Shanghai's lilong 上海的弄堂

"Shanghai’s historic row houses, known as the lilong – a legacy of Western-influenced housing during the city’s time as a treaty port (1842-1943) – are facing extinction at the hands of post-reform property developers seeking valuable land for high-rise condo development. [...] Through academic discourse, nostalgia has led the claim that the lilong should by all means be preserved even for its historic value per se. Here I argue: do we really understand enough about the existence of the lilong in the context of the rapidly changing structure of modern Chinese society to make such a claim?
[...] I will not be able to answer whether the lilong houses and neighborhoods ‘should or should not exist’. What I can answer is whether or not there has been enough study done about the lilong houses and neighborhoods to understand the nature of the question. This is the true aim of this chapter. And the answer is a qualified no."


"Urbanization and Housing: Socio-Spatial Conflicts over Urban Space in Contemporary Shanghai", by Non Arkaraprasertkul, in "Aspects of Urbanization in China: Shanghai, Hong Kong, Guangzhou" edited by Gregory Bracken.