Dongcheng district’s hutong brickings continue to wreak havoc on local businesses – even months after construction crews have moved on. Several shops that survived the early-summer spate of citywide closures are now shuttering, due to a lack of business.
Many hutong residents felt relieved when White Tiger Village, and its neighboring third-wave coffee shop BigSmall Coffee, were not forced to close in the wake of renovations along Xiang’er Hutong - instead, their main entrances were bricked up, and fans could enter via tiny alleyways behind them.
But now, revenues are way down after a summer without front doors. Last weekend, BigSmall shuttered its hutong location. And according to Nathan Zhang, the owner of White Tiger Village, his restaurant is next. We caught up with him to ask about life after bricks. In his words:
…We actually might not be able to continue dealing with this, and we’re closing.
Probably this week, actually. But at first, how did we deal with it? We redesigned the new space ourselves, and made the best out of our situation. We styled the wall that’s been bricked, and we have a tiger stripe-print cloth that still allows for natural light to come in, but hides the brick wall outside – to make sure the shop isn’t depressing or dark or artificial.
…I feel like the violence towards businesses is escalating.
The day before yesterday, some authorities came to take a look.
…It’s violent and forceful, and unfair because we don’t get a say in it.
Businesses here are forced to go out of business, and we don’t have a voice in the situation. It’s very real.
…[Our neighboring] BigSmall Coffee got the same treatment.
They feel the same way about it too, but no one says it out loud. Even if you did, there’s no use because you can’t stop it. We complain about it behind closed doors.
…It’s not the same hutong – it’s not even a hutong anymore without these quirky businesses.
The hutong of the old days fostered a tight-knit community between Beijingers and expats – people from around the world. Expats could go to malls some fifteen minutes from here, and then they could come home here for a side of cold noodles or tofu slices and work. This hutong’s culture of international and local idiosyncrasies had been cultivated for years, and now they’re shutting it down. Now there’s no culture, like Nanluoguxiang. They might make this place commercial as well.
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