Poverty and PoliticsA Case Study of Da Zha Lan, Beijing

Ou Ning

June 12-14, 2008Tate Liverpool and Liverpool University

Beijing, National Stadium, designed by Herzog & de Meuron, 2007

Villages, corners and slums in Beijing(total:343) Da Zha Lan area and Tian’an Men Square

Langfang Ertiao

The typical layout of diagonal streets in Da Zha Lan area was formed naturally as people traveled in between the new and old capitals after the Middle Capital of Jin was destroyed and the Main Capital of Yuan(1271-1368 AD) was rebuilt. Unlike the neat and orderly design of hutongs in the Inner city, Da Zha Lan has a freely developed grassroots style suitable for the outer part of the city and bears witnesses to the long history of this area.

From Ming Dynasty all through Qing Dynasty, to Republican Era, to Post-Liberation, the area of Da Zha Lan has always been the commercial center of Beijing, where a great number of established shops and brands have existed for hundreds of years. It has experienced the transitions from Chinese handicraft industry, to capitalist free trade, to socialist market economy, and can be deemed as the paradigm for Chinese commercial culture.

Da Zha Lan Street now become a low-end retail street filled up with cheap goods and fakes.

Hutongs, small alleys representing the life style of old Beijing, though mostly destroyed, still widely exist in Da Zha Lan area.

Most of the houses were built at end of Qing Dynasty or in the Repulican Era. Due to lack of amendment, they are in bad conditions.

Not better inside, either. And wood structure makes these houses easy to catch fire.

There are lot of hostels which charge by bed instead of by room to make it more affordable. In this one, a bed per night costs only RMB 20(about 3 USD)

Temporary housing widely exists in Da Zha Lan area. This one is revised from a truck.

Quite a few people just live on streets. This is a home of a

rickshaw driver. Home of a migrant worker.

Empty Nest families. Young people don’t want to stay while old people can’t afford to leave, making Da Zha Lan area an aging society.

Life is poor for them in many ways. One is they have few job opportunities so that they have to do small businesses like selling incense or fruit for living.

Or work as bicycle repairmen.

Rubbish collectors and beggars are common to see also.

Miss hair-salon. It’s an open secret that they work as prostitutes in fact. To spend a night with them costs only RMB150(about 20 USD).

Love Island Bar, a heaven for fat gay people (called bears in gay community) in South Beijing, a relatively poorer area in the city.

Area: 1.26 square kilometers

Hutong(narrow alleys in Beijing): 114 in total

75 of them can’t take fire engines, 15 can only take tanker-

pumpers

Neighborhood committees: 11 in total

Courtyards: 2950 in total

Statistics about Da Zha LanInvestigation of Urban Corners in Beijing

Beijing Social Science Institute, July 2005

Permanent residents: 23,418 families, 57,551 people

Among all, 9914 people are over 60 years old, occupying 17% of total; 963 people are

disabled; 4427 are out of employment; 929 families (1,946 people) rely on basic living

allowances;10772 families are away from where their residencies are, taking 46% of total).

Population density: 45,000 people per square kilometer

Floating population: Over 16,700 people (those registered in Public Security Bureau)

The immigrants’ daily living expenses: less than RMB 8(1 USD).

Statistics about Da Zha LanInvestigation of Urban Corners in Beijing

Beijing Social Science Institute, July 2005

Sector distribution: Henan people collect rubbish;Hebei people sell fruit;Shanxi people run hostels;Anhui people sell suitcases and do baby sittingSichuan people run restaurants;Jiangxi people manage hair salons;

people from northeast China search for investors and pimp. Businesses that officially registered: 1481 in totalIncluding 729 individual businesses

Hair salons: 167 in total (only 7 have haircut tools)

Statistics about Da Zha LanInvestigation of Urban Corners in Beijing

Beijing Social Science Institute, July 2005

Political Poverty1.District economic imbalance. To boom the economy, the municipal government put the focus of economic development of Beijing in Chaoyang District, the east part of the city while Da Zha Lan area, locating in South Beijing, got neglected

2.Special policy to limit the height of architecture around Forbidden City. The architecture around Forbidden City can’t be higher than it, which pushes developers away for lack of profits.

3.Due to historical reasons, private properties are not protected and the ownership of housing is not clear and the transaction of properties is not active. All these impede civil capital to come in for amendment.

From left to right: Fabulous, How Great is the Mass of the Poor, Barbarian Driver,Beijing Awakening Pictorial,1909

Da Zha Lan (Qing Dynasty) Da Zha Lan (1950) Da Zha Lan (2005)

Billbroads set up by developers, showing their redevelopment plan of the commercial part of Da Zha Lan area.

Impression image of Da Zha Lan area in the future. The previous residential area will be changed to million-dollar new-style courtyard homes.

Meishi Street under demolition.

Meishi Street under demolition.

Unjustness caused by systems

1 Land system: The state ownership of land of China keeps land resources all under government’s control. This

means government can sell land to increase their financial income, which resulted in power rent-seeking and collusion of officials and developers.

 2 Tax system: China doesn’t impose unified property tax like western countries but separates the ownerships of

property and land. The government charges the land use fee for the whole next 70 years at one time instead of charging it by year. This means an advance of the benefits from land, which increases the cost of developers who will then transfer it to property buyers.

 3 Law system: There were no specific laws to protect private properties in China until Property Law was passed in

2007. But it’s conflicted with many other current laws in the process of implement.

4 Finance system: China’s banks’ overissue of loans leads to over development in real estate and even sub-prime

mortgage crisis like in the US. Developers buy off the land of poor people intown with low compensation for demolition and relocation. The cash they got is far from enough to buy any property in real estate market so they have to borrow money from banks and change from poor people intown to poor people in suburbs.

Zhang Jinli, a resident in Da Zha Lan area, protested by hanging the banner and couplet written things like “Illegal actions of developers, court and government make it hard for us ordinary people to live, who can give us justice? ”

Zhang Jinli and the law reference book he uses.

The receipts of the appeal letters that Zhang Jinli sent to some of the top government officials.

Zhang Jinli was forced out as the last demolishee of Meishi Street.

A New Political Model: People participate in politics not for being mobilized by state but to protect their own interests and rights.Parties are not the main body of politics but the citizens.

A building sits on its own island of land in Chongqing Municipality.The homeowner has refused to sell to a developer, who went ahead with construction around the site. New York Times, March 27, 2007

www.dazhalan-project.org