking’s Trashing…

…as I was just noting the Beijing Record book I’d also like to point the interested in the direction of Joel Martinsen’s recent article in the China Heritage Quarterly entitled Tear the Palace Down! The article discusses various barmy plans the Commie planners had for central Peking that would have involved destroying the Forbidden City. The article is fascinating, the only being that the author seems to assume that this is now not eve going to happen!!! Personally I wouldn’t underestimate the destructive urges and land grabbing mentality (profit centred of course) of the numerous CPC cadres!!! The debacle over the Drum and Bell Tower, the continued hutong bulldozings etc etc show they ain’t done destroying to build customer-free luxury shopping malls yet. Surely the Forbidden City would make a Louis Vuitton Global Flagship Store par excellence!

Why Peking Got Trashed – Beijing Record

I have yet to read this book (though have ordered it), Jun Yang’s Beijing Record, but am told it is a pretty good analysis of how Peking got trashed beyond a joke since the 1950s. What possessed urban planners under Mao’s aegis to tear down the walls and why later generations have so hated hutongs and siheyuan but seemingly been OK with allowing every two bit foreigners with a pen and a pair of Lindberg spectacles to design some piece of crap in the city.

Anyway – blurb below and this link gives you the first chapter to read. May have more to say on this when I get round to reading it in depth.

The Hare With Amber Eyes

In 2009 I think I noted that my best read of the year was Timothy Brook’s wonderful book Vermeer’s Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World. It was a wonderful stroll through several of Vermeer’s portraits and from them to China, Canada and a rich variety of other destinations all seamlessly weaved together. It was the best of book – educational and learned but also beautiful to read.

This year I’ve just finished Edmund de Waal’s The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance. De Waal, a potter by trade, has produced a wonderful book that starts with a collection of Japanese Netsuke he inherits. Tracing these beautiful items takes him back through his family’s history and to Odessa, Paris, Vienna and Tokyo – though a different subject, like Brook’s book de Waal marvellously wanders from one place to another and is always instructive yet always a joy to read. As ever blurb below.

264 wood and ivory carvings, none of them larger than a matchbox: potter Edmund de Waal was entranced when he first encountered the collection in the Tokyo apartment of his great uncle Iggie. Later, when Edmund inherited the ‘netsuke’, they unlocked a story far larger than he could ever have imagined…

The Ephrussis came from Odessa, and at one time were the largest grain exporters in the world; in the 1870s, Charles Ephrussi was part of a wealthy new generation settling in Paris. Charles’s passion was collecting; the netsuke, bought when Japanese objets were all the rage in the salons, were sent as a wedding present to his banker cousin in Vienna.

Later, three children – including a young Ignace – would play with the netsuke as history reverberated around them. The Anschluss and Second World War swept the Ephrussis to the brink of oblivion. Almost all that remained of their vast empire was the netsuke collection, dramatically saved by a loyal maid when their huge Viennese palace was occupied.

In this stunningly original memoir, Edmund de Waal travels the world to stand in the great buildings his forebears once inhabited. He traces the network of a remarkable family against the backdrop of a tumultuous century and tells the story of a unique collection.

The Old Shanghai A-Z on RTHK

I was down in Hong Kong the other week nattering with Sarah Passmore on her RTHK Radio 3 show Naked Lunch. We chatted about my Old Shanghai A-Z, Fat China and future projects – should you be so inclined to a listen, here it is – click here

What We Lost 2010 – Shanghai’s Architectural Losses Last Year

Apologies for the delay in pulling this together. And apologies for a longer than usual post. As it’s the holidays hopefully you’ll have time to read it all.

It’s become somewhat of a sad tradition to gather together the architectural losses of the year in Shanghai to record them – see the 2009 list here. With the frantic pace of destruction continuing full force at the moment Shanghai is losing architecture and heritage at a terrific rate. A few things about 2010 – of course EXPO year – are worth noting:

1) the pace of destruction in no way slowed but significantly increased throughout the year with EXPO related themes cited by officials for most destruction – road widening, ‘civilising’, ‘harmonising’, ‘new Shanghai’ etc etc and of course the specious slum clearance argument.

2) we should all be clear now that ‘preservation orders’ supposedly placed on buildings to protect them have no validity whatsoever and are merely cosmetic. Supposedly preserved buildings continue to be bulldozed regularly, often at 2am!!

3) contrary to popular opinion (at least among many foreigners I speak to in Shanghai) the former French Concession is in no way under any special protection – as well as ersatz nonsense such as the non-sensical Sinan Mansions development (knock down perfectly fine old buildings to build faux replicas that can operate as coffee shops and then add a huge TV screen in the middle of it!) as well as other demolitions across Frenchtown clearly testify (the junction of Huashan and Xingguo Roads is the latest block to be threatened and hopefully we won’t be including it on the list of the lost next year). The same is true for the supposedly widely preserved former Jewish Ghetto in Tilanqiao, which is also being picked away at again.

4) the amount of lilong and shikumen housing destroyed in the last 18 months has accelerated – it is clear that none of this housing, unique to Shanghai and Shanghai only, is intended for preservation except as generic super-private policed spaces such Xintiandi. There is clearly no understanding that where people have lived is as worthy of saving and maintaining as where they banked!

5) the bulldozers have moved with a vengeance into northern Shanghai – Zhabei, Hongkou, Tilanqiao and Yangpu are all losing large swathes of housing, commercial premises and, in Yangpu particularly, rare examples of industrial architecture.

In short 2010 was not a good year…it is impossible to list all the losses (though some not mentioned in this list have been noted elsewhere on this blog in the last 12 months)…here are some of the most notable and regrettable.

Weihai Road –

The Weihai Road (formerly Weihaiwei Road) clearances have been significant and widespread and the single biggest loss of important city centre architecture and heritage in 2010. The West side of one block of Maoming Road North (Moulmein Road) between Weihai and Nanjing West Road (Bubbling Well Road) is all now gone completely (see Google Earth image below).The loss has been blamed on the need for construction of metro lines 12 and 13.

Of particular note as a loss at this site were several villas. The first, close to the junction of Maoming Road North (Moulmein Road) and Nanjing West Road (Bubbling Well Road) was significant as it was one of the last survivors of the period of property development after the Bubbling Well area became part of the International Settlement in 1899. It was built by the noted architectural firm of Atkinson and Dallas in 1902 and occupied by a British doctor. The property originally had a huge lawn (where the low buildings in the foreground are). It was taken over by the American YWCA in 1938. It is now gone – below is what it looked like shortly before demolition – as you can see it was in perfectly serviceable condition.

Several other villa properties close to Shimen No.1 Road and Weihai Road were also lost. Both were integral to the former Zhang Gardens site redeveloped from a private garden for well-healed Chinese in the mid 1920s and 1930s into a highly sought after development within easy reach of the Bubbling Well Road. Chinese financiers and bankers willingly paid high prices for these properties. As you can see below both the exteriors and interiors (far rarer) were extremely well maintained. Now gone.

On a final note on Weihai – the destruction of Weihai Road looks far from complete yet. The small artists community that has grown up around 696 Weihai Road, a series of rather interesting former opium warehouses, appears doomed with no leases being renewed. ‘Xintiandi-isation’ appears to be the fate of 696, which we know from Xintiandi is ultimately no different to destroying them anyway. Worryingly the current landlord of the properties – the Jing’an Social Security Bureau – also controls the leases (and therefore the fate) of the Jing’an Villas residential compound nearby – the loss of which would be major on an international scale.

As to the destruction along Maoming Road North – it is on the eastern side of the street. To get an idea of the architecture lost, here is a shot of the western side of the street that, for now, remains intact.

Maoming South/Fuxing Middle Roads –

The ongoing development here has seen a whole block removed last year that included the former Canidrome dog racing track, hai-alai facilities and boxing arena. Also lost was the architecturally important and wonderfully domed Canidrome Ballroom. This was also the removal of a later episode of Shanghai’s history, the Canidrome was used during the Cultural Revolution for mass denunciations by the Red Guards. It later became a flower market. Now the entire block is destroyed which involved the unnecessary removal of several properties along Maoming Road South (formerly Rue Cardinal Mercier) and Fuxing Middle Road (Rue Lafayette). The best known of these buildings was the property that for many years housed The House of Blues and Jazz (below), which was in a well maintained state of repair.

Then…

and now…

There was also a pleasant courtyard house on the corner that was somewhat obscured by shops and restaurants added haphazardly on to the frontage but was also in a serviceable state of repair. That is now where the access road to the building site runs as shown below. I have no idea what the ridiculous vanity structure is that has been built on the old Canidrome.

The Former Gardens of the Morriss Estate –

These gardens, long accessible to the general public, were on the land of the former Morriss family estate between Maoming South Road (Rue Cardinal Mercier) and Ruijin No.1 Road (Route des Soeurs). The Morriss family were extremely wealthy from banking and bullion trading and also owned the North-China Daily News. They were fanatics for both horse and dog racing and enjoyed their close proximity to the Canidrome. The house has latterly become the Ruijin Hotel and many will remember the gardens from sitting outside at Face bar or the Xiao Nan Guo restaurant in the compound. Along with Fuxing Park (formerly French Park), the gardens were one of the only green spaces in the densely urban former French Concession. This Google Earth image shows the lost gardens – a million or so Chinese wedding photos will recall them!

With the gardens now gone, concern remains for several well maintained villa properties that front on to Fuxing Road. They appear to still be in good condition though the building site’s access road is adjacent and the constant dirt and vibration from the trucks cannot be doing the structures much good. Here are part of the gardens as they were prior to their wholesale destruction. They were rather an oasis of calm and contentment in a city rather lacking in both!

Dongdaming Road, Betwen Gongping Road and the Xinjian Road Tunnel

If there is a theme to this list this year then it is that preservation cannot just be about banks, former schools and administrative buildings, it has to also be about housing and industrial architecture if the story of a city’s development is to be maintained and told completely through its surviving heritage. In 2010 large swathes of Hongkou and the former International Settlement north of Suzhou Creek have gone – road widening and slum clearance are the two major (and invariably specious – see posts on official slum creation) given.

The stretch of Hongkou between Dongdaming Road (formerly Seward Road) starting from Gongping Road (Kung Ping Road) toward the XinjianLu Tunnel is pretty much all gone. Many of these properties were distinctively part of the former Japanese Concession with trademark locks, name plaques and interior design revealing strong Japanese influences. Older resident referred to the buildings as ‘Japanese shikumens’ – making them a unique subset of a unique Shanghai architectural style and so therefore even more valuable architecturally and in terms of heritage – doubly unique! The roofs had short walls with square blocks fitted in the base, used for shoving canons into them, or so  resident believed. I would note that for more pictures of the destruction of this area of town see street photographer Sue Anne Tay’s Shanghai Street Stories blog.

The first two pictures below show the extent of the destruction in the area – the third shows one remaining frontage and indicates the sort of quality of architecture that has been lost on a significantly large scale in this area of northern Shanghai.

That’s the major list for 2010. Any other sites noticed please let me know – this is a personal rather than a comprehensive list. However, a few other things of note:

i) several buildings along the formerly wonderful Love Lane (Wujiang Road) came down this year – only one original structure is left on that street now and is due for demolition imminently.

ii) I have not had a chance to get there but I am told that the final remaining parts of the old General Hospital that sat along the Suzhou Creek were pulled down this year.

iii) I am also reliably informed that massive works are ongoing at the Wujing’s compound on Huaihai Middle Road (Avenue Joffre) close to the Huaihai Apartments and the (much mucked about) Shanghai Music Conservatory. I used to live in the penthouse of the Huaihai Apartments and the balcony looked down onto the Wujing compound – a fine old mansion that had not, at that time (late 1990s) been spoiled too much.The site is heavily guarded and so I cannot confirm that the mansion in the grounds has been torn down – will investigate and report back. Sounds like a job for Google Earth!

iii) I would note the destruction of the corner of Guangyuan Road (formerly Rue Picard-Destelan) and   Huashan Road (Siccawei Road, later Avenue Haig) to the west and by Xujiahui (Sikawei). I blogged on this last year.

iv) as far the Old Town goes – the ongoing destruction of the large block on Dongjiadu Road that intersects with Zhongshan South Road, south of the bund) and includes Lanyi Matou Road etc which surrounds Shangchuan Huiguan (商船会馆) or the Merchant Shipping Hall in the south part of Old Town. Reportedly, the plan is for the the Hall to be refurbished, the rest is flattened land for a “new” Bund. This is a very massive undertaking and represents a potentially large amount of flattening around the old Quai de France.

v) the current destruction of the block encompassing Huimin Road (formerly Baikal Road) between Tongbei (Thorburn), crossing Liaoyang Road (Liaoyong Road) and running as far as Dalian Road (Dalny Road). I blogged on this last year too.

vi) the loss of housing in the former ‘Japanese Colony’ on and around Tanggu Road (Boone Road) covered here.

vii) the loss of a compound adjacent to the old Shanghai Watch Company on Yulin Road (Yuuin Road) covered here.

viii) some may consider it minor but the old carved iron factory gates on Panyu Road (Columbia Road) were worth saving I think – the former cotton mill dormitories adjacent to them on Lane 209 do not appear to be long for this world – see former post.

ix) the tragedy that was the destruction of the Jesuit Recoleta Mission (Misioneras Agustinas Recoletas)  on Rue Moliere (Xiangshan Road) covered here. Another peck away at Frenchtown.

x) I have been told about large-scale destruction along Moganshan Road (Mokanshan Road), a mixture of old factories and art spaces but haven’t been down there yet.

xi) and finally, of course, the utter and total gutting of JG Ballard’s former childhood home out in the former Western Roads Area at the junction of Xinhua Road (Amherst Avenue) and Panyu Road (Columbia Road) covered here.

When Did the Noble Hare Become a Common old Rabbit?

Here’s hoping there’s an academic out there who can help. Every book I’ve ever read on China talks of the hare – 1951 was for instance always known as the Year of the Hare. I also remember references to hares in China in the 1980s. A hare is a different animal to a rabbit for sure. So why, all of a sudden, is it the year of the rabbit when it should be a hare? Is it not a little like declaring the year of the horse to now be the year of the mule? They’re close but hardly the same thing at all.

Can anyone help enlighten me here?