Overview

Shanghai has been demolished and rebuilt into a gleaming megacity in recent decades, now ranking with New York and London as a hub of global finance. But that transformation has come at a grave human cost. This compelling book is the first to apply the concept of domicide—the eradication of a home against the will of its dwellers—to the sweeping destruction of neighborhoods, families, and life patterns to make way for the new Shanghai. Here we find the holdouts and protesters, men and women who have stubbornly resisted domicide and demanded justice. Qin Shao follows, among others, a reticent kindergarten teacher turned diehard petitioner; a descendant of gangsters and squatters who has become an amateur lawyer for evictees; and a Chinese Muslim who has struggled to recover his ancestral home in Xintiandi, an infamous site of gentrification dominated by a well-connected Hong Kong real estate tycoon. Highlighting the wrenching changes spawned by China’s reform era, Shao vividly portrays the relentless pursuit of growth and profit by the combined forces of corrupt power and money, the personal wreckage it has left behind, and the enduring human spirit it has unleashed. To see the author's blog post on Asia Society, please click here.

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9781442211322

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The lives of ordinary people trying to hang on to their homes, and their basic dignity as citizens, in the midst of China's breakneck modernization and superheated urban real estate markets is the subject of Qin Shao's by turns inspiring and disturbing study of contemporary Shanghai. Her insights into the complex interworking of state, economy, and culture will stimulate debate about the management of China's megacities as her vivid portraits of victims become petitioners and activists pin down abstractions of policy, plan, citizenship, and social justice in concrete and unforgettable ways. -- David G. Strand, Dickinson College

The lives of ordinary people trying to hang on to their homes, and their basic dignity as citizens, in the midst of China's breakneck modernization and superheated urban real estate markets is the subject of Qin Shao's by turns inspiring and disturbing study of contemporary Shanghai. Her insights into the complex interworking of state, economy, and culture will stimulate debate about the management of China's megacities as her vivid portraits of victims become petitioners and activists pin down abstractions of policy, plan, citizenship, and social justice in concrete and unforgettable ways. -- David G. Strand, Dickinson College Shanghai Gone is an extraordinary book-one that blends academic thoroughness and personal passion to yield a monumental study of Shanghai's transformation, and, indeed, that of China more generally. The book is built around the gripping accounts, powerfully conveyed by Qin Shao, of Chinese citizens whose homes have been the target of the type of demolitions that have recast the face of Shanghai and other Chinese cities, large and small. What is especially compelling for those of who study the PRC's institutions are the ways in which ordinary citizens have sought to avail themselves of the law to defend their rights and interests. -- William Alford, Harvard University Qin Shao has written a homage to a city that no longer exists: the Shanghai of small alleys and old neighborhoods. Shanghai Gone deftly weaves interviews with individuals and old-fashioned digging to explain how people's homes were taken from them and why the old city disappeared-a nitty-gritty look at how urban China is being reconstructed. This makes it more than a dirge; in fact, it's a paean to the fighting spirit of Shanghainese and ordinary people across the country. -- Ian Johnson, author of Wild Grass: Three Stories of Change in China

The book discusses the life and struggle of Shanghai's displaced, whose life courses have been abruptly changed by city-wide redevelopment projects. Facing the almighty power of the state, developers, media, and so on, the displaced are transformed from ordinary residents to occupational petitioners, a barrack-room lawyer, or a community leader. The rights discourse spelled out by these people also provides a fascinating insight for our understanding on how the interaction between reform measures (economic, political, and legal) and people's response to these have reshaped their rights awareness and views on social justice. Urban Commune Shanghai Gone is an extraordinary book-one that blends academic thoroughness and personal passion to yield a monumental study of Shanghai's transformation, and, indeed, that of China more generally. The book is built around the gripping accounts of residents whose homes suffered the type of demolitions that have recast the face of Chinese cities. What is especially compelling are the ways in which ordinary citizens have sought to avail themselves of the law to defend their rights and interests. -- William Alford, Harvard University A devastating shadow biography that reveals this great city's dark secrets. Qin Shao teaches us volumes about the powerful forces remaking Shanghai, through forced relocation and demolition of its old neighborhoods. What is even rarer, she has written a book that manages to be both beautiful and poignant, because she tells her story through the lives of real people. -- Howard W. French, Columbia University; author, with Qiu Xiaolong, of Disappearing Shanghai: Photographs and Poems of an Intimate Way of Life Shanghai Gone, an homage to a city that no longer exists, deftly weaves interviews with individuals and old-fashioned digging to provide a nitty-gritty look at how urban China is being reconstructed. This makes it more than a dirge; in fact, it is a paean to the fighting spirit of ordinary people across the country. -- Ian Johnson, author of Wild Grass: Three Stories of Change in China The lives of ordinary people trying to hang on to their homes and their dignity in the midst of China's superheated urban development is the subject of Qin Shao's by turns inspiring and disturbing study. Her insights into the interworking of state, economy, and culture will stimulate debate about the management of China's megacities, while her vivid portraits of victims becoming petitioners and activists pin down abstractions of policy, citizenship, and social justice in concrete and unforgettable ways. -- David G. Strand, Dickinson College Shanghai grew rapidly in the decades before the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949. The population continued expanding over the subsequent 30 years, but the housing stock did not: millions of residents occupied tiny spaces in deteriorating buildings. Since the 1990s, high rises and shopping centers have replaced most of those buildings. In the process, many people were forced out of their homes without what they considered adequate compensation. This book introduces victims of domicide who fought back. Based on extensive interviews, five lively case studies explore the motivations and strategies of people who challenged the city's right to take away their beloved homes. Some petitioned government offices for redress, some studied housing law and filed suit, some tried to attract media attention, and some appealed to historic preservationists. Only one found satisfaction. The stories are told almost entirely from the point of view of the dispossessed homeowners; officials and developers declined to offer their perspectives. As the dispossessed are well aware, Shanghai's movers and shakers have made tremendous profits from its amazing real estate boom. This book gives voice to those who lost out. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. CHOICE An extraordinary book that documents the contemporary history of housing demolition and relocation in Shanghai... As a historian, Qin Shao is extremely sensitive to historical details and pays particular attention to the oral history of the everyday experiences of those residents who suffered from housing demolition. She turns these narratives into an account of conflict and resistance in the histories of urban development...The book contains very rare and detailed materials and reveals the enormous suffering caused by 'domicide'-the eradication of homes against the will of their dwellers-in the process of rapid urbanization and housing development. The book devotes its narrative to concrete events and the words of ordinary people, and preserves memories that would otherwise disappear quickly along with the old homes...The narrative of this book is full of surprises-even for those who believe they are 'familiar' with Chinese cities.../Shanghai Gone/ is an extremely fascinating book for those who are interested in Chinese cities as well as the general public interested in urban histories and social well-being. China Quarterly This book is characterized by its informative first-hand data derived from field investigations made over several years... The book successfully conveys the passions of diverse people (particularly those evicted from their dwellings) who display determination, courage, strength, wisdom and patience. This is a story of common people turned stubborn protesters/petition specialists, government officials, developers, media professionals and public intellectuals. This unfolding story is situated within a wider governance context: China's housing, land use, juridical and petition systems, regulations relating to urban planning, demolition and relocation, and cultural heritage preservation, their effects, loopholes and historical dynamics. Building Research & Information Qin Shao offers, with remarkable detail, the struggles of evictees against commercial developers and the local government in Shanghai. Alternatively gripping and painful, thoroughly honest and, at times, impassioned and even humorous, Qin's account provides the closest approximation available to a record of socio-legal cases or textual documentation of housing disputes in urbanizing China. ... Qin's book is a testament to tenacity in research methods and goals, just as it is to the struggles of her informants. It sets a bar for empirical fieldwork on political issues in contemporary China. Students and scholars of modern history, urban studies, law and society, and anthropology will find in /Shanghai Gone/ a vivid account of the best and worst in reform-era China. China Information

Author Information

Qin Shao is professor of history at The College of New Jersey. She is the author of Culturing Modernity: The Nantong Model, 1890–1930.

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