Writing Beijing: Urban Spaces and Cultural Imaginations in Contemporary Chinese Literature and Films

169 Pages·2016·3.876 MB·English

by  Yiran Zheng

Writing Beijing

Writing Beijing
Urban Spaces and Cultural Imaginations in
Contemporary Chinese Literature and Films
By Yiran Zheng
LEXINGTON BOOKS
Lanham • Boulder • New York • London
Published by Lexington Books
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Copyright © 2016 by Lexington Books
Quotes from Wild Beast, Could Be Beautiful, I Am Your Father, Mr. Xu, and Air Hostess
by Wang Shuo reprinted by permission of Beijing Shiyue Wenyi Press.
“This is Beijing at 4:08” by Shi Zhi, originally published in Shi Zhi’s Poems. Reprinted by
permission of Renmin Wenxue Press Ltd.
Quotes from How Far is Eternity by Tie Ning reprinted by permission of Tie Ning.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by
any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval
systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who
may quote passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Yiran, Zheng, 1978, author.
Title: Writing Beijing : urban spaces and cultural imaginations in
contemporary Chinese literature and films / Yiran Zheng.
Description: Lanham, Maryland : Lexington Books, 2016. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016001246 (print) | LCCN 2016012613 (ebook) | ISBN
9781498531016 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781498531023 (Electronic)
Subjects: LCSH: Chinese literature—20th century—History and criticism. |
Chinese literature—21st century—History and criticism. | Motion
pictures, Chinese—History and criticism. | Beijing (China)—In
literature. | Public spaces in literature. | Public
spaces—China—Beijing. | China—In motion pictures.
Classification: LCC PL2275.P42 Y57 2016 (print) | LCC PL2275.P42 (ebook) |
DDC 895.109/35851156—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016001246
™
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
Figures vii
Introduction ix
Part I
Chapter 1 W ork Unit Compound: An Emergence of a
New Urban Space 3
Chapter 2 “Gongheguo xingui” (New Aristocrats of the PRC) 11
Chapter 3 R ed Nostalgia in the Literature of the
Military Compound 19
Part II
Chapter 4 S iheyuan: Signifier of Traditional and
Masculine City 49
Chapter 5 Second-Generation Beijing Flavor Writers 57
Chapter 6 T raditional Beijing and Masculine Beijing in
Second-Generation Beijing Flavor Literature 63
Part III
Chapter 7 M odern and Postmodern Architectures:
Presentations of the Global Context 89
v
vi • Contents
Chapter 8 Beijing Floaters 107
Chapter 9 C osmopolitan Metropolis as an Urban Dream in
Sixth-Generation Films 113
Conclusion 127
References 131
Index 141
About the Author 149
Figures
Figure I.1. Framework of methodology xiii
Figure 1.1. A typical Beijing hutong at wudaoying 7
Figure 4.1. A three-jin siheyuan composed of three conjoined yards 52
Figure 4.2. Corner of a siheyuan 53
Figure 6.1. Turret and the city wall of the Forbidden City 68
Figure 7.1. A townhouse named “British Castle” in a suburb
of Beijing 93
Figure 7.2. Houses named “British Castle” and high apartment
buildings named “British Palace” 93
Figure 7.3. Beijing West Railway Station 95
Figure 7.4. The China Millennium Monument 96
Figure 7.5. Starbucks at Shichahai 98
Figure 7.6. National Centre for the Performing Arts (the Giant Egg) 100
Figure 7.7. National Stadium (the Bird’s Nest) 100
Figure 7.8. CCTV New Main Building (the Gate) 101
Figure 7.9. Scene of the Central Business District 104
vii

Introduction
On August 8, 2008, the fireworks launched from Beijing National Stadium
illuminated the capital’s night sky. Beijing had successfully hosted the
twenty-ninth Olympiad and welcomed a million foreign guests. When tour-
ists first see Beijing, many stereotypes get shattered. They discover that the
city is not one in which high walls divide imperial palaces from poor shelters.
It is not a city of rickshaws clattering down narrow and dirty streets. It is not
a city of blue or gray uniforms and political fanaticism. They see instead re-
painted old wooden buildings and skyscrapers with shining glass shells. They
see Beijing as a presentation, a symbol of the fusion of a “traditional” Chinese
city and a modern international metropolis.
As one of the oldest cities in the world, Beijing’s history can be traced
back to 3,000 years ago. Serving as the capital city during Yuan, Ming, and
Qing, the last three imperial dynasties, Beijing witnessed China’s greatest
power and prosperity. Since the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was
founded, Beijing became the political center of the new communist country
which dramatically changed its image both physically and culturally as the
city was transformed into the signifier of socialist ideology and revolutionary
culture. Then, at the turn of the twenty-first century, Beijing was forced to
face once again the contradiction between nationalism and modernization
and to deal with the difficult integration between what is “Chinese” and
what is “Western”; the city space has thus become one of the focal points
for showcasing socioeconomic problems in a global context. The difficulties
in confronting these challenges are representative of that of many Chinese
ix