Historic Preservation

One topic I've mentioned a few times here is the Cultural Revolution that happened in the '70s in China, and the destruction of "The Four Olds." In the post-Mao era, a reassessment of that policy has occurred. The official party line is now that Mao was 70% right, 30% wrong, and that the destruction of all old cultural artifacts was not the greatest policy. This has led to decent preservation of stuff like the terra cotta warriors, the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, etc.

There's a growing interest in preserving the more prosaic spaces of Chinese urban life, however, especially this new fad in Beijing for weeping over the impending doom of the city's hutong neighborhoods as the Olympics approach. I couldn't agree more about preserving the hutongs, but the will to do that has to come from native Chinese, not expats drunk on exotic Old Beijing. I mean, I'm sure expats can help, given the huge role that foreign direct investment plays in China. I just see a lot more talking than doing, which always annoys me.

In Shanghai, the architecture firm of Ben Woods created Xintiandi, similar to 'festival marketplaces' like Fanueil Hall in Boston and Pike Place in Seattle. In fact, Ben Woods was trained by the architects that did those projects. However, since this is China, it's got to be 'festival marketplaces with Chinese characteristics.' So Xintiandi takes the old buildings and narrow alleys of a Shanghai neighborhood and converts them into premium, top-of-the-line luxury retail and dining. Current tenants include DR Bar (part owned by Ben Woods), an unbelievably cool martinis-and-low-light establishment concealed within Xintiandi's alleys (the entrance is pictured at left). Kind of reminds me of some of the cooler spaces of downtown Providence.

We visited the architects' office, and the first thing they emphasized was that this was not historic preservation, simply an urban development with a historic influence. The architect had a very simple definition of what it means to be urban - connected and related to what is around you, in space and time. I love that definition. It's very simple and very clear. However, a historic preservationist would have saved as much of the old neighborhood as possible, while Ben Woods saved only those buildings and spaces that could be profitable in the final development, and gutted all of the interiors. It would be so cool if projects like Xintiandi could be done for areas other than the most wealthy spaces in Shanghai, and if more could be preserved. It's not really reasonable to expect the private sector to do that, so maybe the growing community of Chinese NGOs will spawn historic preservation groups that want to work with the government to do that kind of project.