Dancing in the Streets of Beijing Improvised Uses Within the Urban System

From Chen, Caroline. (2010). Dancing in the Streets of Beijing: Improvised Uses Within the Urban System. In Jeffrey Hou (Ed.), Insurgent Public Space: Guerrilla Urbanism and the Remaking of Contemporary Cities (1st ed., pp. 21-35). London: Routledge. CHAPTER 2 Dancing in the streets of Beijing Improvised uses within the urban system Caroline Chen Underneath a freeway overpass, on a vacant concrete traffic island in the middle of bustling Beijing, forty Chinese women in their sixties and seventies, dressed in silk brocaded jackets and padded silk pants, slowly waved lime-green handkerchiefs and fluttered hot pink, white, and green striped fans above their heads (Figure 2.1). They followed an undulating and circulating pattern, dividing into two rows, then reuniting to form one big group. They danced alongside one another, without partners, moving to the rhythm of five male musicians playing drums, cymbals, and horns at the head of the makeshift city stage. Dressed in dark winter overcoats, knit caps, and heavy woolen scarves, the musicians stood somberly nearby. Sometimes watching the dancers, sometimes nodding at each other, they enveloped the space within their percussionist sphere. It was 7 a.m. in deep December in northern China. Mingguang Qiao, a concrete pad underneath a freeway overpass, belonged to yangge dancers for the moment, despite the passing rumbling buses, honking taxis, and sweeping street cleaners. At Figure 2.1 '' Big" yangge dancers celebrating twelve years of dancing underneath Mingguang Qiao, a residual space under the third ringroad in Beijing. Photograph by Caroline Chen. 2 Caroline Chen Dancing In the streets of Beijing 9 a. m., the dancers abruptly stopped dancing and moved off In a flash. disappearing deslgn7 into the city In different directions, some hardly pausing to say goodbye 10 one Leanne G. Rivlin differentiates Ihe qualilles of these resulting "found spaces" another Except for a few watermelon seeds from an lnlersession break, the dancers from pre-programmed, "designed" spaces: left no trace behind of their gathering on the concrete pad The traffic sounds increased ,u rush hour applOached, enfolding the stage back Into Its default setting. IFound spaces] constitule a large portion of the outdoor urban places used by d silent and unexceplIOnal space, within the formal city. These kinds of temporary children and adults jthey] are ~found" In the sense that users locate and performances happen every morning and night. approprlale Iht'm for uses thal lhey serve effectively but which they were not BeiJing's urban landscape does not stand stilL With an official population of 15 orlgll'lally designed to serve Found spaces offer alternative places for public million inhabitants and a burgeoning community of foreigners, Beipng is WItness life since thelf uses spring from a complex malm( of needs brought 10 them to a VISion reminiscent of New York or london, eruptmg overnight from the body by users these activities do not differ dramatlcatly from those occurring In of a histOriC Chinese city. Narrow courtyard alleys are vanishing and large green spaces deSigned lor leisure activities, but they do differ in their origins, their parks are appearing. Active Beijing residents are finding new spaces for their dlve~lty and often in the phYSical qualities of their Sites. actiVities as the city denSlfie, limiting public open space. They are still practicing (Rivlin 2007: 39) raich" dancing yangge, and plaYing chess along With incorporating new actiVities such as rollerbladlng, Jogging, and old-person disco dancing Only now they art' Looseness in a city expresses Ihe desires of users such as the elderly - that taking part In these activities in residual spaces: busy street median strips, concrete may otherwise be overlooked by designers and planners. Not only do these "loose areas bt'tween highway flyovers, parking lots, sidewalks, grounds just outside ~paces" prOVide a forum for residents to articulate their spatial needs for daily laich; the gates of parks, stadiums, and schools, as well as spaces inside parks Beyond and yangge, they also allow others have little access to the plannll'lg process to their Original design intenl. Beijing residents are adapting n('IN urban spaces for appropnate the open-endedness of these spaces for their own needs. past functions, turning to what Michel dt' Ct'rteau (1984) characterizes as tactics. But, although we may draw a distinction between "loose (or 'found') spaces" k; they appropriate spaces to support their old habitats and practices, they are ilnd "designed" spaces for the sake of convenience, there is one further distinction unintenllOnally but t'fft'Ctlvely developing new typologies of hybrid use, missed ;ere that we Wish to note k; Rlvlin pointed out, "found" and "designed" spaces opportUnities for conceptual and programmatic Innovalion by foreign de:;lg!lt:r~, dlfler In Ihelr intent and origins. Ukewlse, the oflgll'lS of many seemlngfy "designed" and headaches in the minds of Chinese city planners. palks and plazas In Beijing differ from those In Europe Of the United States. Whereas Many long-time residents of Beijing have seen their everyday landscapes these latter parks were Originally Intended to provide an arena for socializing rural transformed In a blink of an eye. But they are not leaving quietly Just like the aging workef!t to City life and restoring the physical and psychiC faculties of industrial yangge dancers at Mingguang Qiao, the Chinese elderly are defending what spaces workers (Cranz 1982), many of the large, green parks In Beijing came from a are left available to them after witnessing how former dancing places have becomt' different lineage: they were former Imperial gardens and temples, converted into roads, large green parks that reqUire admiSSion fees, new subway stops, new public parks to beautify the City as part of the regional "greening program" (Crant business districts, opera houses, or apartment bUildings populated by n('INcomers. 1979) These new neighbors often complain about their loud musIC and lively danCing, From this perspective many of BeiJing's large green parks are "found" as well wishing that they had qUiet grass and trees from BeiJing's city greening campaign t~ ~ are e~lstlng green areas that originally served imperial uses, but the state has as neighbors instead. 'ow appropriated them to become "public." Here 1 place "public" In quotation marks because, In a Strict sense, many such parks are not free for residents to use: these parks require an admiSSion fee. Although annual, discounted park passes are Loosening ilvaililble for students and thl:' elderly, many residl:'nts opt to find their own, more Anyone interested in understanding how Beijing residents use urban space must accesSible spaces elsewhere In the city. nt'Cessanly turn their attention to what Karen A, Franck calls ~Ioose space"· what Touns!s, however, olten unconstrained by these fees, amve at these desllnatlons results when residents liberate designed public spaces such as parks, plazas, and by the busload. locals Wishing to avoid these crowds viSit the parks in the morning, parking lots from the limits of the original, Intended program and piggyback new or choose to "loosen" parts of the city, claiming their own grassroots space, away and foreseen functions of their own choosing on the space (Franck and Stevens from the toUtists, unconstrained by opening and closing times, free of charge. 2007). The sheer number of residents who appropriate these unoffiCial spaces Within the urban fabnc - spaces underneath freeways, unused ~tlons of parking Everyday life on the ground lots after stores close, construction zones In the evening, and widened Sidewalks - gives one reason for pause. Is the variety of activities articulated in the City a tribute In order to begin undl:'rstanding what IThIttef!t to regular Beijing residents, what to the flexibility and creativity of residents or an ImpliCit cntlque of existing CIty they choose to do In public space and how they define - on their own terms - what 24 Caroline Chen Dancing in the streets of Beijing oil public space is, we divert our gaze from the pyrotechnics of high-profile. overnight Belhai was far more crowded than the more suburban large park, ¥Iheyuan. transformation of the City skyline to focus our attention on the daily activities of the There, we encountered residents organized in groups of up to thirty members, person on the ground.' From 2004 through 2007, we researched several types engaged in a variety of activities from modern dance to raichl. We Inter'/lewed some of urban spaces in Beijing that rl!'Siden15 used to pursue evetyday outdoor leisure yangge dancers who wefe practicing in the parle One dancer expressed satisfaction activities. In this paper we WIll diSCUSS findings from four sites: (1) Ylheyuan, a WIth the park's design. but others pointed out that there was not enough sp.'lce large park on the Northwest fringes of BeIJing; (2) Belhal, a small urban park in the in the park for evel)'body who wished to use It. "There are too many ViSitors and center of Beijing; (3) Deshengmen, a hybrid space consisting of a large plaza and the park lacks supervision," one dancer complained, pointing to the parade of enlarged traffiC rotary, now surrounded by a maze of freeways; and (4) Mingguang tour groups passing by. waving brightly colored flags. When asked where else Qiao, a paved area underneath a freeway overpass on the western side of the City. residents can dance without competing WIth tour groups for Sp.'lce, they named Although the typologies of "large park,~ ~plaza." and "urban park" are familiar to neighborhood p.'Irks, such as the Purple Bamboo Garden. the designer repertOire, the hybrid rotary-p.'Irk and freeway overpass sp.'Ices are less In Belhai, we also encountered ~bird walkers, ~ elderly men who took their pet obvious choices for everyday use.

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