FEI Fan Writing Sample

Forgotten City: Longchang Apartment

By FEI Fan

SHANGHAI- Colored quilts and washed laundry are hanging haphazardly in the courtyard of Longchang Apartment. It looks as if people living here are holding a huge yard sale. The scent from toilets mingled with that of home-cooking in this apartment block spills out of Lane 362, Longchang Road. Longchang Apartment is situated in Yangpu District, Shanghai, fifteen-minute-drive from the Bund. However, people’s livelihood in this apartment is vastly different from the luxurious lifestyle of Shanghai. Each capsule-like apartment in this block is no more than 200 square feet. A bed and a desk fill the room and make it difficult for people to move around freely. Weather-worn chairs and splintered kitchen cupboards are placed along the corridor, which is filled with other miscellaneous objects of daily life, making the walkway hardly passable. Seventy-three-year-old Zhang Lijuan, a retired textile worker has lived here with her husband since the era of New China. Her husband was the deputy director of Yangpu police station. Zhang says, “This building used to be the dormitory for the police station. Ahead of time, during the 2nd Sino-Japanese War (1937-45), it was a Japanese military compound.” Zhang points toward the window in her apartment where the rust left behind from aged iron bars is still visible. “This place was the best dwelling in Shanghai 50 years ago. We had lifts at both sides of the building. It was quite convenient and luxurious. At that time, no matter how much you wanted to pay for this apartment, you would not be allowed to move here unless you were in high positions.”

Sketching: FEI Fan

FEI Fan Writing Sample

Zhang has lived here for half a century. She is a first-generation resident of this apartment. These people dwelled on their superior social status in the past. The sense of seniority and superiority grew even greater when more and more migrant workers moved into this apartment block. “This community houses two classes of people: outsiders and us. They made the living condition in Longchang less comfortable,” Zhang says. “Since they moved in, the apartment became crowded and dirty. The lifts broke down. Everything has changed. ” “Outsider” is a name given by Shanghai natives to describe people not born in Shanghai but who came to seek a living. China’s registration system, known as the hukou, was introduced in 1958 to prevent migrants from flooding into the city and sharing the benefits of local health care and education resources. Buying a house is one way to obtain a local hukou, allowing migrants to claim a secure rung on China’s ever-urbanizing social ladder. Longchang Apartment appears to be a great choice for these migrant workers. According to the data from SouFun Holdings Ltd, one of China’s largest real estate websites, buying a one-room flat in downtown Shanghai could cost $250,000 (U.S. Dollar), equivalent to 20 years’ salary of a middle class worker, without counting the mortgage interest. However, a flat in Longchang Apartment is much cheaper. Zhang said that her flat could be bought for $67,000 (U.S. Dollar). Zhang’s flat has a bedroom and a 20-square-foot bathroom. The bedroom barely fits a double bed. However, the tiny flat is home to three: Zhang, Zhang’s son, Wang Zhen and an adopted girl. The girl was the child of their neighbor. Her parents left when she was two years old

and Zhang has been taking care of the girl since. As the space is so limited, Wang has to sleep in the small space on top of the cabinet and below the ceiling. Wang says, “I was born here. When I was a little kid, I felt happy playing with other kids in the big yard. But now I understand only poor people live here. “ As a second- generation resident, Wang does not seem enthusiastic about his life in Longchang Apartment. He says, “Most people in my age have moved out when

they got married. If they still stay here like I do, that is because they have no money to buy a house. No woman is willing to marry a guy who is not capable of buying a house.” Wang is turning fifty next year, but he is still single. An apartment is now a “must-have” for a man to find a wife in China. The city’s Female Federation released a survey in 2012, indicating that only 18% of women in China would marry someone without a house. As for Wang, the adopted girl seems an extra burden to the family, making Wang even more unsuitable to marry in this materialism-driven city.

Sketching: FEI Fan

FEI Fan Writing Sample

Apart from the pressure to get married, for many people in China like Wang, the ideal of middle-class comfort is easy to define: home ownership. Moving into a home of their own in Shanghai, the most expensive city in China, is costly. Buying a house means becoming a “mortgage slave,” a colloquial term in China for those who pay more than half their disposable income on home loans. But for Wang, becoming a mortgage slave is more enticing than living in Longchang Apartment. “20 years ago, my mother lost two fingers when she was operating a machine. We got 50,000 yuan injury premium, which was enough to pay for the down payment of a house,” Wang says, speaking in regretful tones. “But as a traditional Chinese woman, she was more willing to save the money in the bank. People at that time never anticipated how fast the price of real estate would soar.” By DTZ's calculations, prices in the city have risen more than 20 per cent every year. Zhang Hong, who has worked in a real estate agency for ten years, says, “I’m not worried about selling a house. If you hesitate, the price will rise the next day. ” The sorrow inside Zhang’s home is shared among many residents of Longchang Apartment. Dozens of interviews with young middle-aged men around the Apartment reveal a creeping realization that the simple dream of establishing a family is out of reach. According to Miao Zhenfang, the director of this apartment, the average resident of this community is 54 years old. It had become a weirdly common phenomenon in this community that an elder mother lives with a single middle-aged son. It is difficult for Wang to witness, as it is the best of times and it is the worst of times. In the courtyard, residents are sending off a new couple. They leave this apartment to start their “new life”.

(November 13, 2013)