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CHANGING AND EVOLVING CHINA
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December 21, 2018
Liuyu Chen
Reflections of a returnee – Liuyu Ivy Chen
Editor’s note: This feature about the urban village of Feijiacun by an expatriate returning after seven years to find the city changed, was written in Chinese and translated by the author, after she was told it could not be published in China.
When I arrived in Beijing in January, I paused on the sidewalk and looked up: the sky was blue, cloudless, immense. I went to college in this city, and often visited after graduation. Back then, Beijing’s sky was typically a murky palette, a mix of smog, dust and sand from carbon emissions, courtyard demolitions, subway construction and northwestern storms.
I soon learned that the government had shut down the city’s coal-burning heating systems during a recent eviction campaign which targeted low-skilled migrants. This controversial operation was vaguely documented in the Chinese media, but its result was clearly reflected on the sky.
I was in the capital for a one-month international artist residency. My studio was in Feijiacun, a vibrant community of migrants, artists and foreigners outside the northeastern Fifth Ring Road. In my living compound, art studios, dance companies, new-media start-up bases, and other creative functions filled rows of former red-brick warehouses.
About a month earlier, local authorities had demanded that all Feijiacun renters pack up and leave within three weeks – part of the city-wide eviction campaign under the banner of “safety hazards elimination,” launched after a fire in Daxing killed at least 19 people last November.
When the deadline approached, a raging protest broke out in Feijiacun, but was subdued by police and ignored by the Chinese media.
Unaware of this protest until after I returned to the United States, it nonetheless felt surreal when I walked on Feijiacun’s eerily quiet, zigzagging streets. A few open restaurants and shops clung on, often with For Lease notices on the doors, in reaction to the rising rent or to trick the fire-inspection authorities.
Our residency program coordinator, a former Chinese punk rock star who was forced to move out of Feijiacun during the eviction campaign, gave us a stern warning not to take photos in Feijiacun. Local Chinese residents were suspicious of any camera-holders, especially foreigners, and would report them to the authorities, who would interrogate our host program and demand a tighter control on the “free-range” artists.
Because coal-burning heating systems were abruptly banned from use, natural gas infrastructure was largely unavailable, and electric heating was expensive, many former Feijiacun residents were effectively driven out of Beijing.
My host residency program had installed an electric unit in each of our studios to ensure 24-hour heating. Our driver and administrative aide, Mr. Li, told me that each studio’s electricity bill would cost the residency program about 3,000 yuan (nearly $500) per month.
Remainder of article:
https://chinachannel.org/2018/12/21/f...
Source: China Channel
On this thread we can also discuss the many faces of China and how with its becoming more cosmopolitan - some of the charms of past times have changed and evolved forever.