Above is the video for Kapital Creation: Beijing, an aerial documentation of the breakneck expansion of Beijing. Check out more at http://www.kapitalcreation.com/ and support the creators. |
Urban villages in China (城中村) pt. 1 The address of Dandelion middle school is #22 Tuanhe Road, Shou-Bao-Zhuang Village, Xi-Hong-Men Township, Da-Xing District, Beijing, 100076, P.R. China. Knowing that the school is within the mega-city of Beijing, the use of the names town-ship and village to describe parts of a city seem somewhat strange. In this post, I’ll be discussing the phenomenon of villages within cities in China and how it relates to migrant issues. In the next post in this series, I’ll be discussing Shou-Bao-Zhaung specifically. However, the name is well justified. Currently, the municipality of Beijing comprises a land area of roughly 16,000 km^2, which is roughly equivalent to the land area of the country of Kuwait, of which over 4,000 km^2 is urban and suburban [1][2]. In the past, the old walled imperial city comprised roughly 62 km^2 [1]. The city of Beijing has essentially swallowed up a swathe of country side the size of a small nation, which includes what were once rural villages, such as Shou-Bao-Zhuang village. These villages within cities are called 城中村 (ChengZhongCun) or 城乡接互补 (ChengXiangJieHuBu) in Chinese. For the purposes of this post, I will be referring to settlements such as Shou-Bao-Zhuang as urban villages. One of the critical characteristics of the urban village is that most of its inhabitants are not indigenous. In fact, the entire economic system of these urban villages is based upon migrants moving in. “China’s land policies have enabled the native farmers in the urbanizing villages to construct inexpensive housing units and rent out these units to the rural migrants. Through these villages, indigenous farmers are becoming well-off landlords by building and leasing out extra rooms (Mobrand, 2006) and rural migrants are able to find shelter while they are excluded from the urban housing system.” [3] There are two major reasons for the existence of these urban villages. One is that one downside of not having a Hukou is that it makes it exceedingly difficult to buy or rent property in the more “proper” parts of town. This is because without a Beijing Hukou/household registration one cannot qualify for state subsidized housing [3]. Subsidized housing is a must because real estate prices in Beijing approach New York City levels despite the fact that median income is a fraction that of incomes in NYC. The second is that private developers let loose in the wake of China’s real estate liberalization see new construction as a chance to make profit. Song et al explain below. “New units of commercial housing are built essentially for making profit by real estate developers. These units are generally expensive and thus not affordable to migrants who are employed in low-paid jobs.” [3] It can be said that these urban villages allow rural migrants to eke out living and allow the state to avoid paying for costly housing programs for the migrant labor pool. In this regard the migrant urban villages are very helpful for the state. However these urban villages “are associated with unplanned land uses, decayed housing conditions, reduced public safety and deteriorating social order” [3]. Although some of these conceptions may be true due to the fact that urban villages essentially concentrate poverty into small geographic locations like western ghettos, these stereotypes are nevertheless used as pretexts by authorities to demolish these villages whole sale and redevelop them. Astute observers will note the similarities to the process of gentrification in American inner cities. Like migrant life in general, these migrant villages exist precariously on the margins of Chinese society, hidden from view and are essentially stopgap measures compensating for the failure of the state in some areas. For better or worse, the fates of migrants such as the children we teach are intrinsically linked to the fates of these urban villages. References 1. "北京地理概貌." 北京. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 June 2014. <http://beijing.qianlong.com/3825/2004/03/24/[email protected]>. 2. Li, Xiaoma, Weiqi Zhou, and Zhiyun Ouyang. "Forty years of urban expansion in Beijing: What is the relative importance of physical, socioeconomic, and neighborhood factors?" Applied Geography 38 (2013): n. pag. Science Direct. Web. 15 June 2014. 3. Song, Yan, Yves Zenou, and Chengri Ding. "Let's Not Throw the Baby Out with the Bath Water: The Role of Urban Villages in Housing Rural Migrants in China." Urban Studies 45 (2008): 1. Print. 4. Richburg, Keith. "China 'hukou' system deemed outdated as way of controlling access to services."Washington Post. The Washington Post, 15 Aug. 2010. Web. 13 June 2014. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/14/AR2010081402009.html> |