Liang Hongfu

Don't look down on city's 'slums'

By Hong Liang (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-06-27 06:24

I am living close to what many people would call a slum in Shanghai, and loving it.

The windows in my apartment look out on a sea of red tiled roofs, covering rows and rows of decrepit tenement blocks that house tens of thousands of people. Unlike Beijing's hutong, this area shows no hint of any historic or aesthetic value that would interest even the most dedicated conservationists or idiosyncratic Sinophiles. The area's only claim to fame is that it sits on part of the old walled city that was Shanghai before its transformation into a metropolis in the early 1900s.

Every day, thousands of tourists pass by this area on foot or in tour buses on their way to Yuyuan, one of Shanghai's most celebrated tourist attractions. Hardly any of them venture into the narrow alleys of this "slum." They don't know what they're missing.

The more adventurous ones who did would invariably be rewarded with the discovery of a precious slice of life in Shanghai that is fast disappearing. In contrast to the derelict buildings standing on both sides of the narrow alleyways, the place is full of colour and life from morning to nightfall. It is the perfect example of order in chaos.

On a sunny Saturday afternoon, the alleys are teeming with people. Groups of elderly people sit in the shade of laundry hanging out to dry. Clothing of all descriptions and colours hang out of windows, balconies and on washing lines tied to lampposts, fluttering in the breeze like banners on a festive day.

It is difficult to understand why some city officials should feel embarrassed enough by the open display of laundry to reportedly seek to ban the showing of the Hollywood thriller Mission Impossible III, part of which was shot in Shanghai. The folks in the old city don't seem to care. A pyjama-clad woman is seen here hoisting her latest load of washing, which includes a pair of bright-red panties, onto bamboo posts hanging astride an alley.

There are no shops in the area, but street hawkers abound. They sell everything from fruit and vegetables to pottery and bicycle tyres. Most of these hawkers live in the area. In the morning, they set up their stalls makeshift tables of wooden planks resting on cardboard boxes.

Shopping hours begin at around 9 am. Business is usually brisk, while haggling is rare. After all, the buyers and sellers are long-time neighbours. At the end of a long alley is an elderly woman taking a nap on a rattan chair with a basket of eggs at her feet. Without waking her, a customer picks a few eggs from the basket, leaves some money there and walks a few steps up the alley to the vegetable stall.

Apart from the piles of dirt here and there, the alleys seem cleaner than one would have expected. After eating the contents on an oily paper bag, an elderly man walks some 50 metres to dump it in a bin. But, of course, not everyone is that civic-minded. A woman eating noodles simply tosses the remaining soup onto the pavement. As in any community, you have the good, the bad and the downright ugly.

Looking in from the outside, one can assume that the living conditions must be appalling by modern standards. Many of the daily amenities that we have come to take for granted are lacking in most of the homes here. Some families cook on makeshift stoves in the alleyways outside their homes.

But I can understand why people here don't want to move. I once lived in a modern housing complex in a Shanghai suburb among yuppie families with their well-groomed dogs and fancy cars. The place was sterile and the daily commute to work in the city centre was a torturous journey through seemingly impenetrable traffic jams.

This doesn't look like the sort of life to which the inner-city folks would aspire. Perhaps the municipal government can spend some money on improving the living conditions of the people living in the old city. We are not talking about preserving a historic relic. There are plenty of those around China. We are talking about a harmonious way of life that is uniquely Shanghai.

Email: jamesleung@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 06/27/2006 page4)