Villages in the City

A Gu id 啠Ԧּ e to Sou З޷‫ ܗ‬th Ch ina's Ԧ In

form a

l Set

tlem

ents

Edite d by S Paul t Chu Hoi S Contribut efan Al ing ha Ivan n, Claudi editors V

alin,

a Case Juhre, y Wa ng

Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

vii

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

ix

INTRODUCTION Villages in the City: A Guide to China’s Informal Settlements STEFAN AL

1

ESSAYS The City in between the Villages MARCO CENZATTI

9

The Beginning of the End: Planning the Destruction of Guangzhou’s Urban Villages MARGARET CRAWFORD and JIONG WU

19

City-in-the-Village: Huanggang and China’s Urban Renewal NICK R. SMITH

29

A Village by the Special Economic Zone: The Dafen Paradigm of China’s Urbanization JIANG JUN

42

Village-in-the-City as a Sustainable Form of Social Housing Communities for China: A Tale of Four Villages in Shenzhen LAURENCE LIAUW

47

URBANIZATION The Big Picture: Visualizing Urban Villages Village Portraits Rapid Urbanization and the Rise and Decline of Urban Villages Uneven Urbanization in the Pearl River Delta

63 64 67 68

SHENZHEN Xiasha Village Dafen Village Gangxia Village

70 80 90

POLITICS Battle of the Smartest: Shenzhen Municipal Government vs. Shenzhen Urban Villagers Limited Rights of Floating Population

100 103

DONGGUAN Jiekou Village Tianjia Village

104 114

URBAN DESIGN One Line Skies: Shipai Village

124

GUANGZHOU Shipai Village Wanshengtang Village Sanyuanli Village

126 136 146

ARCHITECTURE Flexible Use of Village Buildings

156

FOSHAN Bitang Village Hedang Village

158 168

INTERIOR DESIGN How Do the Villagers Cut Up the Housing Units?

178

ZHUHAI Poshi Village Zuowu Village

180 190

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

202

CREDITS

203

vi

Image 2. Like many other urban villages, the buildings in Xiasha Village stand so close to another that they create a “thin line sky.� Photo by Stefan Al.

4

The height of the urban village buildings is thus a barometer of urbanization, a marker of the lack of affordable housing, and sadly, also an indicator of impending demolition; as the higher they get, the more prominent they become prey to developers and governments.

Knowing that many of the urban villages featured in this book are on the brink of destruction, the following chapters will provide a valuable documentation of this unique accident in China’s maelstrom of urbanization—a premature eulogy if their demolition cannot be avoided.

Looking across cases also reveals similarities in terms of their urban features. In an urban China dominated by drones of generic skyscrapers, traveling through these urban villages presents an alternative vision of modernity that reminds one of Marco Polo’s journeys in Invisible Cities. Typically, you can access them only by going through a gateway, which doubles as a security gate since villages have their own private police force. Once inside, there is an air of cosmopolitanism with dialects heard from all over China, and restaurants with cuisines from many regions. The narrow and populated streets in the markets in some villages, with their open display of exotic products, appear more like souks than hutongs. These lead to unexpected open spaces with children rollicking outside, or to ancient temples where the elderly are playing mahjong.

It is easy to misperceive these places as slums. Dickensian nightmares portrayed by the local press often describe the urban village in pathological terms, for instance, as an “eye sore,” “scar,” “ill,” or even “cancer” of the city. They further stigmatize the migrant residents as filthy, as burglars, drug users, or 5

even murderers. The reporters’ quotes of unsanitary conditions and crime rates help authorities justify their destruction. The government perceives them as a messy threat to their more sterile vision of modernity. Even some of Hong Kong University’s graduate students of urban design, many of whom come from China, hesitated to visit the urban villages at the beginning of our study.

Although many villages have dirty alleys and dilapidated buildings with poor lighting and ventilation (and sometimes a 15-story building topped with roof shacks goes without an elevator), the people living in these buildings are not the urban poor.5 They are productive, if politically disadvantaged, citizens with jobs. Many urban villagers have television sets, refrigerators, and occasionally, even cars. For them, the place is not a “slum” but an important, affordable, and welllocated entry point into the city where they can become full urban citizens after a few years of steady jobs. They can eventually receive decent health care and social benefits, and send their children to proper schools. Furthermore, even white-collar workers or college students frequent the urban villages to enjoy their many services, or sometimes even prefer to live in the urban villages.

From this perspective, the emergence of urban villages in China fits in a worldwide trend of “urban informality.”6 Much of the world’s urbanization occurs in the informal sector, outside of institutional structures such as building regulations, zoning laws, or land tenure. Hundreds of millions of people around the world are excluded from formal housing, explaining the existence of the

favelas in Rio de Janerio, the barrios in Mexico, and the shantytowns in India.7 Developed nations, too, have their forms of extralegal and unplanned communities, for instance, the colonias border settlements in Texas. As research shows, these communities are not marginal, but fully embedded into the economy.8 The study of Chinese urban villages can contribute to this scholarship, particularly because urban villages are not synonymous with the urban poor. Urban villages are anything but marginal; they are integral to an economy that relies on low valueadded labor, created by the state’s inability to provide adequate housing to millions of blue-collar workers who are playing an important part in the economic development of China.

Moreover, the poor condition of individual buildings in the urban village does not justify the eradication of the entire village area. As in any city, buildings come and go, but streets, open spaces, and everything else that give long-term identity to a place can be sustained and even integrated into the future of the city. They could be treated like the older historical villages that some Western cities have been smart to incorporate into their greater urban fabric—places such as Gràcia in Barcelona, or the West Village in New York City. Their irregular and small grain of urban fabric provides a welcome variety to the larger homogeneous city grid, whereas the small lots bring opportunities to smaller businesses.

Total demolition, the default option of the state, is problematic because of the lack of proper substitutes.

Not only does it erase the unique historical and cultural traces of the village, the redevelopment can put pressure on the surrounding infrastructure and is also expensive.

In addition, demolition eventually

下沙村

Xiasha Village a Road

B Tairan

路

泰然八

4 3

Plaza 廣場

2

1

72

下沙村

Architour 建築巡禮

Xiasha Village

1 One of the many streets of Xiasha Village. Here you will find your daily goods, fresh food, restaurants, and massage parlors.

2 A large, open space plaza in the middle of an urban village! It is currently being renovated. Many unique structures and sculptures adorn the square.

3 A fine example of a traditional Chinese gateway.

1

4 The people of Xiasha are proud of their history and achievements and they have built a museum dedicated to the history and tradition of the village.

The building also houses a library, kindergarten, and offices for village executives.

1 下沙村其中的一條商業街道。在這兒你可以找到日 常用品、新鮮食物、餐廳及按摩和休閒場所。 2 城中村中心一個正在重建中的廣場！ 在這兒你會 找到不同的獨特傳統建築物和雕像。 3 一個傳統中國牌坊屹立在廣場上。 4 下沙村村民對自己的歷史和成就非常自豪。因此他 們蓋了下沙博物館，讓訪客了解村的歷史和傳統。博 物館設有圖書館、幼稚園和村董事的辦公室。

2 3 4

4

73

大芬村

Housing 房屋

Dafen Village 11 m

7.2 m

Each residential flat is being used for living, working, and exhibition purposes. Compared to other villages, the rent of these flats is really expensive, even on the fifth or sixth floor. Rent for a typical unit is about 2,500 RMB per month. 大芬村每個原住宅單位都被改造成居住、工作和展覽功能結合的空 間模式。與其他城中村租金比較，大芬村房屋的租金（ 包括那些位 於五樓和六樓的），都是十分昂貴的。大芬村內標準單位的每月租 金，已經達到 2,500 元人民幣。

1-bedroom family unit 一房家庭單位

3 people 3人

Area: 68 m2

面積：68 平方米

Monthly rent: ~2,500 RMB 月租 ~2,500 元人民幣

88

Unfortunately, due to the financial crisis, I could not find a job in Dafen Village. I relied on my family to support me. I felt so ashamed of having made the decision to move to Dafen. Eventually, I found a job in an electronics factory with a monthly salary of 900 RMB. In my spare time I started to paint, but my landlord disliked the smell of oil painting. I was forced to move into a dormitory in the factory.

After Chinese New Year in 2010, I resigned from the factory and rented a small exhibition area in Dafen. It is about 2 square meters and costs 500 RMB each month. Since then, I have started painting again. So I am now a painter in Dafen. 我在四川音樂美術學院畢業後，就自行創業，當起 廣告設計師。到了厭倦的時候，我把公司賣掉，從 四川南下深圳，來到大芬村，開始了新的生活。 受金融危機的影響，剛來的時候，沒有人需要新的 畫師。之前做慣了老闆的我，不得不依靠家裡接 濟過日子，所以覺得沒有臉回去，只好硬著頭皮留 下來。後來，我才在一家電子廠找到一份包裝的工 作，工資每月 900 元人民幣。 在工餘時我開始畫畫，但房東嫌我畫畫氣味太大， 很快就把我趕走，我於是搬到工廠宿舍居住。 2010 年春節後，我辭去工廠的工作，在大芬村租 了一個約兩平方米的單位，每月 500 元人民幣。 從那時開始，我再執起畫筆繪畫，現在成為了大芬 村的畫家。

89

Dafen Village

I graduated from Sichuan Music and Art College.

Having worked as a designer in the advertising industry, I started to feel bored, so I sold my business and moved to Dafen in Shenzhen to seek a new life.

大芬村

Wang Wei 王偉

崗廈村

Gangxia Village

94

崗廈村

Gangxia Village

YSIZE XSIZE

ha

ha

haha

haha

ha

Gangxia Gateway Street 崗廈牌坊街 As its name implies, this street is the first street behind the village gateway. Most of the social activities take place here. There are a primary school, a kindergarten, fast food restaurants, a vegetable market, and even a basketball court. Most spaces on the ground floor of the buildings are used for commercial purposes, while the stories above are rental apartments. The buildings face several 100-meter tall office towers on the opposite side of the narrow street.

95

顧名思義，牌坊街是進入崗廈牌坊的第一條街，崗廈人 的主要公共活動也大多集中於此，這裡有不同的設施， 如小學、幼稚園、快餐店、菜市場，甚至籃球場。在這 條街的樓房，地面大多是作商業用途，上層為出租公 寓，與旁邊多幢一百米高的大樓相映成趣。

石牌村

路

快速

RT 路B

天河 ay)

essw xpr

Shipai Village

he

TE (BR

Shipai West Road 石牌西路

東路 Shipai East Road 石牌

Tian

d Roa

50

Huangpu Avenue

100

200m

126 黄埔大道

Total population: ~270,000 總人口：~270,000

石牌村

More than 170 narrow alleys are surrounded by the city’s skyscrapers.

There are many IT shops in the village. Shipai is the biggest IT sales center in the south of China. Over 50,000 migrants live with roughly 10,000 locals within an area of only 40 hectares. The main source of income for the original villagers is rents. 廣州市石牌村是廣州最大，也是最古老的城中村，地處繁華的天河 區中心地帶。此村是由民宅發展起來的密集建築群（也是大家所知 的「接吻樓」），並由小部分的自留地所構成。 石牌村由 170 條狹窄的古道小巷構成，廣州中心商業區裡的摩天大 廈包圍在村的四周。石牌村內繁忙的商業街有著大量的數碼產品商 店，這裡是中國南部著名和最大的科技產品銷售中心。石牌村的面 積雖然僅有 40 公頃，但是容納著超過五萬的外來人口，以及約一萬 的本地人。村的主要經濟來源就是租賃經濟。

127

面積：40 公頃

5.7 m2 per person 每人 5.7 平方米

Building height: 7–9 stories

x

建築物高度：7–9 層 y

High street width: 7–8 m 主要街道寬度：7–8 米

Lane width: 4–5 m

次要街道寬度：4–5 米

Alley width: 1–2 m 支路寬度：1–2 米

Shipai Village

Shipai is the biggest and oldest urban village in Guangzhou, located in the center of the bustling Tianhe District. The village homestead developed the small plots into super-tall structures, otherwise known as “kissing buildings.”

Area: 40 ha

石牌村

SHIPAI VILLAGE

153mm

80mm

Villages in the City A Guide to South China’s Informal Settlements

— Lanchih Po, adjunct associate professor, University of California, Berkeley

Urban Geography / Design

Printed and bound in Hong Kong, China

Cover design by Daniel King Him Fung

University of Hawai‘i Press Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96822-1888

153mm

A Gu id 啠Ԧּ e to Sou З޷‫ ܗ‬th Ch ina's Ԧ In

80mm

form a

l Set

tlem

ents

Edite d by S Paul t Chu Hoi S Contribut efan Al ing ha Ivan n, Claudi editors V

alin,

a Case Juhre, y Wa ng

Countless Chinese villages have been engulfed by modern cities. Gone are the picturesque farms and feng shui groves; in their place stand highrises built so close together that they are known as “kissing buildings” or “handshake houses,” where occupants can reach out and shake hands with their neighbors. The towers create dark, claustrophobic alleys topped with strips of daylight (known as “thin line skies”) and jammed with dripping air-conditioners, hanging clothes, caged balconies and bundles of buzzing electric wires.

Although it is easy to see these villages as slums, a closer look reveals that they provide an important, affordable, and well-located entry point for migrants into the city. They also offer a vital mixed-use, spatially diverse and pedestrian alternative to the prevailing car-oriented modernistplanning paradigm in China.Yet, most of these villages are on the brink of destruction, affecting the lives of millions of people and threatening the eradication of a unique urban fabric.

Villages in the City argues for the value of urban villages as places.

To reveal their qualities, a series of drawings and photographs uncovers the immense concentration of social life in their dense structures and provides a peek into residents’ homes and daily lives. Essays by a number of experts give a deeper understanding of the topic and show how focusing on the village can lead to a richer, more variegated pathway of urbanization.

229mm

“This book is an important and up-to-date record of China’s urban villages (chengzhongcun), which were formerly rural areas and have been engulfed by the country’s powerful trend of renewal. Because of their collective landownership, the villagers have managed to bypass planning and construction codes and rebuilt their villages into high-density neighborhoods that are housing millions of migrants in the cities. . . . The spatial characteristics of these urban settlements have been understudied. This book will therefore be an invaluable addition to the existing research on China’s distinctive trajectory of urbanization.”

Villages in the City A Guide to South China’s Informal Settlements

Stefan Al is an associate professor of urban design at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the editor of Factory Towns of South China: An Illustrated Guidebook.

10.8mm