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Getting down to urban grassroots
By Zhang Qian |
December 24, 2009, Thursday
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Print Edition
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THE just-opened Museum of China's Residents' Committees displays relics great and small of the basic unit of urban organization. There are awards for rat-catching heroes, a hand-woven national flag, model-family trophies and more. Zhang Qian reports.
Visitors can take in the history of China's urban residents' committee, a basic unit of neighborhood organization going back to ancient times and later highly developed by the People's Republic of China.
The Museum of China's Residents' Committees opened to the public this week in Hangzhou's Shangyangshi Community.
The community last year was confirmed as the country's first residents' committee by the State Ministry of Civil Affairs.
The 3,000-square-meter museum features exhibits of community development in China through video, photos, films, 3D movies, text, relics, paintings and other objects.
It is divided into five pavilions that cover the development of urban neighborhood committees; the community construction; a documentary and historical data library; the modern community work and the delivery of services.
The primary-level organization first appeared in China as yi in ancient slave society and was developed into various forms over the years.
Various grassroots autonomous organizations such as fanghu dui (defending team), fangdao dui (preventing burglary team) and jumin zu (residential team) appeared after 1949.
The Shangyangshi Community Residents' Committee was the first modern neighborhood committee in People's Republic of China. This new form of grassroots organization was set up in cities throughout China by 1956.
Basic unit
The first pavilion displays lacquer paintings, serial pictures, sculptures and relief carvings, relics, photos, video and other materials.
Visitors can step into the recreated "office" of the first residential committee created by items from the 1960s and 1970s. A 10-minute 3D film titled "Zhu Ren" ("Master") recreates the scene establishing the first committee.
After traveling back to the old days, visitors in the fourthpavilion encounter modern community services.
The Shangyangshi Residents' Committee is a modern hall providing varied public services to all residents. They include helping the poor, administering employment and retirement, public welfare, family planning, hygiene and community environment.
A 180-second animation gives a general view of the committee's location, history, culture and services. They can travel "virtually" through Shanghaishi Street with a wireless control stick and screens.
More than 10,000 items collected from around China are displayed. They include an old tape recorder, a committee telephone from Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, a Model Family trophy from the 1950s from Fujian Province, a porcelain-enamel cup popular in the early 1990s from Hangzhou's Xiaoyingxiang area, and a notepad filled with work agendas in the 1970s from Tianjin.
There's a bronze bell used in the 1980s as a fire alarm from a committee in Liaoning Province and a commendation for the top rat catcher in 1985 in Hangzhou's Shisiduan (West) area.
At that time, people who caught more than 100 rats were honored; they usually cut off rats' tails for proof and kept them until they accumulated 100.
Shanghai items are also displayed, including the picture of giant pandas drawn by President Hu Jintao during a visit in 2008 to Shanghai's Quyang Community in Hongkou District. Even a cup from which the president drank is exhibited.
Visitors can examine a dog-eared exam score sheet of a resident who attended the sao wenmang (wipe out illiteracy) class during the 1950s in Shanghai's Madeli Lane.
As the birthplace of China's modern residential committee, Hangzhou's Shangyangshi Community donated many items, such as the first wooden house address plaque and a hand-woven national flag.
"My neighbor Wang Guoying made the numbers and painted them. I helped nail them to the door of each household," says 84-year-old resident Yang Yue'e. Wang died several years ago.
In the center of the hall is a national flag woven in the early 1950s by residents in Hangzhou's Jiandemei Community.
"New China had just been founded and everybody was very happy. So we decided to do something for our country," says Pan Dongxiang, first director of the committee.
The museum welcomes any donation that can help tell the neighborhood committee story, even something as small as a writing pen, a chair or insignia, says Rui Jianan, director of the museum's preparation committee.
Visitors can take in the history of China's urban residents' committee, a basic unit of neighborhood organization going back to ancient times and later highly developed by the People's Republic of China.
The Museum of China's Residents' Committees opened to the public this week in Hangzhou's Shangyangshi Community.
The community last year was confirmed as the country's first residents' committee by the State Ministry of Civil Affairs.
The 3,000-square-meter museum features exhibits of community development in China through video, photos, films, 3D movies, text, relics, paintings and other objects.
It is divided into five pavilions that cover the development of urban neighborhood committees; the community construction; a documentary and historical data library; the modern community work and the delivery of services.
The primary-level organization first appeared in China as yi in ancient slave society and was developed into various forms over the years.
Various grassroots autonomous organizations such as fanghu dui (defending team), fangdao dui (preventing burglary team) and jumin zu (residential team) appeared after 1949.
The Shangyangshi Community Residents' Committee was the first modern neighborhood committee in People's Republic of China. This new form of grassroots organization was set up in cities throughout China by 1956.
Basic unit
The first pavilion displays lacquer paintings, serial pictures, sculptures and relief carvings, relics, photos, video and other materials.
Visitors can step into the recreated "office" of the first residential committee created by items from the 1960s and 1970s. A 10-minute 3D film titled "Zhu Ren" ("Master") recreates the scene establishing the first committee.
After traveling back to the old days, visitors in the fourthpavilion encounter modern community services.
The Shangyangshi Residents' Committee is a modern hall providing varied public services to all residents. They include helping the poor, administering employment and retirement, public welfare, family planning, hygiene and community environment.
A 180-second animation gives a general view of the committee's location, history, culture and services. They can travel "virtually" through Shanghaishi Street with a wireless control stick and screens.
More than 10,000 items collected from around China are displayed. They include an old tape recorder, a committee telephone from Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, a Model Family trophy from the 1950s from Fujian Province, a porcelain-enamel cup popular in the early 1990s from Hangzhou's Xiaoyingxiang area, and a notepad filled with work agendas in the 1970s from Tianjin.
There's a bronze bell used in the 1980s as a fire alarm from a committee in Liaoning Province and a commendation for the top rat catcher in 1985 in Hangzhou's Shisiduan (West) area.
At that time, people who caught more than 100 rats were honored; they usually cut off rats' tails for proof and kept them until they accumulated 100.
Shanghai items are also displayed, including the picture of giant pandas drawn by President Hu Jintao during a visit in 2008 to Shanghai's Quyang Community in Hongkou District. Even a cup from which the president drank is exhibited.
Visitors can examine a dog-eared exam score sheet of a resident who attended the sao wenmang (wipe out illiteracy) class during the 1950s in Shanghai's Madeli Lane.
As the birthplace of China's modern residential committee, Hangzhou's Shangyangshi Community donated many items, such as the first wooden house address plaque and a hand-woven national flag.
"My neighbor Wang Guoying made the numbers and painted them. I helped nail them to the door of each household," says 84-year-old resident Yang Yue'e. Wang died several years ago.
In the center of the hall is a national flag woven in the early 1950s by residents in Hangzhou's Jiandemei Community.
"New China had just been founded and everybody was very happy. So we decided to do something for our country," says Pan Dongxiang, first director of the committee.
The museum welcomes any donation that can help tell the neighborhood committee story, even something as small as a writing pen, a chair or insignia, says Rui Jianan, director of the museum's preparation committee.
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