Hutong Face: Flaws on the spine or cover

Author: Qiu Yang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-06-01
Features: A map of the soul, a map of emotions, elegant travel, romantic travel, a travel of nostalgia. As a native Beijing, the author of this book has spent many years wandering through the streets and alleys of the capital. He is deeply moved by the hutongs, a form of architecture that carries too much historical information and its serene and simple beauty after weathering the vicissitudes of time. The author spent more than half a year walking through fifty hutongs in Beijing with cultural and historical connotations, describing the real "faces of hutongs" with a camera and paper and pen, recording his complex emotions. He also searched for the gradually fading past of the hutongs and the traces of famous people in architectural remnants and textual historical records, which led to this book. The fifty hutongs in the book are either elegant by the water, ancient and deep, or dilapidated and scattered, embodying five moods: elegance, charm, simplicity, seclusion, and shadow. Every gatehouse, every stele, every corner of the eaves all bear the marks of changing times. Cao Xueqin, Gong Zizhen, Cai Yuanpei, Lu Xun, Yu Dafu, Bing Xin all have an inseparable connection with the hutongs.