A person's home is their castle
Trip Start
Jan 30, 2007
1
13
816
Trip End
Dec 31, 2011
Loading Map
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
Lijiang,
China
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
You can read my entry mentioning the movie at: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/happysheep/shangri-la-la/1174484700/tpod.html
Here are some overseas reports about the case, in a neighbouring province of China.
This is from the Sydney Morning Herald:
Tell them they're dreaming: Chinese battler's home becomes her castle Date: March 31 2007
Howard French in Chongqing, China
FOR weeks the stand-off drew intrigue from people all across China as a simple home-owner stared down the forces of large-scale redevelopment, which are sweeping this country, to block the preparation of a gigantic construction site.
Chinese bloggers were the first to spread the news of a house perched on top of a tall, thimble-shaped piece of land in the middle of a vast excavation.
Newspapers dived in next, followed by national television. Then, in a way that is common in China whenever an event begins to take on political overtones, the story virtually disappeared.
Still, the "nail house", as many have called it because of the home owner's tenacity (like a nail that cannot be pulled out), remains the most popular topic among Chinese bloggers.
It has a universal resonance in a country where rich developers are seen to be in cahoots with politicians and where both enjoy unchallenged sway.
Each year China is shaken by tens of thousands of riots and demonstrations, and few issues pack as much emotional force as the discontent of people who are suddenly uprooted and told they must make way for a skyscraper or golf course or industrial zone.
What drove interest in the Chongqing case was the uncanny ability of the home owner to hold out for so long. Stories are legion in Chinese cities of the arrest or even beating of people who protest too vigorously against their eviction. How did this owner - a woman, no less - manage, millions wondered?
Part of the answer is that Wu Ping is anything but an ordinary woman. With her dramatic lock of hair, high cheekbones and wide, excited eyes, and wearing a form-flattering bright red coat, the tall, 49-year-old restaurant entrepreneur knows how to attract attention - a potent weapon in China's new media age.
"For over two years they haven't allowed me access to my property," she said, arms flailing as she led a brisk walk through the Yangjiaping neighbourhood. The area is in the throes of large-scale redevelopment, with broad avenues, big shopping malls and an elevated monorail line, from whose platform nearly everyone stops to gawk at the nail house.
Within moments of her arrival at the locked gate of the excavated construction site, a crowd began to gather. The people, many of them workers with sunken cheeks and dressed in grimy clothes, regarded Ms Wu with wonder.
"If it were an ordinary person, they would have hired thugs and beat her up," murmured a woman. "Ordinary people don't dare fight with the developers. They're too strong."
This month the National People's Congress passed a historic law guaranteeing private property rights to China's swelling ranks of urban middle-class home owners, among others. Some attributed Ms Wu's success to that, as well as her knack for generating publicity.
"I believe that this is my legal property," she said. "And if I cannot protect my own rights it makes a mockery of the property law just passed."
Ms Wu will probably lose her battle. Developers recently filed administrative motions to allow them to demolish her building. Certainly the local authorities are eager to see the last of her.
"During the process of demolition, 280 households were all satisfied with their compensation and moved," said Ren Zhongping, a city housing official. "Wu was the only one we had to dismantle forcibly. She has the value of her house in her heart, but what she has in mind is not practical."
With the street so choked with onlookers that traffic began to back up, Ms Wu's brother, Wu Jian, began waving a newspaper above the crowd, pointing to pictures of Ms Wu's husband, a local martial arts champion.
"He's going into our building and will plant a flag there," Wu Jian announced.
Moments later, as the crowd began to thin, a Chinese flag appeared on the roof with a hand-painted banner that read: "A citizen's legal property is not to be encroached on."
And this from the Tasmanian Mercury newspaper:
A CHINESE man has gone to extremes to prove that his home in his castle.
In defiance of controversial new property laws in China, Yang Wu has refused to leave his house which now stands on a pillar of rock in the middle of a huge development site in the fastest growing city on earth.
Hundreds of sightseers visit the house daily and supporters have been supplying Mr Yang with food which he pulls up by a rope.
The house, scheduled for demolition in 2004 now stands alone, suspended high in the air in the centre of a large pit in the city of Chongqing in southwestern China.
The other 280 families in the area left their homes which were all demolished.
Despite court orders and offers of compensation, Mr Wu, a restaurant owner, has refused to budge.
His wife Ping Wu stands guard outside the barricade the developers have built around the house.
The couple stood defiant yesterday, the day scheduled by court order for their house's demolition, and said they are staying put.
"The house is still there," Mrs Wu said.
"My husband is inside, and will be there as long as it is."
Chongqing sits on a fork in the Yangtse river. Its population is growing by 500,000 a year -- possibly the fastest sustained expansion of any city in history.
Manufacturing industries are moving in, as they discover that labour costs are even cheaper here than elsewhere in China.
British Army uniforms are made in a factory nearby.
An area of land next to the railway was allocated to developers in 2004.
