

Home sweet home

Dingzihu (钉子户) is a Chinese word that means a household or person who refuses to vacate their home to make way for real estate development. Virtual China translates the word as 'nail house' because "they stick out like nails in an otherwise modernized environment".

Last week Ananova published a story about a very persistent nail house (pictured):

Developers have turned a house into an island in China after the owner refused to move out. The villa now stands alone in a 30ft deep man-made pit in Chongqing city, reports Jinbao Daily. The Chongqing Zhengsheng Real Estate Company wants to turn the area into a £40m 'Broadway' square, including apartments and a shopping mall... ... "The villa owner refuses to move, so the real-estate developer has had to dig out all around it to force him to," says a saleswoman at Weilian Real Estate Sales Company. "He wants 20 million yuan, or he'll stay till the end of the world."

A photograph of the house in question has been circulating on the Chinese Internet during the last few days. It's posted on the popular Tianya forum: The coolest nail house in history. The post is accompanied by a short description, roughly translated below:

At the beginning of March, a photo called "the coolest nail house in history" stirred up a lot of debate. Within the space of a few days, this photo was widely circulated and posted all over the Internet, and a lot of media as well as the general populace were interested in the affair. This happened at the same time as the Property Law [was being discussed at the NPC], so people were even more curious about it. The final fate of "the coolest nail house in history" will be a famous monument to the progress of the Property Law.

The Tianya post has hundreds of comments representing many different points of view about the Property Law, the evils of state- and privately-owned real estate development, and the the rights of tenants.

The online chatter about property rights makes for an interesting contrast with recent discussion of property rights in the traditional media, for example this story excerpted from The Wall Street Journal:

China Magazine Is Pulled As Property Law Looms A landmark proposal to protect private property was formally introduced into China's legislature amid continuing controversy, and in one possible sign of the legislation's sensitivity, the latest issue of an influential Chinese business magazine that covered it was pulled earlier this week. It wasn't immediately clear who blocked the issue of Caijing -- a move that came during one of the busiest periods in China's political calendar -- or why. But according to a person familiar with the situation, the issue included articles, among others, on the bankruptcy of a government-controlled brokerage firm and on the piece of property-rights legislation, which has drawn vocal criticism.



Image of Wu Ping on CCTV from Peering Into the Interior