Discovering a Niche in Old Beijing

By YANG SHUYING

EVERY place, large or small, has its own customs or cultural quirks that locals feel proud of. This is especially true in the case of Wang Gang, head of Xuanwu District in Beijing. He told me proudly that Xuanwu boasts two of Beijing’s three historic private residences that actually house their very own theaters. They are Huguang and Anhui Guild Halls. The third is Prince Gong’s Mansion in Xicheng District. Though the two guild halls – in their capacity as ancient residences – are not as big and famous as Prince Gong’s Mansion, during the Qing Dynasty they were dynastic noble houses that showcased the best of ancient residential architecture. The Huguang Guild Hall was once the residence of several Qing ministers during different periods; it has been renovated and opened to the public. The Anhui Guild Hall was the former residence of Li Hongzhang, a minister in the last years of the Qing Dynasty and principal negotiator of those humiliating unequal treaties that the Qing government signed with foreign powers. This historic site is now being vacated and repaired.

My curiosity was piqued, so I asked Mr. Wang if he could show me around these places he was so proud of. He agreed and we decided to meet at the Huguang Guild Hall one sunny weekend afternoon in early March. We journeyed by bus to Liulichang, a famed antique street known for its many calligraphy and painting shops. The most famous of these outlets is the 300-year-old enterprise Rongbaozhai. The store features classic art reproductions made using its own unique traditional woodblock color printing technique, which is listed as a national intangible cultural heritage item. The reproductions produced by Rongbaozhai are exact replicas of their authentic counterparts and are widely adored by many collectors. On the store’s first floor one can watch Rongbaozhai’s senior craftsmen engrossed in their work of sketching, carving, printing and scroll-mounting.

The shop’s gallery is soon to be completed. On one of its walls hangs a huge painting of water lilies, five by six meters, done by 86-year-old Chinese art master Huang Yongyu. According to one of Rongbaozhai’s managers, the painting is a gift from the artist himself, in recognition of the art shop’s high esteem in the trade. The shop now cherishes the painting as the most valuable in its collection.

At one end of Liulichang, down a small alleyway, we encountered the back entrance to the Anhui Guild Hall, which, like the Huguang Guild Hall, is particularly celebrated for its large, cavernous wooden stage structure in the central courtyard. I could see that there was seating in the courtyard and in the corridors of the surrounding buildings for an impressive 200 audience members. Part of the massive residence has been distorted and converted by its current occupants into a crowded dwelling, but its old grace is set to reemerge from decades of abuse and neglect once the government completes relocations and renovations.

On the eastern section of Liulichang Street, we came across the Daiyuexuan art shop, known for its workmanship in fine writing brushes. It’s remained a favorite haunt for calligraphers and painters, for in the time of the Qing emperors this was one of the imperial brush makers.

As we continued eastward, the rough cement-paved lanes disappeared; we found ourselves on a manicured, smooth brick road flanked by modern shops housed in ancient-style buildings beneath the modern skyline of Beijing: Dashilan Commercial Street. Here we sampled some of the finest traditional Beijing snacks, such as luzhuhuoshao (stewed pancakes), douzhi’r (mungbean milk), jiaoquan (crisp, deep-fried ring of dough), Fenchang sausage, and guotie (pan-fried meat dumplings).

The whole area is filled with wonderful historic Beijing sites. The Daguanlou Cinema is the birthplace of Chinese film. The Neiliansheng Shoe Store next to it still makes cloth shoes using traditional techniques, products well loved for being very comfortable and breathable. It is said that once you try a pair of Neiliansheng cloth shoes you will never give a second thought to leather shoes. Then there is the fine Ruifuxiang Silk Store in a baroque-style building, where you can find the highest quality silk and best tailors if you are thinking of having a Cheongsam made there. I used to have mine made at this shop, and this time I was privileged to visit their exhibition room on the second floor, where they display their old furniture and articles, including gorgeously carved hard-wood antique furniture with marble surfaces, and several large camphor wood chests which were used as safes to keep money or high-quality silk. A red national flag of the People’s Republic of China is also on display to commemorate the fact that the shop provided the very fabric for the national flag raised by Chairman Mao Zedong on the Tiananmen Gate at the 1949 founding ceremony of the PRC.

Finally we returned to the Huguang Guild Hall, where a tableful of delicious food and a medley of Peking Opera highlights awaited us. After the performance I chatted with a fellow enthusiast, a foreigner from Denmark, the land of fairy tales. I couldn’t help but draw a comparison between Hans Christian Andersons’ fairy tales and the stories of traditional Peking Opera and concluded that they both exalted things beautiful. The pursuit of beauty being something deeply ingrained in the human soul, it is up to us to yield to it; just look at the quaint businesses we discovered on a stroll from Liulichang to Dashilan!

YANG SHUYING is a guest senior editor for China Central Television's Channel 6 (CCTV-6).