The Last Days of Beijing Hutongs

Short Synopsis

The Last Days of Beijing’s Hutongs is an hour long documentary film that explores the complexities of modernization and development in urban environments, and the effect it has on individual lives in China. 

Description/Treatment

Synopsis:  The Last Days of Beijing’s Hutongs is an 80-minute documentary that explores the effect of modernization of China, specifically the direct consequence on the life and culture of Beijing’s hutongs.  Beijing’s hutongs, some dating back to the Yuan Dynasty (1206-1341) are a sprawl of narrow alleys and courtyards, of small shops and restaurants, of homes and families. The hutongs are regarded as one of Beijing’s defining, essential characteristics, the heart and soul of the city for centuries. The destruction of hutongs has been taking place for several years, but since Beijing was awarded the Olympics, the rate at which they are now being cleared has increased exponentially. According to UNESCO, in the past three years a third of the 62km squared area that makes up the central part of the old city has now been destroyed. This has displaced close to 580,000 people. This documentary program will explore the stories of several hutong families to reflect on the significant, yet under-investigated, experience of life in modern China.  By weaving in verite footage of hutong families, urban planners, and city officials.The Last Days of Beijing’s Hutongs explores the complexities of modernization and development in urban environments, and the effect it has on individual lives.              

Rapid economic boom has gained China much attention from the world, as it is experiencing a complex restructuring of its major metropolis areas. However, under the façade of progress, the majority of Beijing’s hutong residents have yet to experience the prosperity rather, they face more economic struggles than ever before. These issues are not only occurring in China, but all across the world modernization is destroying ancient ways of life and unjustly displacing families. Although the loss of this ancient architecture is significant, it is also important to note the loss of a social network of neighbors and friends, of spirit and culture that have defined the way of life in the hutongs for generations. Today they are at the heart of an increasingly controversy between progress and modernization in China: What balance should be struck between preserving Beijing’s culturally and historically significant heritage, and building a developed, global city in time for the 2008 Olympic Games?

Treatment and Structure: The Last Days of Beijing’s Hutongs is an intimate portrait of three hutong families who have lived in their hutong homes for over half a century, and are gradually being forced to move away due to the hutong’s demolition and city’s reconstruction. As a young child, the director lived in the hutongs, and the three families chosen for the film were once her neighbors.  The access and personal tone of the piece is exemplified through this relationship.

Each family in The Last Days of Beijing’s Hutongs represents a different perspective on how the destruction of the hutongs has affected their individual lives.  The Wu family consists of a 75-year-old widow and her son’s family that live cramped in a two room hutong courtyard.  Mrs. Wu claims that she will die in the hutongs and expresses her lack of choice in the matter since she was notified of the hutong destruction.  The Wu family’s socioeconomic status makes their options for relocation close to none, so they will remain in the hutongs until they are physically forced out.  Her son, daughter-in-law, and 21 year-old grandson live with her and also struggle financially, making the option for her to move out with a child impossible.  The daughter-in-law and grandson express their previous dreams to move to a high-rise, but note that they would lose their way of life, their only knowledge of existence.                                     

By the end of the film, the Wu family is the only one that remains, their hutong home surrounded by the rubble of the homes of their once neighbors. The Wu family has their quality of life at stake and the central question is: how has the hutong destruction affected this quality of life?                                               

The Qiao family consists of 2 sons, 1 daughter, and 3 granddaughters. Qiao is also a widow like Wu.  She is very open, easy going, and always laughing.  She is a woman who strives on her independence, enjoys the neighborhood relationships of hutong life and the central location of the hutongs.  She is forced to move out of her hutong home that she has owned for over 40 years.  The small stipend offered by the Chinese government for her home does not cover the costs to buy another apartment, so by 2005 she is forced to move in to her son’s home in the suburbs.  Although it is Chinese tradition for children to take care of their parents when they are elderly, Mrs. Qiao does not find comfort in this new life style.  She is away from her cultivated social life within the hutongs, her connections in Beijing, and her ultimately her livelihood.  The Qiao family represents the change in social dynamics, both in family relationships and friendships that hutong destruction has influenced.  Mrs. Qiao has her independent nature threatened by the loss of her home and unknown of the new life.                                                                       

The Zhang family is an easy going elderly couple with 2 daughters, 2 sons, and 4 grandchildren.  The Zhangs were told that their home would be demolished to make way for a new road and office building to house foreign businesses.  They are retired working class people and have no income, so they were forced to move in with their son’s two hours outside of Beijing. The Zhang couple thrives on routine and tradition, which was interrupted by their move.  Mr. Zhang is a retired deliver man, where he traveled through the streets of Beijing on a bike pulling a trailer.  Mrs. Zhang was a housewife and local social worker. Mr. Zhang’s hobby is birds and his daily routines revolve around taking care of his three birds.  In the hutongs, he would go to the morning farmer’s market and buy his birds’ food, come home, and wake them up for their breakfast. Everyday, he would take his birds to a neighborhood park near the hutong.  For the Zhang family, the question is how was their routine affected by the move?                                   

Through multiple perspectives and iconographic allusion, The Last Days of Beijing’s Hutongs will be structured chronologically in three major parts:

1) January 2004, Chinese New Year. NanYudai Hutong. Beijing.  Three courtyard families located in Beijing NanYudai Hutong are celebrating what is most likely their last Chinese New Year at their hutong homes. In Chinese tradition, Chinese New Year is a holiday where all family members gather together at their parents or grandparent’s home to celebrate the biggest holiday in China. The film opens up in early morning of Chinese New Year. Zhang family, an old couple, gets up from bed and starts their daily routine as usual: dumping the chamber pot to the public sink in the center of the courtyard; then washing face and brushing the teeth; boiling a pot of hot water on their coal stove, which is also their heater in the winter. Qiao family is now gathered with 8 family members at Qiao’s small (about 150 sqft) courtyard home making dumplings; three grandchildrenkowtow, a traditional Chinese bow to elders, to receive their red packets (cash present); then the family sits down to have dumplings. Wu family is also gathering with three generations of 17 people at Wu's two-room courtyard house. The men are playing mahjong in one room while the younger generation (teenagers) are chatting and watching cartoons from the computer in another room. 

Through interactive interviews and cinema verite techniques, we observeand experience the family intimacy and hutong family lifestyle. More over, the intimate interviews reveal the true feeling and emotions about their hutong homes. This section of the film will also include archival footage as a way to give the viewer background information on hutong history. We also hear from other points of view from outsiders, such as urban planners, local officials, and scholars who have objectively studied these issues.

2) Three years later, in July 2007, the appearance of Beijing has changed dramatically. It's mixed with new and old, traditional and modern buildings, hustling traffic, and crowds. Cranes and bulldozers are everywhere. Beijing is like a big construction site, dusty and polluted. A large electronic count down plate for 2008 Olympic is hung on the front of History Museum in Tiananmen Square. Beijing’s Olympic motto “One World, One Dream” can be seen all over the city, ironically representing the homogenization of culture in Beijing.  Inside of the hutong area is relatively quiet and less crowded, but it is no longer the original hutong any more.  The Fengsheng Hutong, the neighbor of Nanyudai Hutong was replaced with a construction site full of rubble from the demolished houses. Wu’s courtyard house still remains, while the southern houses were demolished into ruin. The Zhang family has moved away and is staying with their son in a Beijing suburb. Their hutong home has been rented out to migrant workers as the hutong waits for demolish.  The entire courtyard and houses where the Qiao family lived have also been destroyed. The interviews and footage in this section reflect the dichotomy between rich and poor, new and old, and progress and tradition. Aerial shots take the viewer out of the hutong community and provide a view into the changes of Beijing as a whole. We see the construction of Beijing’s new Olympic Stadium, “The Bird’s Nest”, and how its modern artistic design seems so far removed from the simplicity of hutong life. 

3) Summer 2008, Beijing Olympic year, the climax of the film.  Traveling to find the Zhang and Qiao families in their new homes outside of the city, interviews reveal life after the hutongs and their feelings about the changing face of Beijing.  Everybody is watching, waiting, filled with exciting and complicate feeling for the Olympics.  This section of the film documents this pre-Olympic game anticipation, and then progresses into documenting the families during the Olympic games.  A montage of our subjects watching the Olympic games in their modest homes, crowded around a television set, is cut next to footage of people all around Beijing watching the Olympics.  Only they are watching big screen televisions at fancy restaurants or in their high-rises.  This will give the viewer a visual sense of the growing disparity of rich and poor in modern China.  Footage of Beijing after the Olympics will show what has happened after the dust clears.  We visited the families once more, asked them to reflect on their entire experience of displacement and change of their life.  Beijing wanted a modern city to show the world, but now the Olympics are over, and at what cost was the destruction of their cultural history? More over, it will reveal the complexities of modernization and development in urban environments, and the effect and impact it has on individual lives.           

                                   

Themes: The Last Days of Beijing’s Hutongs will reveal the following:                       

a.  What is the history and background of Beijing hutongs and courtyard houses?

b.  What were neighborhood relationships and culture like in the original hutong life and how is life after the hutongs different?

c.  What are the emotions and nostalgia about Beijing hutongs and their courtyard houses?

d.  What cultural, political, economic and social forces have increased the gap between rich and the poor?

e. What possible bureaucracy and corruption has been involved behind this city’s reconstruction and China’s modernization?           

Style and Format: in order to get realistic look and intimate feel, the hutong families will be mostly shot under available light and some handheld cameras.  The film is shot in both DV and HD, with the HD camera being used for shots of Beijing, staged interviews, and poetic footage of hutong-related art.  The director and DP, Weimin Zhang, comes to this project as a professional cinematographer.  Her shots are aesthetically driven with high attention given to composition, the bright hints of color that stand out against Beijing’s grey and polluted backdrop and the visual contrast of the high-rises and ancient alleys. The film’s sound track will rely heavily on the sound of the natural ambiance of the hutong community, in order to bring the viewer into hutong life. Traditional Chinese instrumental music and sound effects may apply in nostalgia and emotional expression when iconographic allusion techniques are involved. Archival footage will serve as a way to synthesize the different elements in the film as well as educate viewers on hutong history and add aesthetic value.