Michael Meyer living in his Dazhalan Beijing hutong

British Television ( Paul Merton ) visits Michael Meyer in his classroom and courtyard home in Beijing. He speaks to the subject of his up-coming book, "The Last Days of Old Beijing". For more see http://www.lastdaysofoldbeijing.com ( this is the replacement for a previous video with poor audio! )

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• documentary
• Mike
• Meyer
• China
• Beijing
• Peking
• courtyard
• hutong
• Dazhalan
• Paul
• Merton
• danwei
• last
• days
• old
• book

[brucenator]

It is very exciting to see this video after reading Michael Meyer's book, The Last Days of Old Beijing. I recommend this book to everyone. It reads like a novel.

Here is a transcript (the next 14 posts):

[brucenator]

Beijing's 2008 Olympics have sparked urban redevelopment on an unprecedented scale. The Olympic Stadium and Village alone employs around 25,000 labourers, and the total project is costing 42 billion pounds. Throughout Beijing there has been more construction over the past year [2007-2008] than the whole of continental Europe over the past three years. Yet at least half of these new developments will remain empty -- unaffordable to average Chinese. So effectively they are being built solely...

[brucenator]

to ensure Beijing looks shiny and modern when the world's camera's arrive in 2008. Meanwhile, almost all the city's traditional hutong [胡同] districts are being torn down [拆] with well over half a million inhabitants already forceably evicted from their homes. I've come to one of the oldest hutong districts to seek out an American who lives here. Welcome to Beijing. Mike Meyer has started to teach English to the older members of his local community, because they came to be able to...

[brucenator]

help out foreign visitors during the Olympics. Do you speak English? 'I can speak a little English,' very good. So, I didn't wish to disturb you. Just interested in what you're doing here, so do you mind if I just sit and watch? Is that okay? Sure, sure, sure. Come, come to the front. Come, come, come. Mike wasn't going to waste the opportunity of a real Englishman in his class. I am a comedian. Funny person. Tough crowd, tough crowd, right? Yes. Exactly.

[brucenator]

But I've met tougher crowds than this in my time, and I felt professionally obliged to win them over. Chinese food is beautiful. I love Chinese food. I also love Tsingtao. Tsingtao Beer? Now that I have them warmed up, the lesson can begin. Sorry, could you speak slowly? What do you do? I am a grandmother. It struck me as a tragic irony that these old folks would probably have been forceably evicted from their homes here long before the Olympics begin. Thank you very much. Good, good.

[brucenator]

The value of this neighborhood isn't necessarily the buildings itself, but it's the intangible heritage. The cultural heritage. And again, the social network that still exists here. Hello, hello. Will this be here in two years time? That's the problem. Nobody knows, you know. In Beijing when you're... There's no Civil Planning Bureau you can go to and ask, 'Oh, when will my home be torn down?' I mean, this whole city right now, one of the reasons for the destruction of this old heritage,

[brucenator]

it's not that they're afraid of losing face, it's that they can't imagine losing face before the world. Beijing, this is it's coming out party to show the world: this is the capital of the world's next super-power, you know, this is not a communist state, this is not a weak nation that's been invaded by America and England and Japan and what-not. And so this all a part and parcel of it. You know, let's not lose face before the world.

[brucenator]

You'd be surprised, there's very little crime in this neighborhood. They put up all the arrests for the week. They post it. You know, whose house got broken into, what was taken, the name of the criminal and what-not. So, it's... again, I like it because it's the complete opposite of this anonymous suburban life, you know, you can... Walking around here, I haven't seen any other westerners that live here. I'm the only one in this neighborhood [Dazhalan]. It seems to be.

[brucenator]

Out of 57,000 people, yes, I'm the only one, so you can imagine the, uh... every move I make is watched closely. Is it really? Um, if I get drunk one night, the next day it's, 'Oh (you know), Little Plumblossom's drunk.' Little Plumblossom? Yeah, unfortunately, my name is Little Plumblossom in Chinese. It's actually 'Eastern Heroic Plumblossom.' All right. There's a lot of good things to say about living in a traditional neighborhood like this, but we also have to be honest,

[brucenator]

a lot of these houses are dilapidated. They're awfully cold in the wintertime. And there's this little issue that, when you have to go to the loo, this is where you go. Take my word for it, the stench is overpowering, so excuse me while I talk and hold my breath at the same time. You may not want to walk too closely in here. It's not heated. It's not air-conditioned. And often the lights not very good either. And there's a guy just in there, so I think we should come out, actually.