The Unforbidden City
Verzio FF Submission A beer peddler bikes through the narrow alleyways of Beijing’s fourteenth-century neighborhood known as Source Street. As he rides, collecting empties and delivering full bottles, he introduces us to other residents. Grumpy Dong Tongju works in central heating. Gao Li fantasizes...
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| Institution: | Open Society Archives at Central European University |
| Language: | Chinese |
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Submarine Channel
2008
Netherlands |
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10891/osa:6ee891a9-519e-4e54-a0cc-46ca8abea007 |
| Summary: | Verzio FF Submission
A beer peddler bikes through the narrow alleyways of Beijing’s fourteenth-century neighborhood known as Source Street. As he rides, collecting empties and delivering full bottles, he introduces us to other residents. Grumpy Dong Tongju works in central heating. Gao Li fantasizes about a life as a lady of leisure, with the time to have her nails done and find just the right sofa. Old Wang meticulously records in his diary the banalities of each day, including the high temperature. Just beyond the tightly packed warren of single-story houses stands the gleaming National Grand Theater and the wide, freshly paved road leading out to the modern high-rises that represent the future of this forever expanding city. As a steady beat of pick axes, sledge hammers, and bulldozers closes in on their homes, the residents alternately prepare for and despair of the day when Beijing’s historic heart will have no more room for them. Plans are afoot to build ultramodern, luxury apartments on the site, leaving the future of the families who reside there a matter of anxious uncertainty. |
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| Published: | 2008 |