D around his temple
all but disappeared,” Wang said somewhat ruefully.
An older man selling model kits reminisced about what he called the golden era of the 1980s and 1990s, when street businesses thrived.
Amid the new are remnants of the past. I asked Wang if he knew any hidden gems in the neighborhood. Yes, he said, pointing to one of four houses once owned by the Fang family.
The houses, at least 100 years old, were originally interconnected but are now separated by walls.
The houses still retain a wooden beam carved with the pattern of a bat, engraved wooden doors, polished bricks paving the ground, glass windows and wooden pillars on stone.
“They are the only one of the few things that have been preserved,” a 65-year-old woman surnamed Zhang told me. “The renovation changed the layout of the houses. The most beautiful features are gone.”
The renewal project changed the whole character of the neighborhood. Zhang recalled her childhood, when neighbors often ate together and sat out in the courtyard in the evenings to cool off. Now those courtyards are filled with bicycles and junk.
“There are 33 households living in the first two houses,” said Zhang. “About a third of the residents are migrant workers. Everything has changed.”
I can’t resist asking her if nostalgia means she would prefer to be living back in her old house.
“No,” she said. “I prefer my modern apartment, which is cozier. But the past will always be part of my life, and I wish the neighborhood had more of its original appearance, even though I know that’s impossible.”
One of Wang’s most important jobs as a neighborhood leader is looking out for the welfare of elderly residents.
“We frequently have to carry elderly men on our backs to hospitals,” he said. “Most of them don’t have families, and many don’t have the money for medical fees, so we pay the fees and make sure they get home. It’s part of our responsibilities.”
Indeed, there is really no end to responsibilities. Wang, born in 1983, and his staff are at the frontline of community needs, dealing with everything from burglary reports to blocked sewers.
After a stint in the military and work at a now-shuttered steel company, Wang took up the post of neighborhood Party secretary after seeing a wall recruitment poster for the job when he returned to his old childhood neighborhood for a meal with friends. He said he’s happy to be “home” again and determined to better the community.
“It is undeniable that the surroundings of this area are not satisfactory,” he said. “It’s my job to try to make the daily lives of residents as happy as possible.”
The neighborhood committee holds many community activities, including classes on cooking, gardening and procedures for dealing with emergencies.
A project is underway to remove unauthorized construction in the area.
“I hope older buildings that have surrounded the Confucian Temple for decades can be preserved as a place to appreciate the culture of the past,” Wang said.