What is Beijing's "wall culture"? That was the mysterious subject of a lecture given by Kong Haili at the ICLP on Wednesday June 26. ICLP teachers filled the conference room, eager to hear what the Swarthmore College Chinese professor had to say. Professor Kong had published a book on the same subject matter back in 2008 (Beijing: From Imperial Capital to the Olympic City).

       Professor Kong began his lecture by inviting the audience to share their views on modern China. One ICLP professor remarked that it was "very hot and very crowded" while another commented on the vastness of the streets. In response, much to the astonishment of the attendees, he said the current population of Beijing was nearly 30 million, more than the entire population in the whole of Taiwan! Additionally he explained that Beijing underwent a major facelift since its Imperial City origins. His interest in examining Beijing's "wall culture" was to trace the evolution of the capital. When Mao Zedong came to power, he designated Beijing to become official seat of the Chinese Communist Party, an odd choice to many at the time since Beijing in the 1950s was a very provincial city with camels and donkeys trotting through its dirt roads. Most people had assumed Mao would choose to base his government in the more sophisticated urban cities of Xian or Nanjing. But in the end, Mao installed his government in the Inner City (nanchen), where the Chinese emperor once resided. This was a very politically symbolic move.

       It was not until the Cultural Revolution that Mao began to tear down the walls of the old city, including Chaoyang Gate in 1957. Professor Kong said this was a mistake as the most beautiful capitals in the world today, such as Paris and Rome, chose to incorporate the remnants of their historical ruins in their city planning rather than destroy them. The important Chinese military generals took over the hutongs, which are the Mongol-influenced traditional Beijing-style houses located in narrow alleyways around the Imperial City. Slowly, they began to desert them and build dayuans, gated communities for military officials. The tearing down of hutongs began in 2008 in preparation for the Olympic Games. It continues in vigor today as the expansion of Beijing continues in full force. Beijing is now rife with gated communities that resemble those in the Western world. Furthermore, Beijing is now organized as a series of ring roads, with the Old City at the heart and emanating outwards.

       According to Professor Kong, he began to be interested in Beijing's wall culture because to him, a wall symbolizes two important things. "It's primarily to protect you, but it's also a way to cement social status. For example, Mao said there was a need to tear down the walls of the Inner City because it represented inequality- this was what separated the king from the commoners- but since then Beijing has built new walls in the form of ring roads. Where you live says a lot about you. If you live within the first or second ring road, you have money. If you live in the 6th ring road zone, you are less well-off." Currently, Beijing contains six ring roads, and Professor Kong joked that if they built a seventh one it would probably stretch to Tianjin. "I'm very saddened by what's happening to Beijing," said Professor Kong. "It's truly upsetting to see Old Beijing City disappearing more and more each day."

       ICLP Professor Huang, who attended the lecture, said she found the subject matter very interesting. She has never been to Beijing before, like most of the teachers who were in attendance that day. "I really liked seeing the pictures of Old Beijing," she said. Professor Kong had prepared a slideshow to accompany his lecture, pairing pictures of ancient Beijing side by side with those of modern Beijing. ICLP Professor Li, who visited Beijing twice in 2009 and 2011 while on an exchange program organized by the ICLP, said her impressions of the city was that it was very big and regal. She said that lectures like this were necessary to bridge more understanding between the People's Republic and Taiwan because "despite the increased openness toward each other, the two cultures remain very different," she said. "So it's useful and enlightening to hear lectures like this about what's going on in China today."