Nostaglia - A Film by Shu Haolun
China has been the focus of many discussions on globalization and how it will affect this nation that is developing at an astonishing pace. NPR has been doing a series on old Shanghai. I found this piece today, A Cinematic Ode to Shanghai’s Vanishing World. This story is about the old traditional houses, narrow alleys and tight knit communities that existed in Shanghai, a city of almost 18 million people. Shu Haolun is a filmmaker who grew up in one of these old neighborhoods. His documentary, Nostaglia, will be about this old neighborhood and will be a kind of historical piece to preserve the sense of place and community that existed before the ideas such as “development” and “globalization” challenged this old way of life. From Louisa Lim’s piece:
Shu has produced an ode to this vanishing world. He starts his documentary, Nostalgia, with his reasons for making it: Soon, I’ll only be able to see our alleyway in old photos, and in this film, he says.
Walking around his old neighborhood is like stepping into his documentary. Neighbors exchange greetings and chat as they wash clothes in concrete basins in the alleyway. Imposing, carved-stone pillars and arches frame the tall, wood doorways of the gray, three-story buildings. The buildings are shabby, their facades patched and stained by the passage of history.
And soon, this tight-knit community will be dispersed. In April, residents of this neighborhood, known as Dazhongli, received notice that their houses will be demolished. No one knows when, but everyone realizes it will be soon.
Lim writing allows the reader to imagine a bit of what the film maker’s home used to look like and also gives the reader a sense of what attributes held this neighborhood together for so long. I think the sadness in this piece is that a large part of the residents are elderly. The psychological shift of this change of life so late in life is tragic.
This video is courtesy of Weekly Links of the Week and shows the cost of the swift economic development in China. The video is an underground journalist piece by Sky News, a British news network, that interviews people who have been forced out of their homes, shows footage of village protests, and demolition crews who are making way for the new and improved China. Now this is something that you will not find in the Economist.
Keep an eye out for Nostalgia - I may even see you at the film.
December 13th, 2006 at 11:29 pm
Great article, these sorts of stories do not seem to hit the front page of main news. I cannot fathom why…
To imagine so many people being displaced boggles the mind. I’m not even sure I can wrap my head around it.
December 18th, 2006 at 9:08 am
Since China is our largest trading partner, and the biggest holder of American Debt, and has an atrocious human rights record even harvesting organs from political prisoners to be sold, and killing some 7,000 political prisoners a year, it is always nice to read an original piece like the one you presented. I wonder if China has weapons of mass destruction. I guess not. They only have 600 nuclear missiles to our 7200 and 9000 Russian and 500 Israeli; Iraq has none, Iran has none, but they have oil. And China is our biggest competitor for oil globally. China also takes most of our middle class jobs, and steals most of our copyrighted goods. Maybe that is why the Chinese who earn 50 cents an hour are so successful. I am sure that the Bush capitalists would be very happy if Americans worked for one dollar an hour.