Blog

“Veranda”, a not so accurate translation of Qilou(骑楼) can not fully encapsulate the profound history and architectural genius embedded in these old buildings scattered around cities in Southern China. Originated from South East Asia, where the weather is hot and humid year-round, Qilou is a semi-open architectural form that provide both living and commercial space. With its extended roof, Qilou shields pedestrian from sunlight and rain so they can walk comfortably while the store owners can have more shop windows to display their merchandise. Second story and above are often utilized for housing where residents are able to avoid hot air. Such design integrates European (mostly Spanish) and East Asian architectural elements and can be easily adjusted accordingly to the local customs and natural conditions.

For these reasons, Qilou became instantly popular once introduced to Canton in 1920s and among other southern city in China like Zhongshan, Xiamen, Shanghai and so on for the following decades. These buildings were built every where in small towns and city centers and hosted a considerable amount of small businesses which definitely includes street foods. 

However in recent years, we observed a sharp decline in businesses based in these buildings. Take my hometown Shunde as an example, the decay of Qilou started around 2007 when shopping centers and mega malls entered consumers’ eyes of this medium-sized town in Guangdong. Before then, the buildings of Qilou were the venue where people went for entertainment, shopping and dining. Especially for visitors who traveled to Shunde, the shopping street formed with Qilou was the must-go place as these buildings only existed in the southern part of China and were seen as representation of Cantonese architectures. These buildings witnessed the social and economic development for decades and yet they were immediately replaced when shopping malls are introduced. Without a doubt, a new and organized venue like shopping malls will attract more customers than small shops that were set up under the old roofs. These malls provide a better environment for their customers to enjoy their shopping experience like high-end stores and restaurants, clean bathrooms, parking services and so on. All of these come with a price that landlords charge the store owner and eventually transfer to customers. Nevertheless, customers are still willing to pay the price because consumption models of ordinary people has changed over the years. In this day and age, people are more inclined to buy things online, necessities like foods and clothes in particular that were usually purchased in local shopping streets in the past. Shopping malls still stand a chance when it comes to luxury goods and high-end restaurants. For physical businesses that located in Qilou, they are not able to compete with the internet for the price nor the malls for shopping experience. That is why even though the rent for shops at Qilou are low, many businesses are not capable of surviving and thus have to shut down. It was such a pity that a great proportion of these businesses just vanished because they used to be an important component of our life. 

That being said, there are exceptions where Qilou regains vitality with proper renovations. Wukang Mansion, a prominent Qilou located in Xuhui District is a great example. Last year, the building was under renovation for four months and reopened with huge success, becoming the new landmark of Shanghai.

See this link: https://www.shine.cn/news/in-focus/2007172404/

Fanny Fang (wf646)

Trendy shops in Shanghai

As a critical part of a city, local shopping streets exist everywhere and play the communication path for different cultures. People with the same or different cultural backgrounds living in the same street exchanged their life habits and formed a unique cultural atmosphere by daily performances. Local streets contributed to the diversity of a city from different aspects.

In this chapter, the authors mentioned a few factors that strongly influence the local street’s ecosystem. One of them is the media image. “Social media reinforce the image of a successful street and contribute to its ‘branding’” (Global Cities Local Streets, P19). Indeed, social media today became the most important way for new shops to attract customers. Rather than eat at a nearby restaurant, people today prefer to discover new restaurants by searching on social media. People read and post reviews on Yelp, Instagram, and Facebook about every shop they liked or disliked. For the young generation, taking photos and post reviews of new shops that they discovered became part of their social life. In China, young people prefer to use social media more localized, like RED and Dianping. Shopkeepers also pay a lot of attention to the reviews related since those reviews are closely related to their business.

Anfu Road and Wukang Road are two famous trendy streets in Shanghai; both of them have been reviewed as a must-go street for tourists. As a typical example of a street that concluded a large number of “ABCs of gentrification (art gallery, boutiques, and cafes),” both Anfu Road and Wukang road attracts more investment and customers every day. However, because of its popularity online, shop owners tend to have similar aesthetics, and shops are also in similar decoration style.

       

Fine café is such a trendy restaurant on Anfu Road, a restaurant that offers brunch, afternoon tea, and dessert. The restaurant opens from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, but customers usually began to line up at 10:30—10:45 in the morning, and customers keep coming in the following hours. The average waiting hour for a group of two is one to one and a half hours. It seems to become part of the young people’s life—lined up for half an hour to three hours and taking photos for the next post on social media.

     

Not only these kinds of new fashion shops can be trendy online, but the traditional shops also get the chance of ‘rebirth’—when those shops have been recommended online, more customers will come and became new trendy shops.

When I lived in New York, my apartment is close to Hell’s kitchen, an area that’s famous for restaurants and bars. Most of restaurants are located in 8 – 9^th  ave on the west side of Manhattan in New York City. From Asian food to middle-east food, Hell’s kitchen creates a food and drink area where midtown workers, tourists and theatre lovers love to dine in. Similarly, in Chongqing, the city I grow up, “The 9 street” (九街) is like a mini hell’s kitchen where local young people love to come here to find food and drink. You can’t find those streets in tourist guidebooks but people who lived in the city will recommend you to those places.

In the article “Spaces of Everyday Diversity: The Patchwork Ecosystem of Local Shopping Streets”, authors believe that three main groups, business owners, building owners, and shoppers define what sort of place the neighborhood is. This theory can apply to The 9st. and Hell’s kitchen’s ecosystem. For example, in Hell’s kitchen, most of shopkeepers are restaurant or bar owners, and some of them are convenient store owners. They gather together to create several food streets, and those restaurants on the street range from Asian, American to middle-east food. Therefore, this ecosystem attracts more restaurants to open in this area, and new yorkers are more likely to search food in Hell’s kitchen. Besides, Hell’s kitchen is close to Broadway and Time square, so before and after people go to theatre shows, they would love to find somewhere close to eat.

The 9st. in Chongqing is another example that three main groups build food & drink ecosystem streets. Five years ago, The 9st is just a neighborhood with bakery shops and two bars.  Because it’s location is near another commercial street. More restaurant owners and club owners start to open their business in The 9st. Because building owners offer cheaper rent, more business owners come to this street so it eventually becomes a street famous for nightlife. Of course, government’s regulations also boom its popularities. Big shopping mall start to raise and more commercial streets near The 9st also start to expand.

Media coverage on social media also promote The 9st. Just like what’s said in the article “ social media reinforce the image of a successful street and contribute to its branding.” The 9st is really popular on social media such as TikTok and Xiao Hong Shu (小红书). Food bloggers and influencers love to introduce nice restaurants and speakeasy bars on social media, and The 9st is also there first choice. Therefore, business owners, shoppers, government policies and social media create the ecosystem of this nightlife street.

What is culture? Wherever there are people, there are settlements and communities, which collide and blend with the elements around them, thereby immersing themselves in a certain conventional atmosphere and forming a relatively unique “culture”.

 

When I wander the “sidewalks” and “neighborhoods,” I am always looking for street culture. The street food stores, the delivery men shuttling through the streets, these are all urban scenes that move me so much.

 

The concept of “street culture” is an imported term that originated from the lower class black community in the United States, and has been gradually fused by Japan and Korea into the four main categories of DJ-ing, rapping, break dancing and graffiti or aerosol art. With skating, skateboarding, stunt cycling, street basketball, street soccer and other competitive and extreme sports, the collection of music, art, sports, fashion trends, once as a “Western subculture” of hip-hop has now become a popular attitude of young people, even a subtle cultural atmosphere. You may not dance, nor sing rap, but you always know a few trendy brands, unconsciously wear oversize clothes, and listen to a few R&B style songs. It can be said that the elements of street culture are no longer “underground” and have been integrated into people’s daily lives.

 

When we listen to hip-hop, even though this art form has gone from underground to mainstream, and has even become a cultural consumer product in global circulation, it has always been inseparable from the streets of the Bronx, from the realities of life for the underprivileged and marginalized, and from the soul of freedom and struggle. This culture is nurtured in such a diverse and vibrant public space.

 

But is there a real street culture in China? The soil of street culture is the street. It is its spontaneity, freedom, enthusiasm and relaxation that breed this culture. If this public space is lost, the discussion of street culture will be nonsense.

 

The current state of urban planning in China has squeezed the “street” space. For the sake of economic development, we have long been accustomed to wide, straight roads. The wider, the better. Building wider roads to speed up the flow of traffic as much as possible. But this comes at the expense of the public’s walking space and experience. For example, the bus stop, which used to be just across the street, now has to be two stops longer because the entire road has become a one-way street; there is never enough parking, and even the sidewalks are full of cars, and the blind corridors are also encroached upon…. …all as Jane Jacobs says in “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” about the “encroachment of the automobile on the city”.

 

We are losing public space, with street culture slipping away.

In The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Jane Jacobs, in the first chapter, introduces the function of the sidewalks and neighborhood. For Jane Jacobs, all these components of the city play different roles, and the function of them should satisfy the local resident in a certain way, which I do not quite agree with. As for me, city itself is functional, and city itself has its own aims, which is set by the government and economics. City is not serving the residents. Taking the central park in New York as an example. The designers of the central park, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calbert Vaux, wanted to create a public place, a community where both rich people and poor people can be together to share the park’s view. There is no “class” here but the same mutual happiness from the family trips during the weekends. However, now today, Central Park is surrounded by tall buildings. New York is the running machine in high speed, and most New Yorkers do not have a chance take a break to enjoy the “happiness” in the central park. The central park only belongs to the people who can afford the high rental fee of the apartments around the park.

Even though cities are not serving people, more and more people are moving to cities, because of better job opportunities, better education and higher salaries. The people in the city are the ones who want and grant the benefits from the city, if they can.

 

 

Another reason I disagree with the author is the that, how the young generation, or for the people who stay in the city, they have different requirements or understandings of the role of cities while compared with Jane Jacobs. It is true that, in the process of evolvement of city, residents lost the street food, and the many other public space. We now are surrounded by concrete steel, and own our little personal space, but we still try our best to stay in the city, even though we need to afford the high rental fee and huge life expense. Because city is big functional, each part of the city is responsible for different function. In this way, the lay out of the city have been divided. Citizens have been divided into different groups. Like what has been mentioned by Zukin in Global Cities, Local Streets, the culture and environment is related to the local community. Or in other words, though in the same city, different district or community would form different culture, at the same time, the residents from different communities would hold different standards and opinions toward the city. My grandma does not like to live in Guangzhou, but in Shantou, my hometown. For us, the young generation, we think Guangzhou is convenient and we can gather a lot of fun from the city. For my grandma, she needs the public space where she can meet a lot different people and the place she can have conversation with strangers.