"Lane" ancient Chinese characters "Lane Tang".
"Tang" is the main road in front of the ancient court or ancestral temple. This Chinese character appeared in the Book of Songs more than two thousand years ago. It had many meanings in ancient Chinese. Later, as a "road", this meaning was gradually diluted by history. In modern times, people can't remember the connection between the word "Tang" and architecture, so they use another interesting Chinese character "Tang" instead. "Tang" used to be a name for a room, which had little to do with roads and alleys. However, in modern Chinese, it is more closely related to architecture than "Tang" and homophonic with "Tang", so "Lane" has evolved into "Lane".
In fact, it is not only Shanghainese who call it "Lane", but also the Jiangnan area of China. However, the alley can be as famous as the hutong in Beijing, mainly because of the rise of a large number of alley houses in modern Shanghai.
In ancient China, the area divided by roads in the city was called Li Fang. Li Fang is usually a basic administrative unit, including houses, temples and official residences. Residential buildings are built by themselves, so the buildings in a square are different. The owner of a house is usually the user, and the ownership and use right are often integrated. This situation was almost without exception in China until the middle of19th century.
Specific naming, alley is called ×× alley or square, garden, village, village and even new village, garden, other industries, villas, etc. Like ancient Li Fang, Lane is a complex of many buildings, which are also built in residential areas divided by urban roads. But unlike Li Fang, every community has one or several alleys; The shape and structure of the single building of each lane are basically the same, generally using English multi-row type, and one row is usually about ten buildings. The combination of rows generally adopts determinant, and only a few of them are arranged according to local conditions and topography. In this new hutong, the space between rows of buildings is called hutong.
Early and late Shikumen
According to the statistics in the early 1950s, the number of houses in Shanghai Lane ranks first in China. There are about 9,000 lanes and about 200,000 residential units, including about 150 large lanes and 200 residential units. Alley-style houses account for about 65% of the total residential area in Shanghai, among which there are more old Shikumen houses and new Shikumen houses. The old Shikumen is named after its front is a closed door wall similar to a warehouse. Basically born out of traditional quadrangles and three-dimensional courtyards. Generally, each building has two floors, two floors and two floors, and the living area is 100 to more than 200 square meters, which is more suitable for large families. This kind of house is very popular because it doesn't occupy as much land as traditional houses, nor is it as expensive as European and American houses. But before and after the First World War, the family structure of Shanghai residents generally changed, and the old Shikumen dwellings gradually declined. This residential style is rare in Shanghai at present.
Xinshikumen
The new Shikumen residence was rebuilt from the old Shikumen, and was built in large quantities after 19 19 years. It was mainly changed to one floor and one bottom, and the number of living rooms was reduced to meet the needs of the disintegration of large social families and the emergence of small families with a lot of productive labor at that time. This is the most common type, which can almost be said to be a typical sample of Shanghai folk houses. Later, the new-style Lane residence focused on further defining the use functions, including living room, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, sanitary equipment and gas stove. The wall in front of the house is very low and there is a small yard. The appearance of the building tends to modern western style, which is suitable for citizens with richer economic income.
The width of hutong was generally only about three meters in the early Shikumen Lane residential group, but it was expanded to about four meters after the popularization of rickshaws. Later, due to the need to consider the entry and exit of cars, some new lanes were expanded to five or six meters. But this is by no means a common phenomenon, because for residents, enjoying such a spacious alley must be at the expense of high rent.
Overhead projection across the driveway
In order to make full use of space, Shanghai's alley buildings have two characteristics: pavilions and street buildings. The pavilion is located between the first floor and the second floor or between the second floor and the third floor, often above the kitchen and at the corner of the stairs. The room is low and cramped, and it is sultry in summer. Compared with this, this street building is a little better, but in the upper space of the alley (there are several in the alley), it seems to be suspended in the air, which is a bit weird.
A scene in an alley
The rapid development of alley life in Shanghai coincides with a large number of immigrants from all over the country flocking to Shanghai, which can be said to be a mixture of five parties, and the diversion of southern accent to northern accent. Many immigrants brought their original customs and lifestyles. They speak their hometown dialect, eat their hometown dishes and listen to their hometown operas. Shanghai Fang's lifestyle, which combines lifestyles from all directions, still maintains obvious life characteristics in the south of the Yangtze River. This is because Shanghai, after all, is located in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River Delta, which is obviously influenced by geography. Most of the citizens come from Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. The early old Shikumen and New Shikumen Lane dwellings were still born out of the traditional dwellings in the south of the Yangtze River. There are almost no public urinals in some alleys, and there are domestic toilets, which are the characteristics of Jiangnan area. Especially the toilet, as a sanitary ware, as long as you live in this alley, do as the Romans do, and every family will have it. Jiangnan area has always been densely populated, and the high population density in Shanghai is even more rare. Therefore, the alleys in the traditional areas of Jiangnan and most of the alleys in modern Shanghai are relatively narrow, with rows of residential buildings next to each other. Especially some low-standard houses in Shanghai Lane have small room area and few indoor functions. Many family activities, such as washing in the morning, washing rice and picking vegetables, repairing things and so on, are carried out in the alley. Therefore, the alley has become a lively public space, greatly expanding people's outdoor communication opportunities, and neighbors are often intimate and help each other. Work together, enjoy the cool and bask in the sun together; When you have nothing to do, it is inevitable to talk about Shan Hai Jing, which is short and long until there is a contradiction and a quarrel. These local characteristics with traditional flavor have been preserved to this day.
A scene in an alley
In old Shanghai, what kind of house you live in is often an important symbol to evaluate a person's social status. Living in the same alley, the living standards of residents are generally close, and the gap between the rich and the poor will not be great. This is because in the society where housing is commercialized, rent accounts for a considerable proportion of a family's expenditure and has become a symbol of a family's living standard. What kind of income we have, what kind of living standard we will live in, and what kind of alley we will live in. In some literary works and movies that reflect the life of Shanghai residents in those days, we can see that if we want to reflect the changes in the living conditions of a family, the most concise way is to explain that the family has moved again and again, and the move is getting better and better, or the move is getting worse. In the past 40 years in Shanghai, the housing in Lane has undergone fundamental changes compared with that of that year: the commodity color of housing has faded. First of all, the rent is low, and the proportion of rent to household expenses has dropped significantly; Secondly, the rent difference of Lane House with different standards and different qualities has narrowed. In this way, rent is no longer a sign of family living standards. Citizens living in the same alley or alley may have very different living standards; Some residents living in alleys with lower standards have a much higher standard of living than those living in alleys with higher standards. Therefore, the change of alley lifestyle is more obvious.
In the past ten years, since China implemented the reform and opening-up policy, the lifestyle of Shanghai Hutong with local flavor is quietly changing because many household appliances have entered the homes of ordinary people. There is a heater in winter, so you don't have to go out to bask in the sun; There are electric fans and even air conditioners in summer. Although the team enjoying the cool in the alley is still eye-catching, it is not as spectacular as before. After the popularization of refrigerators, you don't have to go to the market to buy food every day, and there is less conversation than rubbing your shoulders. Many residents have added modern family entertainment such as TV sets, video recorders, karaoke machines and video games, so people don't have to go to the alley to chat after meals.
Shanghainese who were the first to enter the alley have lived in that narrow space for more than 0/00 years. Now some people have walked out of hutongs or are moving into new high-rise buildings. Of course, nearly half of Shanghainese still live in alleys.
Those who leave bring memories, while those who don't leave face reality.
(Shu Ren is taken from "Shanghai Impression")