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 DA WEI DAVID WANG

URBAN
VILLAGES
IN THE
NEW
CHINA CASE
OF SHENZHEN
Urban Villages in the New China
 Da Wei David Wang

Urban Villages in the

New China
Case of Shenzhen
Da Wei David Wang
Institute of Urban Governance
Institute of Contemporary Chinese Politics
Shenzhen University
Shenzhen, Guangdong, China

ISBN 978-1-137-50425-8 ISBN 978-1-137-50426-5 (eBook)

DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-50426-5

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016956811

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the
publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to
the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made.

Cover illustration: Cover design by Samantha Johnson

Printed on acid-free paper

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature

The registered company is Nature America Inc.
The registered company address is: 1 New York Plaza, New York, NY 10004, U.S.A.
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First I thank my family, who have given me encouragement over many

years in my academic pursuits—it is to them that his book is dedicated.
Secondly, I would like to thank the urban villages’ residents, both the
original villagers and the migrants who made my research possible.
Thirdly, I extend thanks to Shenzhen University’s School of Management
and its Institute for Contemporary Chinese Politics for providing me the
time and space to continue research. Lastly, I thank the city of Shenzhen.
Despite my many minor criticisms from time to time, I am fiercely proud
of this city. For me at least, this city and its urban villages offer the greatest
hope for China’s future.

December 2015 Da Wei David Wang

v
 CONTENTS

1 Urban Villages in Words and Senses 1

2 The Origin of Shenzhen’s Urban Village: Policies

and Backgrounds 25

3 The Villages and Shenzhen City: History, Transition,

and Coexistence 43

4 Migrant City and Migrant Villages 71

5 Urban Village Inc. 91

6 Urban Renewal and the Rise of Shenzhen’s

Real Estate Developers 109

7 Stereotypes and Self-Government 125

8 Urban Villages in China: A Regional Comparison 141

vii
viii CONTENTS

9 Conclusion 163

Notes on Interviewees 181

Bibliography 183

Index 197
 GLOSSARY OF CHINESE AND OTHER
NON-ENGLISH TERMS

Banzi ⨝ᆀ Leadership circle

Bao Gong Tou वᐕཤ Construction team leader
Bei Piao े┲ Floating north, commonly refers to
young migrants seeking work in Beijing
Chai ᣶ To demolish
Chaiqian ᣶䗱 Demolition and Relocation
Chaiqianhu ᣶䗱ᡧ Homes to be demolished
Chengzhongcun ෾ѝᶁ Urban Village
Chengbiancun ෾䗩ᶁ Villages on city borders
Chengguan ෾㇑ City administrative units
Chengshibing ෾ᐲ⯵ ‘Urban Disease,’ a metaphor in
Mainland China describing problems
in urban planning and zoning in China
Cheng Xiang Er Yuan Hua ෾ґҼ‫ॆݳ‬ Urban Rural Dualization
Chuang da hai 䰟བྷ⎧ ‘Bravely explore the sea,’ a Cultural
Revolution-era slogan encouraging
fishermen to increase production
Chuangyebanࡋъᶯ A stock exchange for start-up
technology companies in Shenzhen
Chun yun ᱕䘀 Mass migration of migrants back to
their rural homes, often by train
Chuantong Xiaonong Yishi Ր㔏ሿߌ᜿䇶 ‘Small peasant mentality,’ an ideological
stereotype of peasantry
Citang ⾐า Ancestral hall
Cun ᶁ Village
Cungufengongsi ᶁ㛑ԭ‫ޜ‬ਨ Village-owned joint-stock companies

ix
x GLOSSARY OF CHINESE AND OTHER NON-ENGLISH TERMS

Cunluo danwei zhi ᶁ㩭অսࡦ Village work unit system

Cunji ᶁ㉽ Village origin or identity
Cunwei Banzi ᶁင⨝ᆀ Cadre governing body or leadership
team
Cunweihui ᶁငՊ The village committee
Cun Jiti ᶁ䳶փ Village collective
Daoban ⴇ⡸ A pirated copy
Da dao niugui sheshen ᢃ‫ق‬⢋公㳷⾎ ‘Defeat the ox and snake demons,’
a popular political slogan during the
Cultural Revolution
Dagongmei ᢃᐕ࿩ Working sister
Desakota Indonesian term for village-city
Dingzihu 䪹ᆀᡧ Nail Residents, tenants or property
owners who refuse to evacuate during
the urban renewal process
Ernai Ҽྦ ‘Second wife’ or concubine
Er Shi Zu Ҽц⾆ Someone who is good for nothing
and lives off family wealth
Fa Bu Ze Zhong ⌅н䍓Շ ‘The law cannot punish people en
masse,’ a common Chinese
expression
Feidi 伎ൠ Exclave
Fen ࠶ One cent, one hundredth of one
Chinese yuan. In addition, it is
sometimes used as a measurement
unit of land area as one tenth of one
Chinese Mu (660 square meters)
Gao Suzhi 儈㍐䍘 ‘High quality’ as in personnel
Gemeinschaft German term for a tight-knit
village-like community
Geng Lou 㙅ᾬ Farming of buildings
Gongfen ᐕ࠶ Work point
Guan nian 㿲ᘥ Views or way of thinking
Guanlichu ㇑⨶༴ An office that keeps a record of people
entering the residential building
Guomingdang ഭ≁‫ފ‬ The ruling Nationalist Party of China
(1911–1949)
Haigui ⎧ᖂ/⎧嗏 ‘Sea turtles,’ a nickname for a
foreign-educated returnee in China
Hexieshehui ઼䉀⽮Պ Harmonious society, a nationwide
political campaign advocating social
harmony among different social strata
 GLOSSARY OF CHINESE AND OTHER NON-ENGLISH TERMS xi

Huogen ⾨ṩ The root of all problems

Huitouhua or Weitouhua എཤ䈍/തཤ䈍 A local dialect in Shenzhen
Hukou ᡧਓ Household Registration
Ji ding xian shi ᰒᇊ⧠ᇎ Recognized reality
Jiedao 㺇䚃 Streets
Jiedaoban 㺇䚃࣎ The street office, an administration
unit in the Chinese city
Juweihui ትငՊ Residential committee
Jin ᯔ Half a kilogram
Jiucheng gaizao ᰗ෾᭩䙐 Restructuring of old urban sectors
Jiugaiban ᰗ᭩࣎ An abbreviation for ‘old city
restructuring office’
Juweihui ትငՊ Residential committee
Kampung Village-town in Malaysia
Kejiaren/Hakka ᇒᇦӪ A Han sub-ethnic group in southern
China with a large population in
Shenzhen
Lao San Pian 㘱йㇷ Three Old Essays: ‘To Serve the
People,’ ‘Study Norman Bethune,’
and ‘The Fool Moves Mountains’
Laoxiang 㘱ґ Hometown people
Laoxiangzhen 㘱ґ䭷 A community inhabited by migrants
from similar geographical origins
Liumin ⍱≁ Roaming peasant
Luanjian ҡᔪ Rampant construction
Mazu ྸ⾆ Sometimes called Tianhou, this is a
Chinese folk religion deity, thought
to be the patron saint of sailors
Minan 䰭ই Southern Fujian Province
Moshi ⁑ᔿ Model
Mangliu ⴢ⍱ The blind roaming wave
Paifang ⡼ൺ Memorial arch
Pencai ⳶㨌 A large bowl of slow-cooked food, a
form of traditional feast in Shenzhen
Qian 䗱 To move
Qiangjian ᣒᔪ Rushed building, a form of informal
construction by urban villagers to
garner further compensation
Qiaoxiang ‫ט‬ґ Hometown of large overseas Chinese
communities
Qu ४ Urban district
Rouliqiu Ḅ࣋⨳ Tai Chi Ball exercise
xii GLOSSARY OF CHINESE AND OTHER NON-ENGLISH TERMS

Renda Ӫབྷ The People’s Congress

Rukun Good Neighborly Relations in
Malaysian
Sanwurenyuan йᰐӪઈ Chinese abbreviation for people
without the three forms of urban
registration
Shanzhai ኡመ Pirated versions
Shangshanxiaxiang кኡлґ Youth movement during the Cultural
Revolution
Shenzhenxu ␡ൣ໏ The origin of the name Shenzhen,
a deep ditch in Baoan County
Shi ᐲ City
Sijiu ഋᰗ The ‘four olds’: old Customs,
Culture, Habits, and Ideas, as in
Bo Sijiu, destroying the four olds,
a Cultural Revolution-era political
campaign
Suzhi ㍐䍘 Human quality
Taojin ␈䠁 Gold prospecting
Tao gangchao 䘳⑟▞ ‘Fleeing Hong Kong wave,’ meaning
large numbers of people fleeing to
Hong Kong from the mainland at a
certain period
Tequ Fazhan Gongsi ⢩४ਁኅ‫ޜ‬ਨ Special Economic Zone
Development Company
Tu ൏ Earthiness, a generalized character
of the Chinese countryside and rural
peasantry
Tudi zheng bei ju ൏ൠᮤ༷ተ Land management bureau
Tu zhu ൏㪇 Aborigines
Wai tao feng ཆ䘳仾 Fleeing phenomenon
Wei jian 䘍ᔪ Illegal construction
Yuan cun min ৏ᶁ≁ Original villagers
Xian xing fan ge ming ⧠㹼৽䶙ભ An active counter-revolutionary
Xiao Chan Quan Fang ሿӗᵳᡯ Minor property house
Xiao Chengzhenlun ሿ෾䭷䇪 Small Town Theory
Xi jiao shang tian ⍇㝊к⭠ ‘Washed feet and went above the field,’
a common saying referring to rural
peasantry adopting to urbanization or
industrialization
Xiangshen ґ䭷 Gentry
 GLOSSARY OF CHINESE AND OTHER NON-ENGLISH TERMS xiii

Yang ⌻ ‘ Oceanic,’ an adjective describing

things Western and modern, a
common reference to Western styles
Yanda ѕᢃ ‘Strike hard’ public security campaign
Yi cun yi ce аᶁаㆆ ‘One village, one strategy’
Yiwulaodong ѹ࣑ࣣࣘ Volunteer work
Yixiantian а㓯ཙ ‘One line of sky,’ describing the distance
between urban village buildings
Yizu 㲱᯿ ‘Ant tribe,’ a term describing recently
graduated college students with
unstable employment, often living
together in urban villages
Yizucun 㲱᯿ᶁ ‘Ant Tribe Village,’ an urban village
with large number of ant tribe
students
Zading ⹨䪹 Crushing the nails
Zang, luan, cha 㜿ҡᐞ Dirty, chaotic, substandard
Zaofan 䙐৽ To rebel
Zaofan zuzhi 䙐৽㓴㓷 Rebellious organizations, radical
political organizations during the
Cultural Revolution
Zhaijidi ᆵสൠ Personal plot of land
Zhejiangcun ⎉⊏ᶁ Zhejiang Migrant Village
Zhengxie ᭯ॿ Chinese People’s Political
Consultative Council
Zhili ⋫⨶ Regulate or Governance
Zhiqing ⸕䶂 Sending down urban youth to rural
villages during the Cultural
Revolution
Zhong ᘐ Loyal
Zhongdiangong 㓸⛩ᐕ Hourly paid nanny or home-help
by appointment
Zhongziwu ᘐᆇ㡎 Loyalty dance
Zhongzige ᘐᆇⅼ Loyalty song
Zongzu ᇇ᯿ Chinese form of Lineage, which is
patrilineal
 CHAPTER 1

Urban Villages in Words and Senses

The definition of urban villages in Shenzhen or in China in general can-

not be fitted neatly into written words, much like their existence cannot
be neatly fitted into cities. Urban villages in Shenzhen are actually clumsy
combinations of memories, senses, and experiences. They are made up of
human beings and architectural forms. They inspire different conceptions,
that vary from person to person. The villages represent completely differ-
ent concepts to different people living within or beyond the borders of the
urban village. Some live in the villages out of necessity but would rather
live elsewhere if they could afford it. Some rather enjoy their lives in the
villages and would even miss them were they to leave for somewhere else.
Some people are born in urban villages. As for those who live outside the
villages, the concepts of urban villages tend to be much simpler. They can
usually be summarized into a few adjectives. Some with zero training in
architecture would say that urban villages are ugly. Some would comment
on the untidiness in urban villages, hence calling them dirty. And then
there are some who would describe the urban village as problematic, para-
sitic, and dangerous. These people fear urban villages or they may simply
have different ideas in mind for those areas, arising from self-interest or
ideological zeal. More than anything, the urban villages are parallel worlds
to the mainstream urban society of Shenzhen. Sometimes, urban villages
are located right next to some of the most grandiose and affluent shopping
malls or luxurious apartments. Maybe this is further proof of the socialistic
nature of urban China, that the rich and poor are still not so segregated— in

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016 1

D.W.D. Wang, Urban Villages in the New China,
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-50426-5_1
2 D.W.D. WANG

contrast to some of the ranchero communities in Southern California or

gated communities elsewhere. Often one can sit at one of the fancy coffee
houses, be it Starbucks or one of the other popular international coffee
chain that are so numerous in Shenzhen nowadays, and observe the cha-
otic yet lively scenes across the street in the urban villages.1 The residents
of the urban village, whether migrants or millionaire original villagers in
casual wear might also sit at a Hunanese rice noodle shop or one of those
Hong Kong cafés (cha can ting), calmly looking back at those sitting in
the coffee houses. They are rather comfortable where they are. The urban
villages have a clumsy divide between the rich and the poor, the migrants
and the long-term residents in Shenzhen. The border between the world
of urban villages and mainstream Shenzhen is totally open. Many of the
technical nouveau riche elites who work at the high-rise office buildings
on the main street will from time to time venture into the urban villages
for hometown snacks.
Philosophically, words tend to lose their meaning and fail to capture
the full concept of urban villages. Called chengzhongcun in Chinese, it
is literally translated into English slightly out of order as ‘city center vil-
lage’ or ‘city with village within.’ While some scholars insist on using the
term ‘village-in-city,’ others would prefer ‘urban village’ for its simplicity.
Urban villages are something to be experienced with the bodily senses.
They always have something surprising to offer, beyond the theories and
photographs from scholars and observers. Quite simply, the urban villages
in Shenzhen are both the buildings and the people. In Shenzhen, and
in China in general, urban villages are some of the freest and most open
spaces in a city. It is far easier to gain access to urban villages than the ID
card swapping office, or the gated residential apartment blocks which are
very common nowadays among China’s urban middle class. Sometimes
one will venture into urban villages without even noticing. The urban vil-
lages of Shenzhen are often located right next to some of the city’s proud-
est consumerist constructions, the great malls, things that are increasingly
molding Chinese cities into a similar ‘formula.’ It is no coincidence that
the great new shopping malls are always located next to urban villages;
they were always built partially on top of them, on villages’ land, acquired
at different stages of urban expansion or urban renewal.

1
Shenzhen city has close to 100 Starbucks, and is likely one of the friendliest cities in China
to international coffee houses. There are also numerous other brands that are spreading
throughout the city.
 URBAN VILLAGES IN WORDS AND SENSES 3

The year 2015 was the 35th anniversary of the launching of the
Shenzhen Special Economic Zone (SEZ). This city has grown and coex-
isted with its villages for all these years. Shenzhen used to be known in
China incorrectly as a just small fishing village. There is the very clichéd
story of how a small fishing village turned into a metropolis, which kind
of reminds people of the founding myth of Singapore, rising from third
world to first world, from kampung to smart city.2 However, there are a
few crucial differences between the urbanizing stories of Singapore and
Shenzhen. First, Singapore has almost no kampungs left, other than a
handful for tourism purposes, while Shenzhen is still full of urban vil-
lages. Second, Shenzhen is much bigger than Singapore in both land and
population. In simpler terms, Shenzhen is twice as big as Hong Kong, and
Hong Kong is twice as big as Singapore.
For a very long time I have lived my life around these urban villages.
My residence sometimes directly overlooks them. I moved to Shenzhen as
a teenager following my parents’ job relocation. My father was here first in
the late 1980s, being one of the early technical migrants to this city. When
he first arrived, he was already assigned a dormitory-like studio apartment.
If I remember correctly, that place had no hot water. In about two years
we moved to a place named Hongli Village, which is not an urban village.
It was one of the early danwei (work unit) compounds in Shenzhen. Then
we moved to the bordering area of Mu Tou Long village, which is a major
urban village in Luohu district. Next we relocated to the bordering area
of Shangsha Village in Futian District. Now, I lived next to one the largest
‘untouched’ urban villages in Shenzhen Baishi Zhou, literally translated as
‘white stone sand bar.’ And my place of work is next to another well assim-
ilated urban village in the Nanshan District—Guimiao Xincun (Guimiao
New Village or Osmanthus Temple New Village). My life in Shenzhen has
always been next to urban villages across the three original SEZ districts
of Shenzhen, Luohu, Futian, and Nanshan. There must be some faithful
coincidence or Yuan fen (the Chinese loose translation of karma) that I
always live next to an urban village. More likely, there are simply too many
urban villages in Shenzhen to escape them. After 35 years, the urban vil-
lages are still thriving in this rapidly developing city.
Growing up, I had heard numerous stories about the villages, often
resembling folk tales that are used to scare little children. The urban vil-
lages are like the dark forests in the fairy tales, mysterious, attractive, yet

2
Malay word for village.
4 D.W.D. WANG

forbidden. There are always stories of illegal activities within the villages,
be it gangs, prostitution, or drugs. Interestingly, they were just outside
one’s door, by door I mean the main gates of the well-monitored urban
commercialized residential apartment blocks. In those earlier days, the
phrase ‘urban villages’ (chengzhongcun) had not yet entered my vocabu-
lary. I simply referred to them by their location name or their Chinese
categorizing name cun, the Chinese word for village. The notion that
somehow there were villages next to urban main streets never seemed
strange to me. It was only much later that I learned that there are fun-
damental differences between the Chinese concepts of village and city,
and a dualistic divide between them. Now I have to teach some of these
concepts to my students. All things in China are essentially divided into
the realms of urban and rural, industrial and agrarian, urban hukou-
holding citizens and rural agrarian hukou holders. The village and the
city are also strictly separate things. The term ‘urban village’ is a learned
term for me. Ever since I discovered this term, I began to see these vil-
lages and Shenzhen city differently. In this case, words create borders;
they make definitions and distinctions. Those living within and without
the borders of the urban villages began to be perceived differently by
me. I discovered that some of my friends were urban villagers, and that
most are not. I began to develop an almost kinship-like feeling for some
of the villages. In the Chinese media and popular mindsets of the new
urban middle class, the urban villages remained areas to be avoided,
much like the “dangerous” ghettos of Western cities. The sharp contra-
diction between how urban villages are widely portrayed and my per-
sonal experience always fascinates me.

DEFINING URBAN VILLAGES

Research on urban villages is a relative new area of study for mainland
Chinese scholars. It was only in the mid-1980s that urban villages across
China were first researched and analyzed. Chinese scholars are fascinated
by the urban village because of its particular grayish nature, that somehow
this is a land not fully controlled by the urban authorities. There is always
something new about the urban villages. The Chinese government at local
city level also had a hard time dealing with the urban village largely due to
ambiguous legal circumstance during transition in jurisdiction from rural
to urban. Hence, the grayish nature of the urban villages acted very much
like a protection aura.
 URBAN VILLAGES IN WORDS AND SENSES 5

Many scholars have focused on the migrant aspects of urban villages.

In the late 1980s, Chinese scholars in research teams started to conduct
sociological and anthropological field work in the villages. In most cases,
this field work did not penetrate deep into the villages. There was very
much a case of the Hawthorne effect at work in that the villagers were
very aware of their presences. In most cases, the urban villagers, espe-
cially the original villagers, have refused them deep access. Until recently,
research into urban village companies and original villager communities
have been rare. In the early days, many Chinese scholars had a rather
confused concept of urban villages. Many of them even considered the
Zhejiang Cun (Zhejiang villages) on the outskirts of Beijing to be urban
villages. These earlier settlements were really only concentrated residential
areas for migrants from Zhejiang province. They could be on the outskirts
or in a suburb village of Beijing, but they could also be simple factory flats
outside Beijing’s domestic Nan Yuan Airport.
Shenzhen’s urban villages and those of the Pearl River Delta in general
were a category of their own, which was formed by the combination of
certain human elements and forms of self-constructed buildings. Some
local Shenzhen scholars, such as Wang Ruyuan (2004), have divided and
categorized the urban villages into levels and types according to residential
density. In the wider region, Chen Yi (1999) and Li Peilin have subdivided
the urban villages according to their forms and how they are positioned
within the city. Li is a famous scholar/official (the chief of the prestigious
China Social Science Academy, CSSA) and likely the person to have coined
the word chengbiancun (‘city border village’) in China. Some scholars
have divided the urban villages according to their development level, call-
ing them ‘infantile, adult,’ and other humanized adjectives. Others have
labeled the different villages according to their function or for what they
are known. Sometimes, these analyses have enhanced the very biased view
of urban villages. Many of these unconsciously lead to stereotypes such as
‘concubine village’ or ‘cocaine village.’ Of course, there are also positive
stereotypes such as ‘young intellectual village’ or ‘petty bourgeois village’
(xiaoqingxincun).
Many Western scholars have tried to apply existing concepts to the
urban village. In some of her travels across China Dorothy Solinger has
mentioned various ‘shanties’ in the Chinese city which are highly likely to
be urban villages, based on her description. Her description of the shan-
ties is widely cited by many Western scholars including Mike Davis in his
Planet of Slums (2006). Empirical observation would lead many to equate
6 D.W.D. WANG

the urban village the the slums or shanties in many third world countries.
This is likely a mild case of orientalism at work, applying a singular concept
to all developing countries. Surely not all areas of self-built informal hous-
ing in the developing world are slums. In fact, the very term ‘third world’
or ‘developing world’ is hardly applicable to China anymore. It is almost
a suzhi-like categorization at national level. China’s government at the
central and local levels is much stronger than most developing countries’.
This is a case in point made by a researcher at China’s CSSA (China Social
Science Academy) Latin America Research Division when I asked her to
compare and contrast Latin American cities and Chinese cities. At least
according to her, China’s absence of slums or barrios was due to strong
government presence and control.
Then there is T.G. McGee’s theory of desakota, which is actually very
popular among urbanism scholars in China.3 Scholars following McGee’s
schema conclude that the Chinese urban development model and emerg-
ing urban sprawl are following the pattern of Indonesian rural-urban met-
ropolitan regions on the island of Java. McGee’s desakota model has been
directly applied to the Pearl River Delta region and the Yangtze River
Delta region. Urban Village are not desakotas. In the categorization of
Desakotas, many of the urban villages that are connected to the city have
been mistaken for rural village when one of the fundamental distinctions
of urban villages is the lack of agrarian activities. There are no more farms
in urban villages and the only crops that people have grown are buildings.
Scholars even disagree on the English name of urban villages. Some
point out that the English usage of urban villages predates that of China.
It is not known when exactly the term ‘urban village’ first emerged.
Herbert Gans published The Urban Villagers in 1962, about the urban
villages in the West End of Boston, Massachusetts. These are village-like
neighborhoods with high concentrations of European immigrants (Gans
1982). The German, Jewish, Polish, and the Italian neighborhoods in
various North American cities were sometimes historically referred to as
urban villages (Wolf 1980; Gans 1982). Hence there is German Village,
Germantown, Little Italy, Chinatown, Little Saigon, and other similar
ethnic or immigrant urban neighborhoods. The original American urban
villages might be still very village-like due to the make-up of their early
immigrant community. Many of those migrants were fresh-off-the-boat
immigrants who were mostly from farms in Europe. Many came directly as

3
Indonesian for village-city.
 URBAN VILLAGES IN WORDS AND SENSES 7

a result of crop failure, such as the large percentage of Irish migrants in the
mid-to-late eighteenth century during the Potato Famine. Due to early
language adaptation difficulty, many of the European migrants, much like
the later Chinese migrants, lived in concentrated clusters or congregated
into neighborhoods.
Then there are the urban villages of Britain, a concept which likely has
its origin in the garden city movement of Sir Ebenezer Howard in the
first three decades of the twentieth century. Howard’s garden city concept
was a reaction to the widespread ‘urban diseases’ of the late nineteenth
century, with British cities surging forward utilizing all the marvels of the
industrial revolution. British cities such as London or Manchester were
becoming some of the largest and most densely populated cities in Europe
and the world. Howard wanted cities to be like the British countryside,
small semi-rural towns with pastures and the view of Victorian gardens.
The population limit was strictly advised to be kept at the level of a quarter
of a million. Howard’s garden city movement had influence well into the
latter half of the twentieth century under various names. Building upon
Howard’s concepts, a British version of the urban village was formed.
These were sparsely populated semi-rural small towns. One key distinc-
tion was that British urban villages still had an aristocratic feel, with open
land and green pastures reserved for the elite, feudal landowning class.
To live in the countryside or a village was to be admired. One must say
that British urban villages also reminded people—at least in part—of the
great escape to suburbia by the upper middle class in some of the great
American cities such as Los Angeles. The British kind of urban village was
something certainly not built for migrants or new immigrants from the
Continent and the rest of the world. These urban villages were strictly for
the elite among elites.
In more recent times, there has even been a new modernist layer of
meaning to the concept of the urban village, which is particularly popu-
lar among new urbanism planners and theorists. According to them, the
modern form of urban village is a planned community that is walkable,
convenient, and environmentally sustainable (Grant 2005, p. 125). It
is a community that distinguishes itself from the type of rigid business
atmosphere of downtown urban areas or the kind of highly fractured sub-
urbia where people rely on cars to conduct their daily commute. This
kind of ‘urban village’ may already be on the blueprints of some Chinese
urban planners, but at present the use of ‘urban village’ in this book is
exclusively with reference to the ones that have undergone rural-to-urban
8 D.W.D. WANG

transformation. There are many obvious distinctions between the histori-

cal urban villages in the West and China’s urban villages. Only a few histor-
ical Western urban villages have undergone rural-to-urban transformation.
Most of the American urban villages were urban ethnic neighborhoods.
In the Asia Pacific region, many informal urban settlements have
proved to be remarkably similar to the urban villages in China. The one
form that is particular interesting is the kampung of Indonesia, Malaysia,
and Singapore. Kampung means ‘small village or town’ in the Malay lan-
guage. In their original form, the kampungs are largely rural. Many kam-
pungs used to be located on the banks of the Singapore River. In fact,
one of them was turned into a tourist site. With rapid urbanization in
Southeast Asian regions, the kampungs in and near the city, either histori-
cal or recently formed by squatter migrant communities, were for a long
time treated as slums. In its modern sense, kampungs are in fact small-
scale self-constructed neighborhoods by historical, often ethnically diverse
migrants over generations within the city limits (Evers and Korff 2000).
The residents of the kampung, much like the slum residents, often have
no legal papers for their properties. They are frequently victims of urban
renewal and real estate development projects, as they have no legal claim
on the land. Many scholars have pointed out that the kampung often bears
the association of being a village (Evers and Korff 2000, p. 229); they are
actually seen as a sort of urban village. However, they are not constituted
by an original or historical village community. Instead, due to the largely
rural origins of the migrants, they form a kind of close-knit community
in their self-constructed neighborhood. The sense of social harmony and
good neighborly relations, or rukun in Indonesian, is emphasized in the
kampungs (Sullivan, cited in Evers and Korff 2000, p. 229). In fact, the
residents of kampungs are able to form a very strong sense of collective
identity and belonging within their neighborhoods. One scholar com-
ments: ‘in the Kampungs ties of residential proximity seemed to be of
greater importance than ties of kin’ (Jellinek, cited in Evers and Korff
2000, p. 230). There is a powerful feeling about the neighborhood,
despite the often substandard constructions. In this sense, it is very much
like the urban village in that kampungs blended in smoothly with the rest
of the city and provided convenience to their low-income populations.
However, in the urban history of Southeast Asia, the kampung was an
unequivocal hindrance to the advancement of high modernist state plan-
ning. One Singaporean scholar has suggested it was from the great kam-
pung fires that the Singaporean government ‘[has] managed to obtain the
 URBAN VILLAGES IN WORDS AND SENSES 9

public imagination in the making of modern Singapore’ (Oh 2009, p. 4).

Similar attitudes can also be found in Shenzhen where the urban villages
were often seen as a hindrance.

SLUMS, SHANTIES, AND URBAN VILLAGES

Many scholars have linked the urban villages of China with the slums of
the developing world. Mike Davis and China expert Dorothy Solinger
are just two of the better-known contemporary scholars who indirectly
link urban villages of China with slums and shanty towns. Davis sees
‘the return of capitalism’ in China since the economic reforms of the
1980s as being the main cause for the dramatic increase in the number
of slums and shanty towns in China (Davis 2006, p. 60). He cites the
2003 UN-HABITAT statistics that suggest roughly 37.8 % of China’s
urban population is slum dwellers, which amounts to a population of
193.8 million people (Davis 2006, p. 24). Such statistics are simply too
far-fetched. However, if one suggests that 38 % of China’s urban dwellers
are urban village residents then such a figure is more believable. In the
city of Shenzhen alone there are more than six million people living in the
urban villages out of a growing total urban population beyond fourteen
million. Dorothy Solinger once described the shanty towns in China and
Shenzhen as: ‘squeezed into shacks in Beijing, where one toilet served
more than six thousand people; of a shantytown in Shenzhen hous-
ing fifty shelters, in which hundreds subsisted without running water’
(Solinger 1999, p. 121). It is not known where exactly Solinger was refer-
ring to, but since Shenzhen does not exactly have shanty towns then it is
highly likely she was referring to urban villages, possibly the ones on the
outskirts that are significantly poorer than the ones in Shenzhen’s inner
districts. Although there are many visual similarities, ‘slum’ is not exactly
the right word to describe the urban village, for the simple reason that,
although the urban villages are sites of large amounts of informal and
semi-illegal housing, the land deeds are held by the urban villagers as col-
lectives. One should not simply suggest that if it is different to Western-
style suburbia style housing then it is a shack or shanty. Some of the urban
villages in Shenzhen might look like shacks on the outside but they are
complete with running water, electricity, and toilets. There are no inva-
sive squatters. Most migrants have to pay rent to stay. There is simply
no free place to live in Shenzhen except parks or 24-hour McDonalds.
However, frequently, the urban villages are described as slum-like because
10 D.W.D. WANG

of their shabby appearance in relative terms, when compared with new

apartment buildings on the main streets.
One of the most easily made assumptions about the urban villages is
that they are just slums with Chinese characteristics. Indeed, there are
plenty of visual clues that lead people to think that way. Even Chinese
scholars themselves cannot resist the lure of oversimplification and just
call them slums. Sometimes, when explaining things to English speak-
ers, they have a tendency towards slips of tongue and simply describe the
urban villages as slums. In one academic conference, when a mainland
Chinese scholar was trying to explain the appearance of the urban village
to non-Chinese scholars, this particular scholar used the classic metaphors
right out of the era of Louis XIV, suggesting that urban villages lack ‘fresh
air, sun, and open space.’ Hence the urban villages are dirty, squalid, and
unsightly just like the Parisian slums before Baron Haussmann’s bold
moves. It should be pointed out here that Haussmann, much like Le
Corbusier, is still highly respected in China. Interestingly, Haussmann and
his actions were against the spirit of the Paris Commune, the first socialis-
tic self-governing urban political entity in the world. Haussmann’s urban
renewals in part provoked the Paris Uprisings and his later urban plan-
ning were in fact attempts to prevent future uprisings. Yet, this counter-
revolutionary instinct of Haussmann is rarely considered in China. Mostly
he is remembered for his grand urban renewal achievements. One could
say that this is clearly a case of reverse racism, where foreign people or
ideas are often only remembered in China for their positive attributes.
If we must talk about the shanties in China, then the closest thing is
Penghu, not the urban villages. Many things in China do not share the
same definition as in other country, regardless of development level. For
example, the concept of Penghu qu is often translated as shanty in English,
yet, in China it is an entirely different thing than in most developing
countries. In China, the concept of Penghu qu largely refers to depleted
housing. The building quality is so poor and outdated that they risk
endangering their residents. Even in Premier Li Keqiang’s annual report
to the People’s Representative Congress on 5 March 2014, there is a sec-
tion on the reform of Penghu qu. These are the closest thing to slums in
Chinese cities; however, in most cases they are small and scattered on the
outskirts. The current Chinese concept of Penghu qu refers to the hastily
constructed dormitories put up during the rapid state-driven industrial-
ization process when many factory workers’, miners’, lumbermen’s resi-
dences were built next to the sites of their work (Du 2012). Hence, the
 URBAN VILLAGES IN WORDS AND SENSES 11

state often feels that it has a responsibility to improve the Penghu qu as

part of the ‘People’s hearts and minds’ project. China’s Penghu qu were
essentially created by the state during its rapid industrialization process,
mostly in the pre-reform era prior to 1980s.
It is interesting to notice that there were historical shanties in China dur-
ing the semi-colonial period. These share both the characteristics of global
slums and the current urban village in China. Now extinct, these Peng Hu
were traditionally founded in Shanghai and other colonial entrepôts on
the coast created as the result of the various unfair treaties bestowed upon
late Qing China by mostly European imperial powers. The disruption of
China’s national sovereignty by external forces had created vacuums in
urban authority at the local level all across China. Hence, real shanties and
slums were formed in the great late semi-colonial cities across China, such
as Shanghai, Tianjin, or Wuhan. These took two forms: either self-built
informal complexes, or massive blocks of buildings controlled by slum-
lord-like characters straight out of a description of Victorian Manchester,
where the slumlords run the slums like a business operation. There is one
similarity that these historical Peng Hus share with contemporary urban
villages: they were also populated by rural-to-urban migrants who wanted
to settle in the city. Hence the great rural-to-urban migration drive is not a
unique phenomenon in the People’s Republic of China after the economic
reforms and opening up policy. It started much earlier, in the semi-colo-
nial era of late Qing, since the Opium Wars of the mid-nineteenth century,
which is suggested by some as the beginning of modern China. Migrants
started to flow to the different colonial ports to earn a living, largely due
to necessity. Like the Irish in mid-eighteenth-century North America,
many Chinese migrants in the mid-nineteenth century were escaping war
and famine created by the political chaos in the late Qing period. The
colonial ports provided shelter and extraterritorial protections to much
of the coastal population. The Taiping rebellion that killed approximately
sixteen million people drove many to settle in Shanghai and Hong Kong,
so did the famines in Northern China that happened at about the same
time. During this period, the Subei people came to Shanghai to work as
coolie and rickshaw drivers.4 The desperate people in those eras formed
real slums and shanties in the colonial port cities. The large percentage of

4
The Subei people are from northern Jiangsu province and were treated with great scorn
in Shanghai in recent times. The Subei people are a symbol of prejudice in urban China in
recent Chinese history.
12 D.W.D. WANG

the population being migrants was essentially the only similarity between
the current urban village and those historical shanties.
The urban villages are definitely not slums. In fact slums rarely existed
in the New China founded in 1949. From time to time, one reads news
stories about ‘land invaders’ who have self-constructed buildings in for-
ests or unclaimed lands on the outskirts of cities. For example, in early
2015, some local migrant gardeners gathered together and created an off-
grid residential complex on the outskirts of Shenzhen, deep in the forests
(Zhou 2015). The residential complex is complete with farms, generators,
and wells. The people who live there use the land to plant flowers and sell
them to the markets in Shenzhen city and make a good living out of it.
It is remote and has very little urban comfort but there is no rent. These
types of stories can be found in just about every region of China, however,
they are mere scattered phenomena. In most cases, these real land invaders
would not remain for many months after the media reports. Hence, they
are not like the favelas or the barrios of Latin America.
In The City and the Grassroots (1983), Manuel Castells described the
squatters and the builders of informal buildings as the creators of the city,
and the state as their ultimate counterforce, which seeks to control and
limit them. Hence, the ‘slums’ and other self-built informal buildings
have been a form of collective resistance by the grassroots. Certainly, the
urban villagers are not squatters or land invaders, invasores as in the Latin
American context of Castells. The original villagers are the legitimate own-
ers of their land, through pre-People’s Republic historical claims. Their
claim as a collective body is also ratified by the Land Administration Law
of the People’s Republic China. By contrast, as Janice Perlman (1976)
observed in Rio de Janeiro: ‘no one in favela or any official agency know
for sure who owned the land.’ The original villagers are collective owners
of the land under the urban villages. However, they are also in a sense sim-
ilar to the grassroots builders of Castells because many of their self-built
buildings are illegal and violate numerous local government policies and
building or construction regulations. The self-built buildings of the urban
villagers house most of the city’s migrant influx. Half of Shenzhen’s actual
residential population of fourteen million lives in the villages, which is the
equivalent of the entire population of Hong Kong. Hence, in numerous
ways, the urban village represents informality and the property is somewhat
illegal, what many kindly described as ‘gray property’ due to violations of
zoning and construction regulations. The Shenzhen City Government, as
a representative of state power, is definitely against the natural outgrowth
 URBAN VILLAGES IN WORDS AND SENSES 13

of grassroots buildings. The urban villages have breached the authority of

the city government on numerous occasions. However, the city govern-
ment has not been able to fully rein in the urban villages and regulate
their building constructions. At least for the first 30 years of the Shenzhen
SEZ, there has been no clear winner in the game over land and regulation
between the city government and the urban villages.
In many other rapidly changing cities, whether it is Lagos in Nigeria
or Calcutta in India, the landless migrants came to the city as squatters.
Manuel Castells presented a wide array of informal migrant settlements
in The City and the Grassroots. To Castells, the landless rural migrants
and squatters were the grassroots of the city. They are the ultimate cre-
ators of the city, be it in Caracas, Mexico City, or Rio de Janeiro. In fact,
one of the forming mechanisms of slums was the uncontrolled informal
settlement by landless rural migrants in the cities. By contrast, accord-
ing to Mobrand, the phenomenon of squatters’ land invasion and settle-
ment are hard to find in China’s urban villages. In more recent research
by Mobrand (2006), there is an in-depth comparison of urban migrant
settlements in Latin America and China. He makes it clear that China’s
migrant areas have the strong distinction of having a minimum percentage
of invasive squatter population or informal buildings self-constructed by
squatters. Mobrand offers a very insightful description of urban villages
of China: ‘although these ‘villages-in-the-city’ (chengzhongcun) resemble
Latin American shantytowns in population composition, they imply a dif-
ferent kind of politics. Migrants provide the urban villagers with a source
of income to replace agriculture and these landlords in return give cheap
housing’ (Mobrand 2006, p. 265). He also provides an insightful analysis
of the migrants’ relations with the landlords as a form of mutually benefi-
cial cooperation where the landlords receive an income whilst providing
protection for the migrants, who might be harassed or punished for not
having the appropriate papers. However, this kind of cooperation was, in
Mobrand’s view, contributing to the persistent high-crime environment in
the villages due to the lack of enforcement of tenant identity registration.
Urban slums are essentially natural outgrowths of any city when its
economy and migrant population grow rapidly. If there is an absence
of strict administrative and social control in the city, the formation of
slums and favelas is inevitable. There is definitely a historical and global
pattern to this and intriguingly modern China is one of the few excep-
tions. In terms of history, the city often grew with its slums, but later
the slums often grew too large in size—to a paralyzing level for any
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 Ten days later, as Anna Evauovna walked through the village, she
stopped at the door of the isba belonging to Ivan’s parents. There in
the doorway sat Grusha, the bride, peeling potatoes for the evening
meal, as unmoved and uninterested as if she had been peeling
potatoes in Ivan’s doorway for years. She had gone from one isba to
another: She had peeled her father’s potatoes, and now peeled
Ivan’s—that was all.
“Good luck to you, Grusha,” said Anna Evauovna. “But I suppose
you think you have luck by the forelock, as Ivan was faithful to you in
all that time.”
“Yes,” answered Grusha indifferently, splashing a potato in the
bowl of water.
“You have all you waited for—if I may say so and bring no ill-luck.”
“I have everything,” Grusha replied without enthusiasm.
Anna Evauovna looked at the girl’s stolid face, and laughed aloud.
“But you have lost one thing that you can not get back, Grusha.
You can never again wonder if Ivan is going to be faithful. An
unsatisfied wish is a fine thing to have, my child.”
She walked off still laughing, leaving Grusha puzzled and vexed.
At the corner the old woman met the bridegroom and gave him
greeting also.
“What a man you are, Ivan, to keep a girl faithful to you in all those
months. Were you not surprised at finding Grusha unmarried?”
Ivan scratched his head meditatively.
“I was surprised,” he said finally.
“And grateful?” asked Anna Evauovna.
“And grateful,” repeated Ivan, slowly.
“What would you have done if you had found her married?”
“Heaven bless me! If she had not waited, I could have found
another.”
Anna Evauovna nodded.
 “They grow thickly, these women, but now you can settle down
quietly after your wanderings, Ivan.”
Ivan turned his cap round on his hand, and shook his head.
“Wandering is not bad, Anna Evauovna. One sees men and
women then. A man does not care so much to live in one place after
he sees the world. But we shall get on nicely, I suppose.”
Anna Evauovna walked on, her wrinkled old face all puckered with
laughter.
“That is what comes of what one waits and wearies for,” she said
to herself.
As she passed the hedge, behind which she had watched Ivan’s
home-coming, she heard two voices on the other side, and paused
to listen. A man and a woman were talking earnestly together.
“But you know it was you I always loved, Masha,” said the deeper
tones. It was Alioscha speaking.
Anna Evauovna went on her way, bending double with laughter.
She did not need to hear the answer Masha gave—for she knew all
things, did Anna Evauovna.

THE END
 “Death and Love.”

Drawn by Clarence Herbert Rowe.

 DEATH and LOVE.

Thus runs the maxim, “All are born to die.”

Grief follows joy as twilight follows day.
Old loves depart and beauty will not stay.
Wherefore, too sad to weep, henceforth must I
Encounter only Death, the Passer-By.
For every pleasure we with sorrow pay,
We are but dreamers, dreaming dreams by day.
Yet there be those who suffer cruelly
Who find a rainbow in their cup of tears.
Smiles beget smiles on faces sad as ours,
The pale moonlight silvers the sobbing sea.
One love supreme and constant through the years
Is dearer than fine rubies, sweet as flowers,
Sweet and as dear as that you gave to me.

—William Theodore Peters.

 CHANNOAH
BY EDWARD LUCAS WHITE

The garden had been overgrown these three years. As the house
was tenantless nothing was ever trimmed or cut and the paths
skinned over with the green of intrusive weeds. The shrubs
expanded into masses of high dense leafage, the roses had run into
long stems that covered the walls or wound under the tall wavy
grass, the annuals had seeded themselves till they mingled in every
bed, and the whole was a delightful wilderness, more flowery than
any wood and more woodland than any garden. Milly and Jack
regarded the place as their own special domain. The house
belonged to Milly’s father and they were left to enjoy the garden
unwatched and undisturbed. Because their fathers were partners in
business they had made up their minds to marry when they grew up
and they announced their intention with the preternatural
seriousness of a boy of five and a girl of three. As they were really
fond of each other they never wearied of being together and as a
part of their precocious program they cared nothing for other
playmates. The garden was theirs and they were each others’ and
they lived in a community where children were little overseen or
tended. So they spent day after day in games of their own invention,
with no companion except a black kitten. Milly, who was proud of her
French, had named it Channoah and would have been deeply
grieved if anyone had insinuated that her pronunciation was far from
Parisian. Channoah was able to do without his mother when they
first began their games in the spring and was still a kittenish cat
when the autumn merged into winter. He entered into their sports
with almost a human interest and those long happy summer days
made a background for both the boy and the girl, which loomed up
behind all their future memories and where there were endless
pictures of each other, in long processions, punctuated and divided
by various postures and contortions of a coal-black kitten. As they
grew older and their companionship continued they had passwords
all for themselves and jokes that no one else entered into, all full of
allusions to the same pet.

II.
It was a rather awkward boy who came home from college for his
summer vacation. He had not seen his native place since the
autumn before, and the letters which had told him he must remain at
college, and which had disclosed most tenderly the fall in the family’s
fortunes had been worded so carefully that he had not realized the
full force of what had happened and had chafed at his exile as if it
were not inevitable. The first sight he had of his mother waiting on
the platform brought it all home to him. Her dress told more than any
words could have conveyed. He made a brave effort to be bright and
took care not to stare round him at the ugly walls of the cramped and
unfamiliar house, nor to look too curiously at the furnishings. The
gaps in the old belongings struck a chill to his heart, but he chattered
away about the college life to which he was to return, and over their
painfully frugal supper all were as cheery as old. The talk was a trifle
nervous and there was an anxiety to let no pause occur, but nothing
marred the warm greeting which had been made ready for him and
the meal ended naturally. The afternoon of talk had exhausted most
of what the greeters and the greeted had to ask and answer and
after they left the table the boy slipped into the entry and was hunting
for his cap among a litter of coats and capes, with a sick longing for
the old hall-piece and a strong distaste for the plain little walnut hat-
tree. The mother slipped out after him, shut the door noiselessly
behind her and asked:
“Where are you going, dear?”
“To see Milly, of course,” the boy answered.
“Has she written to you lately?” his mother queried.
“We haven’t written to each other at all,” he said. “I hate to write
letters, and it would make so much less for us to tell each other
afterwards.”
“You mustn’t go there, Jack,” she said, putting her hand lightly on
his shoulder with a caressing gesture.
“Why not?” he asked hotly, the blood rushing to his face.
“You know they have nothing to do with us any more, dear, since
your father and Mr. Wareham quarrelled.”
“I didn’t know it. You haven’t told me anything about what has
happened. And even if they have nothing to do with us, that wouldn’t
make any difference between Milly and me.”
“Isn’t it natural she should come to feel as her father and brother
feel?” the mother suggested tremulously.
“You mean she wouldn’t see me if I went,” he demanded, and he
was growing vexed and defiant.
“I did not mean that, dear. But her father might not allow her to see
you, and Albert always disliked you. And now they all hate all of us.”
“Why should they hate us? What have we done to them?”
 “It was that selfish man ruined your father and people always hate
those they have wronged. Please don’t go, Jack.”
The boy twisted his cap in his hands and forced back his tears. He
was silent a moment and then he kissed his mother.
“It’s all right, mother dear,” he said, “I’ll go somewhere else. Thank
you for warning me.”
He went out into the dark. It was to the old garden that he walked.
The house was lit up and through the iron gate he saw trimmed and
unfamiliar shapes of shrubberies. He leaned against the bricks of the
gate-post and hated it all.

III.
A very lanky and gawky lad was waiting in the railway station at
the junction. He was loose-jointed and ill at ease in any position. His
clothes were mean and old and badly kept. His face was sad. For
some time now he had been waiting and he had hours of waiting
before him. He had looked over and over at everything in sight. Then
a train came up and a party of smartly dressed and handsome young
men and women entered. The lad’s face flamed. Jack had not seen
Milly for years. His father and mother were dead. He had to work at
hard and uncongenial things to make his living. He had as yet no
self-confidence and while he saw dimly a hope of better prospects,
neither to himself nor to his employers was anything apparent that
made his lot easier. Milly was a very lovely girl now. She was
perfectly dressed and the centre of a merry party. The boy watched
her hungrily, but she never glanced toward him. Her friends amused
themselves in various ways, but it seemed to the onlooker that Milly
was the soul of each diversion. After a while she took out a pair of
scissors and began cutting out figures from paper. Jack recalled with
a fresh pang the hours he and she had spent so. She had a
newspaper and cut out large and small shapes, of men and women,
of animals and other more difficult subjects, all with so neat an eye
for form and so keen an appreciation of what was striking that her
audience were carried away with admiration and delight, and one or
two who had never seen her do it before were amazed beyond any
powers of expression which they possessed. Their train came before
Jack’s and they rose, bustling, to go out. Milly’s dark scornful-browed
brother was with her and had stared at Jack sarcastically. Milly had
shown no sign of seeing him. The paper she had was full of big
advertisements and one sheet bore only six words on a side, in
broad black letters. Just as she stood up she cut out something,
while the rest were gathering up their belongings, and held it under
her thumb against a gaudily covered novel she carried in her left
hand. As she passed Jack she did not look at him, but he saw the
thumb of her glove move and a silhouette of an inky black kitten
fluttered down upon his knee. He took it up and stared at it. Then he
saw her look back at him from the door.

IV.
The german was a very dazzling and magnificent affair. The hall
was large and beautiful, splendidly lighted and most lavishly
decorated. The gathering was of people who were well satisfied with
themselves and had every reason to be so. John Henderson was as
well satisfied with himself as any man in the room. It gave him keen
pleasure to be in that set and to know that he had won his way into
it. His life was now one made delightful by every luxury and by the
constant sensation of success. Money came to him faster than he
had any use for it and friends gave him the most flattering evidences
that he was valued and liked. He was a tall strong young man, well-
knit and lithe. His clothes became him and he danced perfectly. He
was not merely among these courtly people, but welcome there. His
partner’s name had a decidedly patrician sound. And she was as
handsome as any girl in the room, he said to himself, save one. For
opposite him sat Miss Millicent Wareham. Her beauty was at its best
in her yellow satin ball-dress, and she looked proud and elate. He
had encountered her often recently, and they had been more than
once presented to each other, but had exchanged no words save the
formal acknowledgement of an introduction. He could not make out
whether she disliked him or merely reflected her brother’s manifest
antagonism. He took care not to look at her openly, but he glanced
toward her furtively very often. Toward the end of the dancing she
saw him approach her. Her face set and she looked at him full in the
eyes without any sign of expression as he asked her to dance with
him. But just when he uttered the last words of his slowly spoken
invitation he opened his hand and she saw the favor he was offering
her. It was a tiny kitten of black chenille made on wire, with minute
yellow beads for eyes. She blushed and smiled at the same time as
soon as she caught sight of it, rose graciously and they whirled away
together. Neither spoke at all and their separation came almost
immediately. Yet he felt more elated by that fragment of a dance than
by all the compliments of word and look he had had that evening
from men and women alike. She smiled at him again as she seated
herself and his heart leapt. He saw her as she was leaving, her wrap
open still and a bit of black on her yellow corsage.

V.
It was a dirty little square by the harborside, thronged with
boatmen, sailors of all nations ashore for a day’s outing, picturesque
cigarette-smoking loafers, fruit-sellers, negroes, uniformed police
and open-shirted porters. The shops facing it were dingy, the stones
of the quay awry in places, and the filth was more than is usual even
in Rio de Janeiro. Tawdry like every populous quarter there, it had
yet that pictorial air which all semi-tropical scenes, however much
defaced by man, never quite lose. To a stranger its most salient
feature was the clutter of six-sided, gaily-hued kiosques, which are
scattered all through the streets of Rio, many decorated with flags
and each selling lottery tickets, whatever else it might have for sale.
By one, which dispensed coffee in steaming cups and cognac in tiny
thin-stemmed glasses, stood an American talking to a Portuguese.
The noticeable thing about the Brazilian was that he was usual and
commonplace in every way. There was nothing in his form, features
or dress which could possibly have served to remember him by. One
might have conned him for an hour and after he was out of sight it
would have been impossible to recall anything by which to describe
him so as to distinguish him from any one of hundreds in the crowds
of the capital. Not even his age could have been specified or
approximated to. He was deliberate in his movements, watched his
environment without appearing to do so and attracted no attention.
Now he sipped his brandy while his interlocutor drank coffee, and the
two talked in subdued tones. Discussing a purchase of ship stores,
one would say.
A boatman in a suit of soiled white duck was loitering near, looking
over the harbor. He sidled up to the American and cut in between
speech and reply, in a deprecating voice:
“You wan’ Macedo see you talkin’ at Guimaraens, senhor
Hen’son?”
“Where’s Macedo?” the other demanded.
The boatman pointed and the two men followed his hand. A boat
was approaching across the sparkling water, and they saw the
peculiar stroke of the navy and police-boats, in which the men pull
and then rest so long with their oars poised that they seem
hypnotized in mid-stroke and a novice expects them to stay so
forever.
“There Macedo now, comin’ from Nictheroy,” said the fellow
meaningly.
“What do you want me to do, Joao?” the American asked.
“Oh, Guimaraens he wait anywhere, come back when Macedo
gone. You get in my boat, I row you roun’ pas’ those docks. Then
Macedo won’ see you ’tall.”
The Portuguese disappeared softly into the crowd. The boat
unobtrusively threaded the swarm of small craft, whipped behind a
lighter, doubled the nose of the nearest pier, and drifted
imperceptibly on while Joao reconnoitred.
“I guess we get behin’ that Lamport and Holt lighter. I don’ know
wha’ Macedo goin’ to do.”
They scraped along past the spiles of the wharf and then
dexterous strokes of the stubby oars kept them practically
motionless under the wharf’s planking, close to one spile.
“What on earth is that?” the passenger queried, and put out his
hand to the post. He grasped a watersoaked kitten, clinging
desperately to the slippery wood, and too exhausted to mew.
“A cat!” the American ejaculated. “I didn’t know you had cats in this
country. The city is knee-deep in dogs, but I haven’t seen a cat since
I came.”
“I guess he fall overboard from that Englis’ bark, what jus’ tow out,”
Joao said serenely. “That captain he got his wife too, an’ I see some
little cat along the children.”
The kitten was coal black, not a white hair on it, and very wet.
Henderson dried it with a handkerchief and warmed it inside of his
jacket. Presently Joao said:
“Macedo’s boat gone roun’ Sacco d’Alferes. I don’ see Macedo.
You bett’ not go back.”
“Go round to the Red Steps, then,” came the indulgent answer.
They rowed past the ends of the long piers, all black with shouting
men in long lines, each with a sack of coffee on his head, or hurrying
back for another. Then they bumped through a pack of boats of all
kinds and Henderson stepped out upon the worn and mortarless
stones. Joao nodded and was off without any exchange of money.
The morning was a very beautiful one and this was the landing most
frequented always. At the top of the steps John paused in a whirl of
feelings. Before him stood Millicent Wareham in a very pretty
yachting suit, and she was accompanied only by her maid. She was
looking alternately back toward the custom-house and out over the
bay. Secure in the fellow-feeling of exiles for each other he stepped
up and greeted her. She looked startled but a moment and then her
face lit with an expression of real pleasure and she held out her
hand. They had not had a real conversation since childhood and yet
she began as if she had seen him yesterday:
“I am so surprised. I had no idea you were here. We came only
last week. That is our yacht out there. When did you come?”
 John looked once only at the yacht, but keenly enough never to
mistake it afterwards, and answered:
“I have been here a long time. I am on business, not pleasure.”
“We may be here some time, too. I like this part of the world and
we mean to go all round South America.”
John wondered who “we” might be. He knew her father was dead
and he had heard of the breaking off of her betrothal to a titled
European. It was her brother she was with, likely enough, but he
hoped it might be some party of friends instead.
“You’ll like it all if you like this,” he answered. “But I certainly am
astonished to see you. Few Americans come here as you have. And
the odd thing is that I was just thinking of you, too.”
She looked at him with an expression he remembered well from
her girlhood, and smiled banteringly:
“You mustn’t say that. You know you don’t really mean it. You are
just being complimentary.”
“I have documentary proof right here,” he laughed, sliding his hand
inside of his coat. The kitten was dry and warm now and it mewed
hungrily.
“The dear little thing,” she exclaimed. “Give it to me, won’t you?”
“Indeed I will,” he said fervently. “I am glad to find so safe a
harborage for it. And ten times glad that I had the luck to find it just in
time to give it to you.”
She beamed at him, fondling the wriggling little beast.
“I am going to call it Channoah,” she said, mimicking her childish
pronunciation archly. The maid standing by, and the moving crowd all
about, they stood chatting some minutes. The sunrays danced on
the little waves of the harbor, the soft August weather of the sub-
tropical winter of the southern hemisphere was clear and bright, the
yellow walls of the custom house, of its warehouses, of the arsenal
and military school and the army hospital, strung out along the
water-front, with the bushy-headed leaning rough-trunked palms
between and the red tiled roofs above made a fine background.
Beyond and above the round bulging green Cariocas rose hill behind
hill, topped and dominated by the sharpened camel’s hump of
Corcovado. From one of the islands a bugle call blew. The throng
hummed in many tongues. Then John asked:
“And may I hope to see you again before you leave?”
Her expression changed entirely, her face fell and she looked
confused. She said:
“I am afraid not. I quite forgot everything in my pleasure at seeing
a fellow-countryman and an old playmate. I could not deny myself
the indulgence of greeting you and then I quite lost myself, it was so
natural to be with you. But Bertie may be back any minute and it
would never do for him to know I have been talking to you. Please go
now.”
Her manner was constrained and her air was resuming that
distance and hauteur which he was used to seeing in her.
“Goodbye,” she said, “and thank you for the kitten.”
John walked quickly to the coffee exchange and from out of the
crowd that filled it he had the satisfaction of seeing Albert Wareham
pass and of knowing that he did not notice him and could not
suspect that Milly had seen him. It was something to have even that
secret between himself and Milly.

After gun-fire no boat is allowed to move about Rio harbor or bay

without a formal signed, sealed and stamped permit from the
authorities. All night the half dozen fussy little steam-launches of the
water-police are shooting about on the dark water, cutting flashing
ripples through the trails of light which the shore lights shed over the
bay and probing the pitchy shadows with stiletto flashes of their
search-lights. The penalty for being caught without papers is
forfeiture of the boat and a night in the calaboose for all, and a
rigorous trial for any suspected of intended stealing or smuggling.
Between the American and Norwegian anchorages a small boat was
moving noiselessly. It was after gun-fire but still early in the night.
The oars made no sound and the craft kept to the obscure parts of
the water. In the dead silence they preserved the two men in it heard
a faint puffing still far off. They were at the most exposed part of their
passage, far from any ship and farther from the nearest wharf. By
the sound the search-light would reveal them in a moment, they
judged. The launch was coming from the west, and to eastward of
them, nearer the entrance of the bay, was the anchorages for
vessels temporarily in harbor and for pleasure yachts. One said
something and the rower began to do his utmost, after turning
toward the east. Henderson had seen that he had but one chance.
He knew what would happen to him if he were caught and he could
see no escape. He had sighted the Halcyon, Wareham’s yacht, and
formed his plan at once. If Milly was on her and her brother ashore
he might be saved. If not, he was no worse off for rowing up to her.
They had more start than they had thought and both began to
regret they had not kept on toward the wharves. The launch turned
the light toward them, but their distance was such that it only half
revealed them. They were near the yacht now and the gangway was
not on their side. Joao rounded the yacht’s stern and bumped on the
lowest step, the launch throbbing after them at top speed.
Henderson stepped up the gangway. The anchor-watch had not
hailed them and he had his heart in his mouth at the certainty that
either the best or worst was coming. Before he reached the deck a
face leaned over the rail well aft and a soft voice asked:
“Who is that, please?” and the words were in English.
John’s heart leapt.
“Jack,” he answered with almost a cry of relief.
Just then a yellow glare swung round from aft and an excited voice
called out in Portuguese.
Milly took in the whole situation instantly. She had been told of the
regulations and she had heard of Henderson’s supposed real
business in Brazil. The instant the pulsations of the tiny engine
ceased as the launch slowed down she spoke clearly in French, with
a pleased tone of recognition in her utterance:
 “Is that you, Captain Macedo? What did you ask?”
“Ah, Miss Wareham,” came the deferential answer, “ten thousand
pardons. I thought I was addressing the watch on your vessel.”
Miss Wareham said something in sharp low tones to someone
behind her and replied:
“Will not I do as well? I was in hopes you were coming to see me,
Captain Macedo.”
“I am on duty now, not on pleasure, alas. Did not a boat approach
your yacht just now?”
The keen reflector shone full on Joao and on Henderson as he
stood on the gangway.
“Certainly,” Milly said. “One of my friends has just come to call on
me. He is under my permit, I sent it ashore to him. Can’t you come
up a moment and meet him, Captain Macedo?”
The officer muttered something and then after a flood of apologies
uttered in a very vexed tone, the launch sheered off and bustled
away. Henderson went up the steps of the gangway and a rather
conventional greeting passed between him and his hostess. She
said something to the officer of the yacht and he disappeared into his
quarters. The man on watch was well forward, the maid sat under
the farthest corner of the awning, and Milly motioned him to a seat,
herself sinking into her deck-chair. He could not see her well by the
cool starlight, but her voice was friendly as her prompt action had
been, and he was advised of the presence of the kitten in her lap by
its loud purring. He took courage.
“I have much to thank you for, Milly,” he said, half hesitating over
the old pet name. “I was in a tight place but for your sharpness.”
“I hope I shall be forgiven for my falsehoods,” she said. “But that is
not what I want to talk to you about. I have heard about you on shore
and I am very much concerned. Sammy Roland had a great deal to
say of you. He tells me that everyone feels in the air the presence of
plots to overthrow Fonseca as he did with the emperor, and Sammy
says that the conspirators are buying arms and ammunition and that
it is whispered about that you are the chief of the foreign agents
engaged in this dangerous speculation. I am worried beyond
expression to think of the risks you run if this is true.”
John looked her straight in the eyes and she returned his gaze
silently. After some breaths he spoke.
“I know I ought to deny totally your insinuations, but I can not help
trusting you, Milly.”
“God knows,” she said, “you can trust me utterly.”
“And I will,” he replied. “This puts not only myself but others in your
power. You must not breathe a word of it, Milly. I am on just the
business you have heard of and on others like it. The profits are
something enormous and the risk is proportional. If I had not found
refuge behind your subterfuge and quickness I should be now under
the certainty of being shot before daylight.”
“Oh, not so bad as that, Jack,” she exclaimed in an excited
whisper. “They would never shoot an American citizen that way.”
“The matters I am mixed up in,” he answered, “are not things for
which one dares to ask the protection of any flag. I am as near to
being a pirate as one can come in these days. And Fonseca is a
man who would shoot me first and take the risk of the legation and
consulate never suspecting what had become of me, or even of
having to reckon with them if they did. He is quick and heavy-
handed.”
“I do not think him as ferocious as you do, Jack,” she said; “but I
am quite as anxious about you as possible. Sammy’s gossip might
be exaggerated and generally is. But Mr. Hernwick is a very different
person. And he, while he has had nothing to say about you, has
talked to me a great deal about the general situation here. He says
that Admiral Mello is at the head of the malcontents and is preparing
to lead a revolt of the entire navy. You probably know more about
that than Mr. Hernwick. The thing that struck me was this. He says
Mello is over-confident and is going to bungle the entire plot from
haste and temerity. If Mr. Hernwick says that, don’t you think there is
something in it.”
 “Indeed I do,” Jack answered heavily. “I have had some glimpses
of something of the sort. Now can you solemnly assure me, Milly,
that Hernwick did say so? For I have half a mind to give up the whole
matter and all its golden promises of fortune. There is another
opening for me elsewhere, not so glittering but safer and fairly
profitable. Mr. Hernwick is a man I respect highly and no Englishman
knows so much about the tangle of intrigues which envelopes this
nation. If he had said that to me, openly and emphatically, I should
act on it.”
“And won’t you believe me, Jack, and act on what I say? I am so
anxious about you?”
The night was clear and cool, the breeze soft and even, it was
cosy under the awning and it was very pleasant and very novel to
have a woman so interested in himself. He was silent a moment, his
elbows on his knees, leaning forward on the camp-stool on which he
sat. The tiny ripples swished under the counter as the yacht swung
on her cable. A banjo twanged on a vessel somewhere near, a
military band was playing a native air in one of the plazas by the
water-front, the lights danced on the surface of the bay, and the
kitten purred. Jack sighed and said:
“It is hard to let slip such possibilities. But I’ll promise.”
She held out her hand to his and they clasped. It was a long
pressure. And then she began to talk of other things and to change
the current of his thoughts. They went back to the old days in the
garden and she told him much of her life in the years between and
he also narrated much of his. They recalled the old pass-words and
mutual jokes for themselves only. And through all their long talk the
purring of “Channoah the third,” as Milly called him, ran as a sort of
undertone. Jack could not recall any evening which he had enjoyed
so much.
Milly even spoke of her brother and deprecated his hatred of
Henderson. She did not deny it nor try to excuse it, but her dexterous
talk left Jack soothed and feeling that however much her interest in
himself was merely friendly, it was certain that she did not share her
brother’s contempt for him.
 The launch had been circling about a half a mile off or so. Now
Joao blew a soft low whistle. The coast was clear for them to slip
ashore and Jack said goodbye.

VI.
During the years following his abrupt departure from Rio
Henderson flitted about the Southern Hemisphere. He was in
Australia, in South Africa, and on many islands, but most of his time
was spent in South America, on one side or other of the Andes. In
his last venture he saw the face of death near and ugly and felt that
he had lost some of his nerve afterward. Likewise, as he himself
expressed it, he had made his pile. So he resolved to run no more
risks, but to return to his native land and settle down to enjoy his
gains. Like many another wanderer he fancied he would like to buy
the house in which he had been a happy child and he was not sure
but he would find his native town a permanent bourne.
He noticed the change in grade of the railroad as his train steamed
in. It entered the city now over a viaduct which cleared the streets on
trestles and crossed the main thoroughfare on a fine stone arch.
Under that arch he passed in the hotel omnibus. Just beyond it he
noticed a shop with cages of birds, stuffed animals and a pretty little
black kitten just inside the plate glass of the front. He noted the
number and meant to return later after he had had his supper.
A square or so farther on he saw pass him a handsome open
carriage. His heart stood still at sight of the figure in it. Milly saw him
and returned his bow with a cordial smile. She was still beautiful,
with a full-grown woman’s best charms. Very haughty she looked
too, as became the heir of the Wareham fortune. Henderson had
heard of her brother’s death sometime before.
About sunset John entered the animal-seller’s shop. The kitten
was gone. Could not say when it had been sold. Could not say to
whom it had been sold. Could not send to the purchaser and try to
buy it back. Grumpy and curt replies generally. John left the shop in
a bad humor.
 Flicking with his cane the tall grasses in the neglected spaces
before wooden front-yard fences John strolled in the twilight to the
old garden. The house was empty again and the garden had run
wild. It was not the wilderness he remembered but it had the same
outlines and the same general character. His heart warmed over it
and memories thronged.
His feet carried him he knew not whither. In the late twilight he
found himself before the splendid Wareham mansion. He was vexed
that he had not been able to get that kitten and send it to Milly in a
big box of pink roses, like the roses in the old garden. Then he was
vexed that he had not thought to send her the roses anyhow, as
soon as he had found he could not get the kitten. Then he opened
the gate, walked springily in and rang the bell.
Yes, Miss Wareham was at home. The warm lamp-light which had
led him in shone from the room into which he was ushered. Milly was
reading by the lamp itself. She rose to greet him. Her yellow satin
gown became her well and her voice was sweet to his ears. Her
words were cordial. But what Jack noticed to the exclusion of
everything else was the very black kitten he had failed to purchase,
tucked under her arm, purring vociferously, and very becoming, it
seemed to his eyes, to the color of her dress. The instant he saw it
he knew what he meant to say to her. And the look in her eyes told
him almost as plainly as the pet she fondled what her answer would
be.