THREE CHINAS
Urban Reflections in Hong Kong, Taipei, and Guangzhou
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Cornell University Asian Studies Travel Grant 2015
Prologue
In the Shadow of the Dragon, the megacities are ablaze with the embers of growth. Like a hurricane, the fringes spin faster than the center – and so the hurricane of industry and investment poured into the fringes. These places, where Chinese have historically come in contact with the West, suddenly gained new status as great ports and way stations, where foreigners and Chinese can coexist, albeit unequally. In Canton and Formosa (Taiwan), indigenous peoples mixed with the Dutch, the English, and mainstream Han Chinese people. Two centuries of war and tragedy in Chinese history (which begins with the decline of the Qing and the beginning of the 1970’s Reform Era) have transformed the fringes into great power centers. Thus, the dwellers of these fringe cities developed identities of their own, transfixed by commercial success, political success, changing fortunes, and industrial prowess. Undoubtedly, these identities, forged over generations, would diverge from that of the long closed-off mainland, which would inherit its own embattled philosophies.
Prologue
In the Shadow of the Dragon, the megacities are ablaze with the embers of growth. Like a hurricane, the fringes spin faster than the center – and so the hurricane of industry and investment poured into the fringes. These places, where Chinese have historically come in contact with the West, suddenly gained new status as great ports and way stations, where foreigners and Chinese can coexist, albeit unequally. In Canton and Formosa (Taiwan), indigenous peoples mixed with the Dutch, the English, and mainstream Han Chinese people. Two centuries of war and tragedy in Chinese history (which begins with the decline of the Qing and the beginning of the 1970’s Reform Era) have transformed the fringes into great power centers. Thus, the dwellers of these fringe cities developed identities of their own, transfixed by commercial success, political success, changing fortunes, and industrial prowess. Undoubtedly, these identities, forged over generations, would diverge from that of the long closed-off mainland, which would inherit its own embattled philosophies.
Introduction
1911. 1949. 1978. 1989. 1997. These dates may not ring any bells to the ordinary American, but to modern-day Chinese everywhere, they have a significant place in their hearts. For many Han people, these dates signified momentous political changes in the China and Greater China regions. These years are wars and revolutions, violence and uncertainty. For the many Chinese expats in the West, these were the dates that compelled them--and their families--to migrate or immigrate: the fall of the Qing; the rise of communist China; the reform era under Deng; the Tiananmen Massacre; the British Handover of Hong Kong to China. Surely, there are many other great incidents and important years in the past hundred years in China, but these stand out the most, because the political changes that these events wrought have had profound and personal impact on the Chinese psyche and way of life.
But in the history books, you will hardly remember these dreadful dates. Just as US history can be lampooned as the "deeds of a bunch of old dead white guys," modern Chinese history is likewise the actions of "a bunch of old dead Chinese guys...being played by a bunch of white guys. (Down with the meddlesome westerners!) " No one cares unless they are angsty Chinese internet bloggers, or some bored American student taking Asian studies to fulfill a major requirement. No one cares because, as fourth or fifth generation Chinese (living in China, abroad, or anywhere), circumstances today are so far removed from the "ancient battle histories" of 20th century China that we too often easily forget how we--as Chinese or Chinese Americans--got here. This is, after all, the age of iPhones and iPads, or WeChat and Facebook, of Netflix and Tudou. Who cares about Chinese history, when we got to study for that TOEFL/SAT/Gao Kao/GED, or we have to pass that Orgo class, or maybe we got to hit the gym or music lesson? How can you teach modern Chinese history anyways?
This is where architecture comes along. As devices that record civilization and society, architecture physically reveals our past and recent past, right before our eyes. There's a reason Hong Kong has more skyscrapers per square meter than anywhere else on the planet. Or that most of the world's manufactured goods are made in Guangzhou and the surrounding Pearl River Delta, and industrial buildings litter across the landscape of ____ sq meters. Or even that Taiwanese housing rarely go over 4 stories. In South China, the politics of the past hundred years - a century of chaos for the Chinese - are self-evident in the buildings of today, in the many alleys of their cities and landscapes.
For the summer of 2015, I studied the "Three Chinas" - Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China, through the cities of Hong Kong, Taipei, and Guangzhou. These three cities are located in the South, on the southern fringes of the all-mighty and rising China. More developed than interior China, these three places have historically set the template for Chinese development, politics, and architecture. Particularly, one can argue that each city represents the dawn, midday, and twilight of Chinese economic development (early, middle, late). In each place, distinct ways of life have emerged, reflecting in each city's rich culture and place in modern Chinese history. One is the heartland of Chinese Canton, the birthplace of the iPhone. Another is the stolen loot of the British, but recently returned and facing democratic anxieties. Still another is the place of exile, the slow, relaxed, and evergreen island country.
The story of the fringes is the story of the diaspora. This is about the underground peoples, the sky peoples, the village peoples, the factory peoples, and all the others who make China and the world go round.
1911. 1949. 1978. 1989. 1997. These dates may not ring any bells to the ordinary American, but to modern-day Chinese everywhere, they have a significant place in their hearts. For many Han people, these dates signified momentous political changes in the China and Greater China regions. These years are wars and revolutions, violence and uncertainty. For the many Chinese expats in the West, these were the dates that compelled them--and their families--to migrate or immigrate: the fall of the Qing; the rise of communist China; the reform era under Deng; the Tiananmen Massacre; the British Handover of Hong Kong to China. Surely, there are many other great incidents and important years in the past hundred years in China, but these stand out the most, because the political changes that these events wrought have had profound and personal impact on the Chinese psyche and way of life.
But in the history books, you will hardly remember these dreadful dates. Just as US history can be lampooned as the "deeds of a bunch of old dead white guys," modern Chinese history is likewise the actions of "a bunch of old dead Chinese guys...being played by a bunch of white guys. (Down with the meddlesome westerners!) " No one cares unless they are angsty Chinese internet bloggers, or some bored American student taking Asian studies to fulfill a major requirement. No one cares because, as fourth or fifth generation Chinese (living in China, abroad, or anywhere), circumstances today are so far removed from the "ancient battle histories" of 20th century China that we too often easily forget how we--as Chinese or Chinese Americans--got here. This is, after all, the age of iPhones and iPads, or WeChat and Facebook, of Netflix and Tudou. Who cares about Chinese history, when we got to study for that TOEFL/SAT/Gao Kao/GED, or we have to pass that Orgo class, or maybe we got to hit the gym or music lesson? How can you teach modern Chinese history anyways?
This is where architecture comes along. As devices that record civilization and society, architecture physically reveals our past and recent past, right before our eyes. There's a reason Hong Kong has more skyscrapers per square meter than anywhere else on the planet. Or that most of the world's manufactured goods are made in Guangzhou and the surrounding Pearl River Delta, and industrial buildings litter across the landscape of ____ sq meters. Or even that Taiwanese housing rarely go over 4 stories. In South China, the politics of the past hundred years - a century of chaos for the Chinese - are self-evident in the buildings of today, in the many alleys of their cities and landscapes.
For the summer of 2015, I studied the "Three Chinas" - Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China, through the cities of Hong Kong, Taipei, and Guangzhou. These three cities are located in the South, on the southern fringes of the all-mighty and rising China. More developed than interior China, these three places have historically set the template for Chinese development, politics, and architecture. Particularly, one can argue that each city represents the dawn, midday, and twilight of Chinese economic development (early, middle, late). In each place, distinct ways of life have emerged, reflecting in each city's rich culture and place in modern Chinese history. One is the heartland of Chinese Canton, the birthplace of the iPhone. Another is the stolen loot of the British, but recently returned and facing democratic anxieties. Still another is the place of exile, the slow, relaxed, and evergreen island country.
The story of the fringes is the story of the diaspora. This is about the underground peoples, the sky peoples, the village peoples, the factory peoples, and all the others who make China and the world go round.
香港
HONG KONG
HONG KONG
The glorious city-state at its zenith will look onto the plateau, reflecting back on its long climb. Self-congratulating, the struggle begins anew – to stay on top. The city of money and business, of endless pursuits and instant luxuries, charges onward.
If someone could have taken a holistic shot of Hong Kong, once every year, for the past hundred years, they would witness something amazing. Once in a couple years, or even a couple months, the buildings would get torn down, rebuilt, and renovated, in an endless cycle of creation and destruction. Along with the buildings and streetscapes, perhaps the fashion would change - natives in Cheongsam meet colonials in Victorian suits, Qing ponytails replaced by western bowl cuts, and girls with tied-up hairdos put their hair down and get Japanese highlights. The buses and ships get bigger – rickshaws become cars, cars become bigger cars, trams and buses -- but it would still be the masses of peoples, going here and there, racing against each other, racing to make lives, money or both.
In a sleepless city where everything changes, a small dessert shop withstands time. On a quiet street corner in Sai Wan, one of Hong Kong’s oldest districts, a nondescript shop stays open past midnight. It had been there since I was a kid, when I lived in the neighborhood. While expensive by today's standards, $15 HKD gets you a bowl of Tofu Fa, or a Sago Pudding, or Black Sesame Soup. Chicken wings and potstickers until two in the morning! These small luxuries, along with other food vendors along the small street, sustain a community of working class folks, adolescents, and the elderly who gather in small living rooms for nightly mah-jong marathons. Meanwhile, on this night, which appears to be like any other night, a dishwasher takes a smoke break in a back alley, and a half-eaten lunch box hangs precariously on a motorcycle seat...
In a sleepless city where everything changes, a small dessert shop withstands time. On a quiet street corner in Sai Wan, one of Hong Kong’s oldest districts, a nondescript shop stays open past midnight. It had been there since I was a kid, when I lived in the neighborhood. While expensive by today's standards, $15 HKD gets you a bowl of Tofu Fa, or a Sago Pudding, or Black Sesame Soup. Chicken wings and potstickers until two in the morning! These small luxuries, along with other food vendors along the small street, sustain a community of working class folks, adolescents, and the elderly who gather in small living rooms for nightly mah-jong marathons. Meanwhile, on this night, which appears to be like any other night, a dishwasher takes a smoke break in a back alley, and a half-eaten lunch box hangs precariously on a motorcycle seat...
The City of Towers
Hong Kong is a collection of spires.
In the city of towers, the real heroes are the thin private spires, not the corporate skyscrapers.
In the city of towers, the real people live in tiny plots high in the sky. Here, the dreams of Chicago have been reduced to stilts and pylons, in a city connected by vast underground tunnels. In the city of towers, the people live in the sky and far below ground; like a dystopian novel, or a failed Calvino city, the people avoid the hot, sweltering surface like the plague; the real public space lie in small parks and shaded swings, and the couple pedestrian piers left.
In the city of towers, the people eat like emperors of the future.
The futurist visions of Sant’Elia have been realized, and it is already dated. Corbusier’s Villa Radieuse finally happened on an island of ____ sq miles and a population of 7.1 million.
Total War, Total Mall
Hong Kong is a giant mall – the embodiment of perfected capitalism. People spend less and less time on the ground plane; on those efficient subways and undergroung passageways, you feel like a flowing organism of capital. Everything is air-conditioned and climate controlled. Every architectural manifestation is here, every urban condition you can dream of. I see now, the technicolor corridors of the childhood dreams, are simply billboards selling me things. They are not by themselves art, but a whole system of all-inclusive commerce – 100% of the time, 24/7. This overdevelopment and saturation is the antithesis of the American frontier. Manifest destiny here, rather than a vast, indefinite landscape of dreams and rugged individualism, is an urban singularity, part individual determination and part social cohesion. This is a possible vision of how the future will play out in China and the rest of the catch-up world. The city is not interesting for its perfection and cleanliness, but for its imperfections and what they are missing.
Nevertheless, the city makes New York look like a preindustrial town, an ancient relic from the Victorian Age, its systems imperfect and crude, its developments less profitable and inefficient.
Above the City / Meditations on the Peak
When fog sweeps over the harbor, the city below appears as though in a dream, or one of those ancient landscape paintings. Like the rock forests of Guilin, the towers poke through the clouds, so that only the decorated spires are visible. In the city without ground – only sky and subterranean – this panorama shows the city as a crystallization of dreams and ambition, in which only a few rise above the many. There is only the strong and the humble, who manage to stay above the fog or get stuck below.
The city has transformed from the humble fishing villages of Tai Po, to the bustling colonial Venice of the old Court House, to the post-WWII industrial town of the Kowloon Walled City, to the late 20th century megacity. This story of perpetual growth, told over and over again by Her Majesty’s governors and now party bureaucrats in Beijing, is a utopic vision of how capital can change the world and make people wealthy and satisfied with commercial goods. The dreams of Corbusier and Mies are corrupted by the untold fortunes of real estate tycoons and made possible by millions of laborers and their families, who made this hypercity possible then probable.
The story continues today, as the city becomes a guiding light to lead China – the sleeping dragon – out of “communist darkness” and into superstar status, to go forth onto the global arena and dance with America, the Eagle on the Prairie.
Canton Histories
The Cantonese story begins far before the Europeans arrived in Canton, in the surrounding mountains and rice fields of the Pearl River pastures. All along the river the local people grew rice and raised poultry, training 10,000 hours to grow and harvest rice, according to Gladwell, the most difficult and extensive grain to grow. When the Ming and Qing governments opened the Canton System, Guangzhou and the surrounding lands rushed towards growth.
In many ways, Taipei and Guangzhou are the forerunners – and legacy – of Hong Kong. In the century of Chinese tragedy the colony was a city of freedom, a representative of Chinese culture and an access point out of chaos and onto amazing adventures abroad. Sun Yat-sen lectured in Hong Kong. Wing Chun legend Ip Man escaped to Kowloon. Bruce Lee spent a great part of his legendary yet short life in the colony and told all overseas Chinese to be proud of their native culture. Hong Kong and Hongkongers exported Cantonese / Guangzhou living to the British colony. We made it easy to translate Chinese culture to western audiences. We learned western courtesy and rule of law. And whether infringed upon by foreigner powers, liberated or defeated by them, Guangzhou – a mixture of European (Dutch and Portuguese) influences – or Taiwan – a mixture of indigenous, Dutch, and Japanese ideas – these three places have been part of the Chinese constellation for centuries.
As Hongkongers, we were just educated by the West for a longer time, and we have had to navigate a world of hybrids and in-betweens, somewhat like this or that by not really, to come up with an entrepot culture that can tell of – and predict – the coming peace and convergence of a Chinese-oriented world. The story of this rabble band of pirates, fishermen and kulis, governed by their British colonial masters, who then became shopowners and merchants, then great corporate magnates and educated professionals, is the story of self-perseverance and survival against great odds. This cultural lineage began with 10,000 hours of rice and tea picking, but it continues into the present-day in the form of a ruthless business environment, apolitical self-interest, an obsession with capital, and a proud streak of cultural independence (that can only be found in this Greek-like Chinese city-state).
台北
TAIPEI
The island kingdom, a refugee of Chinese politics, looks at modern life in tranquility. Comfort and peace calls its people – this place is not about public infrastructure or private wealth, but rather the enjoyment of a good life and the improvement of self.
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廣州
Guangzhou
The dawn of optimism and western industry begins in this first tier city, with its winding, shaded tree-lined streets and concrete loggias in the turn-of-the-century city center. There is a great buzz in the air, still lingering with grittiness and pollution from industrial ambition – but it is the umbrella atmosphere of hope which drives it along, surpassing the previous two cities in scale, ambition, and future.
