Shikumen, known as "stone gate", is a type of tenement housing unique to Shanghai. Not quite Chinese and not quite Western, it was built in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century to house Chinese people in the Western quarters. [File photo]

While rapid changes are making life in a shikumen community a thing of the past, a new experimental exhibition drama is giving people a unique look at the past 30 years, writes Xu Wei.

As the sun rises over Fu Kang Li - a lane of shikumen (stone-gated) houses in Shanghai - the residents begin their day. It's a simple but pleasant life.

Aunty Teng sits at the gate entrance in charge of the public telephone booth, children jump rubber bands, play games of eagle and chicken, Uncle Jiao promotes his grocery's new cigarette brand, and the sound of people playing mah-jong blends with the songs of Teresa Teng down along the lane.

Shikumen lane life was once a way of life familiar to many local people. But sadly it is becoming a distant memory these days.

Like many old shikumen lanes in Shanghai, the original Fu Kang Li has been knocked down to make way for modern urban construction.

But the Fu Kang Li in question is actually the location for the experimental exhibition drama "Ages, 1978" that is part of the ongoing Shanghai Biennale. It opened yesterday at the Duanjun Theater in Shanghai Theater Academy and runs through next Monday.

All of its 70 or so "residents" are amateur performers or students from the Shanghai Theater Academy who re-create the atmosphere of the city's lane life 30 years ago.

"The year of 1978 has great meaning to China as it marked the beginning of China's reform and opening-up policy. We have witnessed so many historical changes in China's development in the past 30 years," says Professor Liu Zhixin, director of the drama.

The exhibition area is divided into three sections. Before you enter the lane to the main body of the exhibition,  visitors first walk through a "Time Tunnel 78-08," a display of articles, photos and videos of important events between 1978 and 2008.

The final section is an exhibition of photos and words from ordinary Chinese people comparing their lives over the last 30 years.

The highlight is undoubtedly the "Dramas: Our 1978," which presents the original facts of lane life in Shanghai in 1978 and invites the review, participation and interaction of the audience.