Alley Under The Setting Sun

This thesis is a study of Social Anthropology based on the field research of Beijing hutong community. The function and resident composition changes, which lead to the social and cultural changes, will be detailed in the article. Hutong is now disappearing during the urban construction process, and the current preserved hutong are developed as sightseeing, so as the hutong residents. The hutong community studied in the article is inner the imperial city, because of the unique location, the fate of the residents there is closely related to the social changes. Now people there are living in small rooms with low income, and the number of single people is rising up, while the unique location and welfare security somehow raise the special superiority of the local residents. They still live in the hallucination that they are residents of imperial city and different from others. They care about their Beijing residential identity and believe their house can bring about fortune and change their fate, although sometimes tragedy makes them lose confidence in their fortune. They, like the reed going with wind, have no power to change or even hold their community.This thesis will detail the changes in the last 30 years. During the process of the reconstruction, Beijing preserves some old communities under the name of cultural relic protection. On preservation, the government pay more attention to the culture significance while neglect its living significance. At present, the architecture attracts foreigners living in the hutong, and the low rent attracts the migrant worker, also the market economy make some people in the hutong rich, especially those who have more houses. Along with the coming of foreigners, migrant workers and the appearance of rich people, the old hutong residents are declining. In a large sense, it means Beijing becoming a modern and international city instead of a feudal consumption city. The changes happening in the hutong is the reflection of the China urbanization and the old hutong will inevitably fade in the modern society.Now the studies of sociology and anthropology care more about the communities located in the junction of the city and suburb, that is, "villages within the cities", while less about the preserved city area. In the thesis, the author will write about the preserved city area in following parts.The first part is the Introduction of the thesis, indicating the basic status of the hutong, research background, methodology and review of the related research.The second part describes the life of the Beijing locals. Houses are very important to them and the family relationship is affected by their houses, which are security to old raise and young marriage. Now Single people are growing in the hutong because they lack rooms to get married, which will affect the regeneration of the family. As to the occupation of the local people, they also engage in some low paid jobs and many of them have no jobs. They have welfare security because of the Beijing residential identity and they believe houses can change their fate. Some of them are waiting for moving out of the hutong by reconstruction and asking for a good compensation.The third part is the mechanism of hutong maintenance. First of all, the government power provides the political security for the hutong maintenance. For example, the architecture preservation and social security policy are both important condition of the hutong maintenance. Besides, the migrant workers in the hutong are willing to engage in the low paid jobs and provide service for the local people, that's in fact another important condition of the hutong maintenance.The fourth part is about the besieged local people. Some senior leaders'residences are set up in the hutong because of the special location, so now the leaders become special residents in the hutong. They almost have no interaction with the locals but occupy the resource. Besides, the real estate market makes people who have house investment in the hutong rich and a few people control most of the space in the hutong. Moreover, the foreigner and the stranger's tour in the hutong or some of them even live in the hutong also changes the structure and culture of the old hutong.The fifth part is about the study of community death and regeneration. As a traditional community, hutong is experiencing comedown and death. For the death of a community, there are some styles, such as the disappearance of original architecture, the fading of the local people or being replaced by migrants. Now all the phenomena are happening in the hutong, so only by regeneration can stop the death of the hutong. A good example for hutong regeneration is the reconstruction of Juer Hutong.