Red roofs invade Chinese city, angering residents

[May 21, 2010]  GUANGZHOU, China (AP) -- Their drab concrete apartment buildings are starting to look more like Spanish villas with red-tiled roofs, and that's angering many who live in them.

For the past year, workers have been repainting hundreds of buildings in Guangzhou and topping them with pitched roofs made of PVC sheets molded to look like tiles. It's part of a government-led campaign to spiff up this gritty metropolis for the Asian Games, a major sports competition in November.

The faux roofs have enraged many middle-class residents, but there is little they can do. Urban Chinese have enjoyed an explosion of personal freedom in the past three decades. They can pick their own jobs, start their own businesses and buy their own apartments.

But the government can still show up one day and announce that their homes will be getting a red roof -- whether they like it or not. Though many believe they deserve a greater say in civic affairs, citizens remain powerless when officials launch a massive campaign with little or no public consultation.

"A few of my neighbors occupied their roofs and refused to leave, but they had to eventually," said Zheng, an office worker. Like other residents, she wouldn't give her full name, fearing trouble with officials. "We don't have a choice. There's no use challenging the government."

Neighborhoods have become construction zones, with buildings surrounded by rusty steel and bamboo scaffolding covered with tattered green mesh. Crews put up metal frames on the flattop buildings and cover them with the PVC sheets.

Many in this southern Chinese city, also known as Canton, said the roofs symbolize a negative aspect of Chinese culture: an overemphasis on superficial appearance and showing off for guests, especially those from abroad.

Beijing carried out a similar facelift for the Olympic Games in 2008, and Shanghai, for the World Expo that opened this month.

"It's all just for show," said Chen, a young mother, who would only give her surname. "They're just putting new clothes and a hat on my building. In a year, it'll look bad again."

Most of the red-roofed buildings are in areas where foreigners are most likely to go during the Asian Games, which is expected to attract 25,000 athletes, coaches and journalists from 45 countries. They line the highway from the airport and the train tracks from nearby Hong Kong, and they surround some of the fancier tourist hotels.

The Potemkin village quality of the roofs mars the cityscape, said Valery Garrett, a Hong Kong-based author who has been visiting Guangzhou for decades and wrote the book, "Heaven is High, the Emperor Far Away, Merchants and Mandarins in Old Guangzhou."

Garrett is amused by the fake dormer windows in many of the roofs. "The idea of having dormer windows when there's nothing inside of them is ludicrous," she said.

The city government says the roof campaign -- called "changing the flat to sloped" -- is a practical move to prevent roofs from leaking during the rainy season and to shield buildings from the sun in the summer.

"The roofs can change the architectural scenery and will help us meet our goal of beautifying the city and improving the living environment," a government statement said.

Figures for how many buildings would get the roofs were not available yet, the statement said, but early estimates put the number at about 1,000. The government wouldn't release the overall cost but said each square meter (10.8 square feet) of roofing costs between 400 yuan ($58) and 500 yuan ($73).

The fuzzy numbers fuel perceptions that officials use such projects to enrich themselves by pocketing kickbacks and embezzling funds.

Juan Du, an architecture professor at the University of Hong Kong, said the red roof campaign reminds her of the City Beautiful Movement in the United States in the 1890s and early 1900s.

Chicago, Detroit, Washington, D.C., and other cities borrowed classical and European styles to spruce up buildings in the belief that it would promote social harmony and civic virtue.

"The notion was that by improving the image of the city, you're improving life in the city," she said.

But, she added, critics say the approach creates an artificial image that doesn't truly reflect the city.

Migrant worker He Zili, who has been building the roofs, couldn't understand why some residents were so angry. "The government is doing all this for free," he said. "Their homes will look nicer and they don't have to pay. It's a good deal."

But none of the residents interviewed by The Associated Press saw it that way.

"True, the government is paying for the roofs, but it's our money. It's the taxpayers' money," said Zheng, the office worker. "We don't want to waste that money."

As she spoke, a small group of people gathered around, nodding in agreement and punctuating her sentences by saying, "That's right!"

All around them, the work in their central Guangzhou neighborhood went on. The shrill whine of metal-cutting saws echoed through the streets, powered by droning generators giving off the acrid stench of diesel fuel.

[Associated Press; By WILLIAM FOREMAN]

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