History Hiding in Chengdu’s Backstreets
Dive off the main street near Wenshu Temple in Chengdu and you’ll find yourself in a backstreet that’s bustling with a very different kind of character.
One side of XiZhuShi lane is devoted to small mahjong rooms, their crowded tables spilling out onto the street through open fronts. Here many are engrossed in clamorous games of mahjong. Others spread out big newspapers or lean back to sleep.
Opposite these shops an even older building stretches crookedly along the street, its low roof overhanging worn plaster walls. It has been broken up into different rooms and small doorways offer glimpses of gloomy secrets inside.
Peer in through one of these doors and you’ll see people being manicured beneath the halo of an angle poise. Through the door of another there’s rows of men sat on church-like benches, staring forwards at a television which flickers brightly from the back wall.
“This building is about 90 years old,” says the old man with amputated arm who is sprawled on a wicker chair outside. “It hasn’t changed much in that time.”
Streets with this kind of traditional atmosphere are becoming harder to find in a China that has indiscriminately redeveloped large parts of many cities. Even in Chengdu, where the population are known to value a more traditional and laid back lifestyle, much of the central city has been rebuilt.
The streets are not just worn buildings – they are compartments which hold narratives about the past. The television rooms here, for example, used to be quite common across China. They recall a time when televisions were scarce, shared between whole communities.
The leisurely bustle of the mahjong rooms encapsulates the character of Chengdu’s population. This is an atmosphere, a way of living, which cannot be displayed in the same way in the fabricated cosiness of a Starbucks or a stylish new restaurant.
Often the justification for redeveloping this kind of street is the need for a cleaner or more efficient environment. But walking amongst the living history of a place like XiZhuShi lane, it is clear that what would be lost is always going to be much greater than what is gained.
Tags: Chengdu, China, Exploring the City, Redevelopment
