Introduction
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INTRODUCTION transformation” of what was to be buzzing electrical wires—crowned Villages in the the largest redevelopment project with a small strip of daylight, called by of its kind in the Pearl River Delta, locals “thin line sky.” City: A Guide to aspiring to become a national model for upgrading older urban areas. The emergence and proliferation China’s Informal of these urban villages is a unique The local press did not question these phenomenon of urban China that Settlements empty slogans, nor the eviction of the occurs in many regions and in Stefan Al countless politically disadvantaged different forms, as a consequence migrants. Rather, they framed the of the rapid urbanization that has In 2011, bulldozers tore down redevelopment as a conflict between resulted from land reform, the dual nearly the entire village of Dachong, the real estate company and the urban and rural land ownership destroying over 10 million square village households owning the land. A and management system, and the feet of village housing and evicting few families had refused to transfer large influx of an underprivileged more than 70,000 residents, many of their property rights, but after migrant population. At the cusp of them migrants.1 In what was called the district government approved the economic reform in China in the one of the key urban “upgrades” of eminent domain, the remaining 1980s, in a process that continues the decade, a vibrant community had homes were razed as well. Those until today, municipal governments been turned into a rubble-ridden who had agreed to transfer their could only achieve partial land demolition site. Only a few old trees, land rights were given more than acquisition in the countryside. Since historic temples, and ancient wells 100 million RMB compensation to at the time villagers were too costly were preserved, further accentuating sell their properties, propelling the to compensate and relocate, they the bleak new hole that formed amid former farmers into the nouveau riche: could only transfer the farmland the skyscrapers of Shenzhen. some of the villagers even made it to surrounding the villages into industrial the ranks of RMB millionaires.2 areas and housing. The now landless Located inside the Shenzhen Special villagers had to find another source Economic Zone, Dachong Village Dachong Village is just one of the of revenue and went from growing had become a prime real estate countless villages wedged within vegetables to leasing out apartments location when it was engulfed new urban areas and is now being to a steady stream of migrant by the explosive development of eliminated. But what the local workers, who sought employment the surrounding city. Developers people call a “village” is in reality in the newly built nearby factories. and government officials saw the an urbanized version of a village: an Since their collectively owned villages village’s adjacency with a new high- “urban village.” Literally “villages were unconstrained by city building tech industrial zone as both a major within the city,” or chengzhongcun, laws and set-back regulations, villagers nuisance and business opportunity. these are previously agricultural were able to add story after story Following the familiar tabula rasa villages that have been engulfed by to their homes, leading to the literal approach to planning, the village the city. Parallel with the surrounding extrusion of the village’s narrow would be subsumed in the anonymity urbanization, these villages have too building lots from low-rise to high- of the surrounding city only after it become “urban,” but in their own rise. As a result, disproportionally was razed. Billboards with images way. They no longer consist of the narrow streets delineate the new of corporate office towers, a five- picturesque farms of rural China, but high-rise version of the village. At Copyright © 2014. Hong Kong University Press, HKU. All rights reserved. University Press, © 2014. Hong Kong Copyright star hotel, and a colossal mall of high-rises so close to one another times, buildings stand so close to one already visualized the future of the that they create dark claustrophobic another that they are dubbed “kissing village on the demolition site, while alleys—jammed with dripping air- buildings” or “handshake houses”— banners celebrated the “scientific conditioning units, hanging clothes, you can literally reach out from one urban planning” and the “collective caged balconies and bundles of building and shake hands with your Villages in the City : A Guide to South China’s Informal Settlements, edited by Stefan Al, Hong Kong Universityneighbor. Press, HKU, 2014.1 ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/otis-ebooks/detail.action?docID=1784663. Created from otis-ebooks on 2018-01-17 14:40:07. For a moment, the “kissing buildings” with their burgeoning economies, native villagers who successfully worked out for all stakeholders. places to work as well. negotiate their transfer of land use They helped the government to rights for housing, moving costs, and transfer large portions of collective Their success seems to be short- loss of livelihood. Moreover, unless land to urban property ownership, lived, however; urban villages are the villagers are able to negotiate while supplying the villagers with a being wiped almost as soon as for an urban hukou (the household new livelihood because they could they pop up. The Dachong Village, registration system that privileges no longer farm. The villagers were one of the largest urban villages in urban over rural residents), they promoted to landlords, and many south China until the bulldozers could end up having no access to chose to enjoy their new affluence rolled in, is paradigmatic of the social security or health care. And in in more opulent parts of the city demolition of urban villages all over spite of their organization in Village and moved out of the village. In China. More than a thousand village Collectives (VC), the government their place came migrants from all redevelopment plans exist all over can exercise eminent domain at any over China, in search for cheap rent. China, affecting millions of people. time. Migrants end up losing most, Largely excluded from the general left with few or no alternative to housing distribution system as well As urban villages have become affordable housing. They are also the as homeownership because of their valuable real estate in current last to be considered, as they suffer limited rights and low incomes, their urban locations, city governments under a rural hukou, an inferior form housing options were limited. Often, aspire to deal with the “problem” of citizenship. Urbanization in China they preferred living in urban villages of the villages permanently, eager certainly helps create wealth, but to the monotonous dormitories in to transfer the collective village- the wealth is unequally distributed, the factory compounds, since the held land use rights back to the and is forced through land evictions villages, in close proximity to the state. The village redevelopment and the maintenance of political factories, offered many services benefits the government and the inequalities systematically produced including different types of shops and developers, who make a fortune in the household registration system. restaurants.3 To them, urban villages by developing large swaths of land provided a suitable place to live, and in prime locations, and only those Copyright © 2014. Hong Kong University Press, HKU. All rights reserved. University Press, © 2014. Hong Kong Copyright VillagesImage in the 1.City Bulldozers : A Guide onlyto South leave China’s a few Informal trees on Settlements, the site that edited was by previouslyStefan Al, Hong Dachong Kong Village,University one Press, of the HKU, largest urban 2014.villages ProQuest in south Ebook China. Central, Photo http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/otis-ebooks/detail.action?docID=1784663. by dcmaster, Flickr. 2 Created from otis-ebooks on 2018-01-17 14:40:07. In the process, the city as a whole modernist mega-blocks outside a peek into the villagers’ homes and loses unique histories and places of the villages. For these reasons daily lives in the village. in exchange for the relentless alone, people in the urban villages repetition of cookie-cutter office mostly travel on foot or use public In order to give a balanced view and blocks and residential enclaves. It is transit rather than a car. Walking not to idealize urban villages, we poignant that Chinese city planners, through their undulating streets have documented a wide variety of desperately pondering ways to gives an interesting experience, villages throughout the Pearl River infuse identity into their newly built enhanced by the variability of village Delta, in cities such as Dongguan, homogeneous cities, overlook the buildings. As much as urban villages Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Foshan, and urban village. Their unique urbanisms, play an important role in providing Zhuhai. We looked for villages that histories, spatial experiences, culture, affordable housing to a disadvantaged were all very different, whether and cosmopolitanism could bring a migrant population, they can also in size, density, history, dominant more diverse texture to the future offer a vital mixed-use, spatially industry, wealth, and reputation, so as of the city. diverse, and pedestrian alternative to avoid stereotypes. Often, a village to the prevailing car-oriented and is dominated by a special industry, This book argues for the value of monotonous modernist-planning be it information technology, shoe urban villages as places. Although paradigm in China. manufacturing, ceramic production, much academic research has focused replica products, or massage parlors. on their role in providing affordable To reveal these qualities, this book Some villages are well-known housing to a migrant population, depicts several urban villages in a backdrops for filming Chinese they have insufficiently been series of drawings and photographs operas, while others have a more approached from an urban design that range from large scale to infamous status, thanks to a red-light perspective.