Painting the heart, soul of Beijing's hutongs

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Beijingers were once proud that their city was home to as many hutongs, or alleyway communities, "as there are hairs on a bull."

There have been hutongs in Beijing since the 13th century, but as residents relocate to improve their living standards and renovations have swept the city, many hutongs have disappeared. In 1944, there were 3,200 hutongs in Beijing, but by the end of last century this had dropped to 990.

The capital's once common residential communities were often built around a communal well, with the phrase "hutong" originating from the Mongolian term for "water well."

"This is where I used to play with my friends," Dong Juncai, 55, said pointing at an alley in a painting.

The subject of the painting, a nondescript, gray brick residential house, was his childhood home. The building was demolished as Beijing sought to solve the housing needs of its swelling population.

The alley is among 40 oil paintings by Fucha Danqing, 30, on show at No. 1 cultural center, Xicheng district in downtown Beijing. The exhibition started on June 11 and will run till this Friday.

Fucha documents and preserves the capital's hutongs through his work.

CAPTURING COMMUNITIES

"Beijing is a changing city, many places are quite different now," Fucha said. "I am so lucky to have captured many in their original form."

The bespectacled young man who is a fan of casual sportswear has lived in Beijing his whole life. His surname, Fucha, is Manchurian in origin. His grandfather, like many of his contemporaries following the end of Qing Dynasty, adopted a Han surname, Fu. Fucha, however, later chose to reclaim his family's original name.

His given name, Danqing, means paint. It is as if he was put on the path toward being an artist from the moment he entered the world.

Fucha grew up in the capital's hutongs. "When I was small, Beijing was a quiet place, full of bird song," he said. "I played with my friends in the alleys, and ate in my neighbors' homes."

He started drawing old residential houses and alleys around ten years ago as a way to refresh his painting skills.

One painting would take around a week. He would not let bitter winds or scorching sun dampen his resolve, and could be found in the same spot for hours capturing the environment around him.

"I was touched by the kindness of others," he said. "During these years, I took tea with people from all walks of life who lived in the places I was drawing."

He would often include these people in his pictures, or himself as a boy -- sitting on doorsteps, hiding by doors or playing with a puppy.

His grandparents home is the subject of one of his paintings. The piece is close to the artist's heart, and evokes many happy memories: "I once played football here and a friend smashed a window over there," he said, becoming more and more animated with each story he shared.

PAINTING THE PAST

After a decade, he had created a massive stack of works -- more than 1,000 paintings. Sadly, however, many of the alleyways and old houses had disappeared during the same period.

"I felt like I was racing against the bulldozers," he said.

It was a race he did not always win. In 2009, Fucha said, he met a family who were moving from their home, and they asked him to paint the house for them. He arrived the next day, as promised, only to find a pile of rubble where the house had once stood.

He has painted about 200 of the capital's alleys, but over the past two years he has found it harder to find hutongs to paint.

Many visitors to the exhibition have asked Fucha if he had painted the alley they once live on.

Dong was one of them.

"It looks so real," Dong said, recognizing his old hutong immediately. "The alley was so long. After school, I would knock for my classmates and ask them to play football with me."

Another visitor to the gallery, Sun, 67, had lived on Nanluoguxiang for nearly 60 years. She had traveled from Changping district in the city's northern outskirts to see the exhibition.

"Most of my memories revolve around alley life," she said. "However, as Beijing developed, and facilities, like public baths, dissapeared and in their place swarmed noisy tourists, living just became too inconvenient."

Beijing municipal government has gradually begun to hold a different opinion of the hutongs, and nowadays, rather than tearing them down, many projects feature th rebuilding and renovation of the historical houses.

Population issues are being addressed in many of these historical areas. From 2016 to 2020, Dongcheng and Xicheng, according to their plans, will relocate residents and restore more than 80 heritage sites.

For Fucha, however, many new houses are soulless and do not inspire him. "I like weather-worn building. The walls may be peeling and the beams covered with cobwebs, but I like them. They show the passing of time."

None of the paintings on show are for sale. Fucha seldom sells his paintings. In fact, he could only recall one exception.

One summer, an old man stopped to watch him paint. "He watched me for an hour," Fucha said, "then pleaded with me to sell him the painting of his own house.

Fucha finally agreed. "I thought he was the right person to own that painting."

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