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88-551: The term 石库门 is derived from the Shanghainese dialect 石箍门, 箍 meaning "to frame or encase." 石箍门 referred to the characteristically "stone-framed door" of the tenement houses. At the height of their popularity, there were 9,000 shikumen-style buildings in Shanghai, comprising 60% of the total housing stock of the city; however, the proportion is currently much lower, as most Shanghainese live in large apartment buildings. Shikumen

176-693: A Shanghainese community in Hong Kong . These Shanghainese or their forebears fled China prior to the formation of the People's Republic of China by the Chinese Communist Party in 1949. Some actors and actresses on the TVB network, a television network based in Hong Kong , are originally from Shanghai, such as Liza Wang , Tracy Ip and Lydia Shum . More recently, appreciable numbers of Shanghainese have migrated to other countries. There

264-447: A social hierarchy , often defined by occupation , income, education, or social status . The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Common definitions for the middle class range from the middle fifth of individuals on a nation's income ladder, to everyone but the poorest and wealthiest 20%. Theories like "Paradox of Interest" use decile groups and wealth distribution data to determine

352-472: A "new working class," which, despite education and a perception of themselves as middle class, were part of the working class because they did not own the means of production, and were wage earners paid to produce a piece of capital. The professional–managerial class seek higher rank status and salaries and tend to have incomes above the average for their country. Modern definitions of the term "middle class" are often politically motivated and vary according to

440-492: A Shanghai hukou , triple the number from the year 2000 census . These "New Shanghainese" ( 新 上海人 ) are generally distinguished from the Shanghainese proper as they usually refuse to learn the Shanghainese language and force local Shanghainese to speak Mandarin. Comparisons can be made between the vast proportion of immigrants and immigrant-descendants that make up the population of Shanghai and that of New York City in

528-736: A front and a back terrace ( shaitai , 晒台 ). The ground floor were equipped with kitchens ( zaopi jian 灶批间 ). At the back of the house, a "back wing" was added, as well as the tingzi jian ( 亭子间 ) or "pergola room", located above the kitchen and below the terrace. This was typically small, with low ceilings, and faced north, making it the least attractive room in the house. They were usually used for storage, or as living quarters for servants. Numerous new type shikumen have survived. Some well known examples include Jianye Li (now revamped into an upmarket hotel, commercial and residential complex), Siming Cun , and Mingde Li located on Avenue Joffre. In Chinese, shikumen developments are typically named with

616-417: A greater rate than the middle class, that rather than growing, India's middle class may be shrinking in size. According to a 2014 study by Standard Bank economist Simon Freemantle, a total of 15.3 million households in 11 surveyed nations of Africa are middle class: Angola , Ethiopia , Ghana , Kenya , Mozambique , Nigeria , South Sudan , Sudan , Tanzania , Uganda , and Zambia . In South Africa ,

704-509: A middle-class neighbourhood, the area became dense slums due to the influx of refugees in the Second Sino-Japanese War. The entire neighbourhood was razed progressively in 2012–2014. Cité Bourgogne ( Bugao Li ), located on South Shanxi Road, is a typical old type shikumen development despite being built in the 1930s. The neighbourhood includes 87 two-storey brick veneer residences with a red brick exterior. The trunk lane

792-543: A minority are Shanghai natives, those with ancestral roots in Shanghai. The Old City of Shanghai was a minor settlement until the later Qing Dynasty and many districts of the present municipality of Shanghai originally had separate identities, including separate but related dialects of Taihu Wu . In recent decades, millions of Chinese have moved to the city , both as internal immigrants and as migrant workers . The 2010 Chinese census found 9 million of Shanghai's 23 million residents (almost 40%) were migrants without

880-595: A regime change. Estimates vary widely on the number of middle-class people in India . A 1983 article put the Indian middle class as somewhere between 70 and 100 million. According to one study the middle class in India stood at between 60 and 80 million by 1990. According to The Economist , 78 million of India's population are considered middle class as of 2017, if defined using the cutoff of those making more than $ 10 per day,

968-543: A report conducted by the Institute for Race Relations in 2015 estimated that between 10% and 20% of South Africans are middle class, based on various criteria. An earlier study estimated that in 2008 21.3% of South Africans were members of the middle class. A study by EIU Canback indicates 90% of Africans fall below an income of $ 10 a day. The proportion of Africans in the $ 10–$ 20 middle class (excluding South Africa), rose from 4.4% to only 6.2% between 2004 and 2014. Over

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1056-542: A residence. The courtyard also allowed sunlight and improved ventilation into the rooms. This style of housing originally developed when local developers adapted Western-style terrace houses to Chinese conditions. Migrant labourers from surrounding provinces entered Shanghai in large numbers with the establishment of Shanghai as a treaty port in 1843. The 1853 Small Swords Rebellion and the Taiping Revolution drove more migrants and refugees into Shanghai. With

1144-604: A shikumen building is the prominent main gate - which also gives rise to the name "shikumen". Typically, this gate is located on the central axis of each dwelling, with twin doors made of heavy wood, painted glossy black. Typical width is around 1.4 metres, with a height of around 2.8 metres. The doors usually possess brass or iron knockers. The original documented name for such buildings was " shigumen " ( 石箍門 , Shanghainese : zaq⁸ ku¹ men⁶ ), which in Shanghainese Wu meant "gate framed with stone", but over time corrupted into

1232-654: A shikumen residence in Shude Li , and its second conference in another shikumen residence in the French Concession . The Communist Youth League first operated out of a shikumen residence on Avenue Joffre . Shikumen neighbourhoods were also often used for less salubrious trades. The lanes Huile Li and Qunyu Fang , on Foochow Road (now Fuzhou Road), formed the epicentre of Shanghai's red light district before 1949. Gambling and opium dens commonly appeared in shikumen neighbourhoods, along with fortune tellers. By

1320-560: A single shikumen residence to be inhabited by dozens of families. A famous satirical comedy of the time, set in one of these houses, was called " The 72 Tenant Families " ( 《七十二家房客》 ). Although designed to be residential, other types of enterprises often operated from shikumen buildings as well, hidden within longtang developments. These include money lenders, traders, scribes, factories, entertainment venues and even schools. For example, one larger shikumen development, Xingren Li , featured more than 20 money lenders. Often, traders would use

1408-419: A standard used by the India's National Council of Applied Economic Research. If including those with incomes between $ 2 and $ 10 per day, the number increases to 604 million. This was termed by researchers as the "new middle class". Measures considered include geography, lifestyle, income, and education. The World Inequality Report in 2018 further concluded that elites (i.e. the top 10%) are accumulating wealth at

1496-454: A suffix of Li ( 里 , "neighbourhood"), Fang ( 坊 , "ward"), Long ( 弄 , "lane") or Cun ( 邨 , "village"). The first two are traditional suffixes for names of urban precincts, in common use since at least the Tang dynasty . Where an English name was used, " Terrace " was a common suffix. The first part of the name typically derives from one of three sources. The first kind takes the name of

1584-481: A whole, exclusive of Indians, constituted just under 20% of the national society. A 1964 study estimated that 45 million Latin Americans belonged to the urban middle class while 15 million to the urban well-to-do and 8 million to the rural middle class and well-to-do. In Brazil , according to one estimate, in 1970 the lower middle class comprised 12% of the population, while the upper middle class comprised 3%. In

1672-681: A working paper by the OECD asserted that 1.8 billion people were now members of the global "middle class". Credit Suisse's Global Wealth Report 2014, released in October 2014, estimated that one billion adults belonged to the "middle class," with wealth anywhere between the range of $ 10,000–$ 100,000. According to a study carried out by the Pew Research Center , a combined 16% of the world's population in 2011 were "upper-middle income" and "upper income". An April 2019 OECD report said that

1760-632: Is a significant Shanghainese community in Sydney , especially in the suburbs of Ashfield , Burwood and Epping . Less-prominent communities exist in the Chinatowns of other large metropolitan areas such as New York and San Francisco in the United States , as well as Toronto and Vancouver in Canada . Middle class The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of

1848-458: Is about 2.5 wide, and there are numerous branch lanes. The lanes are noted for their main gateways, modeled after traditional Chinese pailou gates. Cité Bourgogne is well preserved in situ as a municipal heritage site, and remains mostly residential. The largest shikumen neighbourhood which survives in a mostly original state is Jianye Li ( 建业里 ), also heritage protected. A new type development located on West Jianguo Road and Yueyang Road,

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1936-399: Is about half the size of the front courtyard. The well, which provided water for the house, was located here (though later houses were connected to tap water instead). At the back of the back courtyard are back buildings, usually used as the kitchen, toilet and storage room. On the whole, each dwelling preserved the main features required for traditional Chinese day-to-day living, while saving

2024-718: Is classified as one type of lilong residences, sometimes translated as " lane houses " in English. In 2010, "construction techniques of shikumen lilong architecture" was recognised by the Chinese government on the national non-physical cultural heritage register (no. VIII-210). Shikumen houses were also introduced to other port cities in China. For example, many were built in the foreign concessions of Hankou (now part of Wuhan ), and some can still be seen there today. Shikumen terraces can even be found as far afield as Beijing, where

2112-425: Is impossible to distinguish clearly among the multiple dimensions of inequality and the various mechanisms at work." In February 2009, The Economist asserted that over half the world's population now belongs to the middle class, as a result of rapid growth in emerging countries. It characterized the middle class as having a reasonable amount of discretionary income , so that they do not live from hand-to-mouth as

2200-607: Is that new style buildings are three storeys high. They were built of reinforced concrete , rather than brick veneer. Some were equipped with modern sanitary equipment, and natural lighting became a key concern. Developments are typically laid out with a main, trunk lane, with houses arranged along branch lanes leading from the trunk lane. With the advent of motor cars, the trunk lanes were usually built wide enough to accommodate cars. Instead of one lane with one or two rows of houses, new style shikumen were typically developed in large blocks. Standard triangular gables and party walls replaced

2288-588: Is usually surmounted by a stylistic stone arch . The shikumen is a cultural blend of the elements found in Western architecture with traditional Lower Yangtze architecture and social behavior. Traditional Chinese dwellings had a courtyard, and the Shikumen was no exception. Yet, to compromise with its urban nature, it was much smaller and provided an interior haven to the commotions in the streets, allowing for raindrops to fall and vegetation to grow freely within

2376-564: The Jiangnan cultural region in Jiangsu and Zhejiang . Additionally a great number of people from Shanghai itself have ancestry in these adjacent regions. Although Shanghai was long a cosmopolitan city as one of Qing Dynasty 's treaty ports , its people was not connected with the large-scale emigration seen amongst the Fujianese and Cantonese . Maritime commerce did, however, create

2464-513: The bourgeoisie ; later, with the further differentiation of classes as capitalist societies developed, the term came to be synonymous with the term petite bourgeoisie . The boom-and-bust cycles of capitalist economies result in the periodic (and more or less temporary) impoverishment and proletarianization of much of the petite bourgeois world, resulting in their moving back and forth between working-class and petite-bourgeois status. The typical modern definitions of "middle class" tend to ignore

2552-681: The "middle class" which stands between the ruling capitalist "owners of the means of production" and the working class (whose income is derived solely from hourly wages). Pioneer 20th century American Marxist theoretician Louis C. Fraina (Lewis Corey) defined the middle class as "the class of independent small enterprisers, owners of productive property from which a livelihood is derived". From Fraina's perspective, this social category included "propertied farmers" but not propertyless tenant farmers . Middle class also included salaried managerial and supervisory employees but not "the masses of propertyless, dependent salaried employees. Fraina speculated that

2640-572: The 1990s as "New Labour" , a party competing with the Conservative Party for the votes of the middle-class as well as those of the Labour Party's traditional group of voters – the working-class. Around 40% of British people consider themselves to be middle class, and this number has remained relatively stable over the last few decades. According to the OECD , the middle class refers to households with income between 75% and 200% of

2728-416: The Chinese middle class differs substantially from its Western counterparts. Despite its growth, it remains a relatively small group profoundly joined with the Chinese state. This unique relationship challenges assumptions about its role in political change. Criticisms from this demographic often center on improving efficiency and social justice within the existing political framework, rather than advocating for

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2816-471: The Chinese population were considered middle class as of 2017. China's middle class represents a significant market force with effects extending beyond its borders. The promise of increased prosperity and a consumer society has been a driving force behind this growth, while also suggesting the potential for political changes similar to those seen in Europe and North America. However, it's important to note that

2904-626: The Jiangnan region. Shikumen residences had a much smaller footprint than traditional courtyard residences, and were accessed by narrow lanes. They were also cheaper to build than Western-style houses. Although more expensive to build than the wooden terraces they replaced, they were sturdier and so attracted higher rents. They were first built in the British concession (later part of the International Settlement; and still later,

2992-504: The United States, historically a hub for immigrants to the country. The term "Shanghainese" may thus apply to several different groups of varying exclusivity. Legally , it refers to those holding a hukou for one of the local governments in the municipality of Shanghai . Culturally, it most often means those who consider Shanghai to be their home city ,. The term Shanghainese may also refer more broadly to people from areas of

3080-487: The city. In France , the middle classes helped drive the French Revolution . This "middle class" eventually overthrew the ruling monarchists of feudal society, thus becoming the new ruling class or bourgeoisie in the new capitalist-dominated societies. The modern usage of the term "middle-class", however, dates to the 1913 UK Registrar-General's report, in which the statistician T. H. C. Stevenson identified

3168-575: The death of two elderly residents. Architectural historians classify shikumen into two types, the "old type" and the "new type". The old type was predominantly built from the 1860s until the end of the First World War , while the new type prevailed from after the First World War until the development of shikumen ceased after 1949. Old type shikumen is further divided into an early period and a late period. The defining characteristic of

3256-518: The developed one, since their money incomes do not match developed country levels, but the percentage of it which is discretionary does. By this definition, the number of middle-class people in Asia exceeded that in the West sometime around 2007 or 2008. The Economist 's article pointed out that in many emerging countries, the middle class has not grown incrementally but explosively. The point at which

3344-425: The development is composed of 260 residences, all of which are two storey red brick buildings. This development is noted for its use of traditionally Chinese matou gables, and arched doorways. In 2003, the original residents were relocated, and the buildings were somewhat controversially renovated to become serviced apartments and to house restaurants and other commercial uses. Shangxian Fang ( 尚贤坊 ), located on

3432-423: The development of smaller, but better equipped, "new type" shikumen. "New type" shikumen were three storeys tall instead of two, and were equipped with modern sanitary equipment. Great emphasis was placed on natural lighting, with most shikumen orientated towards the south, and an internal staircase skylight or atrium to supplement the front and back courtyards. Developments became larger, with a trunk lane leading off

3520-509: The driving force for sustainable development. This assumption, however, is contested (see below). As the American middle class is estimated by some researchers to comprise approximately 45% of the population, The Economist 's article would put the size of the American middle class below the world average. This difference is due to the extreme difference in definitions between The Economist 's and many other models . In 2010,

3608-409: The early 1950s, it was calculated that there were more than 9000 shikumen buildings, comprising 65% of residential housing stock by area in Shanghai. While constructions of new residential buildings decreased this percentage over time, most shikumen neighbourhoods remained unchanged in their crowded state until economic reforms in the 1980s and 90s began the wave of demolition and reconstruction which, by

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3696-450: The early 21st century, has left only a few shikumen developments intact. In Xuhui District alone, it has been calculated that shikumen residences had decreased from 2.68 million square metres in 1949, to 0.25 million square metres by the late 1990s. The forced demolition of crowded and stable shikumen communities gave rise to controversies, such as a 2005 incident where a developer resorted to arson to persuade residents to leave, resulting in

3784-402: The entire category of salaried employees might be adequately described as a "new middle class" in economic terms, although this remained a social grouping in which "most of whose members are a new proletariat." In 1977, Barbara Ehrenreich and John Ehrenreich defined a new class in the United States as "salaried mental workers who do not own the means of production and whose major function in

3872-436: The exigencies of political purpose which they were conceived to serve in the first place as well as due to the multiplicity of more- or less-scientific methods used to measure and compare wealth between modern advanced industrial states, where poverty is relatively low and the distribution of wealth more egalitarian in a relative sense, and in developing countries, where poverty and a profoundly unequal distribution of wealth crush

3960-431: The external façade of the terrace there are often typically Chinese matou ("horse head") style or Guanyin dou (" Guanyin hood") style gables ; the main hall uses floor-to-ceiling windows; decorative boards below eaves; and grid windows on the side wings. However, in contrast to later shikumen buildings, the gates of early period shikumen were not elaborately decorated, and were simply framed in stone. In terms of layout,

4048-720: The fabric of the buildings. All of these redevelopment projects have been controversial. Other than Cité Bourgogne , Shangxian Fang and Jianye Li , other heritage protected shikumen precincts are Siming Cun , Meilan Fang and Rongkang Li . Shanghainese people Shanghainese people ( Chinese : 上海人 ; pinyin : Shànghǎirén ; Shanghainese : Zaanhe-nyin [zɑ̃̀hɛ́.ɲɪ̀ɲ] ) are an ethnic group of Shanghai Hukou descent or people who have ancestral roots from Shanghai. Most Shanghainese are descended from immigrants from nearby provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu . According to 1990 census, 85% of Shanghainese people trace their ancestry to Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Only

4136-599: The fact that the classical petite-bourgeoisie is and has always been the owner of a small-to medium-sized business whose income is derived almost exclusively from the employment of workers; "middle class" came to refer to the combination of the labour aristocracy , professionals , and salaried, white-collar workers . The size of the middle class depends on how it is defined, whether by education, wealth , environment of upbringing, social network , manners or values, etc. These are all related, but are far from deterministically dependent. The following factors are often ascribed in

4224-552: The first sense, it is used for the bourgeoisie (the urban merchant and professional class) that arose between the aristocracy and the proletariat in the waning years of feudalism in the Marxist model. Vladimir Lenin stated that the "peasantry ... in Russia constitute eight- or nine-tenths of the petty bourgeoisie". However, in modern developed countries, Marxist writers define the petite bourgeoisie as primarily comprising (as

4312-466: The freeholder or related party: for example Siming Cun is named after the Chinese name ("Siming Bank") of the project's main sponsor, the Ningpo Commercial & Savings Bank ; similarly, Meilan Fang takes one syllable from each of the two owners' names - brothers Wu Mei xi and Wu Si lan . The second kind takes the name of a nearby road or landmark, for example Bao'an Fang is named after

4400-485: The ground floor rooms for storage, and live in the upper floors. Chemical and dye dealers were common. Even light industry was found within shikumen communities, such as sock factories and cosmetics factories. Even more common (and common even today in surviving and renovated shikumen lanes) are grocers, restaurants, inns and bath houses. Densely populated shikumen neighbourhoods provided camouflage for revolutionaries. The Chinese Communist Party held its first conference in

4488-554: The land required. Most early period old style shikumen have been demolished or rebuilt. Representative examples include the Xingren Li , built in 1872 (demolished 1980), and Mianyang Li and Jixiang Li , both located near the Shiliupu dock area. Late period shikumen were mostly built between 1910 and 1919. The three-bay wide frontage with two side wings was reduced to one- or two-bay wide, with one side wing. The back courtyard

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4576-403: The lane entrance. Few old type shikumen neighbourhoods survive. Xingren Li , built in 1872, was regarded as a characteristic old type shikumen development. It was located on East Beijing Road, and composed of 24 two-storey residences, which varied in size between three-bay wide and five-bay wide styles. The main lane was 107.5 metres long, and the end walls featured Guanyin dou -style gables. It

4664-579: The late 1930s, shikumen buildings were already on their way out, overtaken by newer styles of lilong residences, and large apartment buildings. Commercial property development in Shanghai virtually ceased during the Second World War and the Chinese Civil War that followed it. After the end of the war 1949, shikumen construction ceased completely, replaced with planned construction of residential buildings on collectivist principles. In

4752-439: The left and right. At the centre, facing the courtyard is the hall, or ketang jian ( 客堂间 ). This large room typically has an area of about 12 square metres, and is used like a modern sitting room or living room. On either side of the hall are the cijian ( 次间 ) or "secondary rooms". Stairs to reach the first floor are located behind the cijian . Behind the hall and the cijian is the back courtyard ( houtianjing 后天井 ), which

4840-468: The literature on this topic to a "middle class:" In the United States, by the end of the twentieth century, more people identified themselves as middle-class (with insignificant numbers identifying themselves as upper-class). The Labour Party in the UK, which grew out of the organised labour movement and originally drew almost all of its support from the working-class, reinvented itself under Tony Blair in

4928-426: The median national income. Marxism defines social classes according to their relationship with the means of production . The main basis of social class division of Marxism: the possession of means of production, the role and position it plays in social labor organization (production process), the distribution of wealth and resources and the amount. Marxist writers have used the term middle class in various ways. In

5016-583: The mid-1970s it was estimated by one authority that the Brazilian middle class comprised between 15 and 25% of the population. A 1969 economic survey estimated that 15% of Brazilians belonged to the middle class. By 1970, according to one study, the middle class of Argentina comprised 38% of the economically active population, compared with 19% in Brazil and 24% in Mexico . A 1975 study on Mexico estimated that

5104-476: The middle class as having a reasonable amount of discretionary income and defined it as beginning at the point where people have roughly a third of their income left for discretionary spending after paying for basic food and shelter. The term "middle class" is first attested in James Bradshaw's 1745 pamphlet Scheme to prevent running Irish Wools to France. Another phrase used in early modern Europe

5192-461: The middle class as those falling between the upper-class and the working-class . The middle class includes: professionals, managers, and senior civil servants. The chief defining characteristic of membership in the middle-class is control of significant human capital while still being under the dominion of the elite upper class, who control much of the financial and legal capital in the world. Within capitalism, "middle-class" initially referred to

5280-458: The middle class in 1968 (defined as families earning between 2,000 and 5,000 pesos annually) comprised 36.4% of the population, while the upper class (defined as families earning over 5,000 pesos annually) comprised 9.4% of the population and the lower class (defined as families earning less than 2,000 pesos annually) comprised 53.9% of the population. According to a study by the World Bank ,

5368-600: The millennial generation is being pushed out of the middle class throughout the Western world. Since the beginning of the 21st century, China 's middle class has grown by significant margins. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies , by 2013, some 420 million people, or 31%, of the Chinese population qualified as middle class. Based on the World Bank definition of middle class as those having with daily spending between $ 10 and $ 50 per day, nearly 40% of

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5456-493: The more elaborate matou or Guanyin dou styles, with concrete tops. Exposed brick was used for external walls. The main gate frame also switched from stone to brick and painted stone cladding. The architectural style became far more Westernised overall. Each dwelling was one to two bays wide. Two-bay wide houses "inherited" only one side wing, while one-bay wide houses discarded wings completely. Stairs became less steep. The new second floor typically contained bedrooms, along with

5544-428: The name implies) owners of small to medium-sized businesses, who derive their income from the exploitation of wage-laborers (and who are in turn exploited by the "big" bourgeoisie i.e. bankers, owners of large corporate trusts, etc.) as well as the highly educated professional class of doctors, engineers, architects, lawyers, university professors, salaried middle-management of capitalist enterprises of all sizes, etc. – as

5632-514: The nearby Temple to the Bao'an Situ. The third type uses an auspicious words: such as Jixiang Li ("auspicious"), Ruyi Li ("happiness") and Ping'an Li ("safety"). The Chinese name for Cité Bourgogne , Bugao Li , is both phonetically similar to the French name and has an auspicious meaning of "stepping upwards". The names are typically inscribed, along with the year of construction, on the arch above

5720-605: The number of Latin Americans who are middle class rose from 103 million to 152 million between 2003 and 2009. In 2012, the "middle class" in Russia was estimated as 15% of the whole population. Due to sustainable growth , the pre-crisis level was exceeded. In 2015, research from the Russian Academy of Sciences estimated that around 15% of the Russian population are "firmly middle class", while around another 25% are "on

5808-412: The poor do, and defined it as beginning at the point where people have roughly a third of their income left for discretionary spending after paying for basic food and shelter. This allows people to buy consumer goods, improve their health care, and provide for their children's education. Most of the emerging middle class consists of people who are middle class by the standards of the developing world but not

5896-491: The poor start entering the middle class by the millions is alleged to be the time when poor countries get the maximum benefit from cheap labour through international trade , before they price themselves out of world markets for cheap goods. It is also a period of rapid urbanization, when subsistence farmers abandon marginal farms to work in factories, resulting in a several-fold increase in their economic productivity before their wages catch up to international levels. That stage

5984-484: The pre-merger Huangpu District ), but quickly became popular throughout the Old City and Chinese zones, and came to become the predominant form of residential construction in Shanghai. The high profit attracted a whole swathe of property companies to enter the shikumen market. From the 1910s, various innovations were made to the shikumen in response to social change. With a burgeoning middle class , designers increased

6072-521: The property market in Shanghai. It was common for families who could not afford the rent on a whole house to sub-let some of the rooms. They were known as "second landlords" ( 二 房东 , èr fángdōng ) (as opposed to the head-landlord ( 大 房东 , dà fángdōng )). "Second landlords" often lived in the same shikumen residence with their tenants. The phenomenon blossomed after the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War: with refugees rushing into

6160-638: The same period, the proportion of " upper middle class " income ($ 20–$ 50 a day) went from 1.4% to 2.3%. According to a 2014 study by the German Development Institute, the middle class of Sub-Saharan Africa rose from 14 million to 31 million people between 1990 and 2010. Over the years estimates on the size of the Latin America 's middle class have varied. A 1960 study stated that the middle strata in Latin America as

6248-403: The shikumen of this period were arranged in lanes of about 3 metres wide - narrower than later buildings - and the attention to orientation, and organization of trunk lanes and branch lanes, both features of later shikumen, were also absent. In terms of internal lay-out, immediately within the main gate is the front courtyard ( tianjing 天井 ), flanked by wings ( xiangfang 厢房 ) of the house on

6336-463: The similar-sounding " shikumen ". Each individual dwelling displays typical characteristics of traditional Jiangnan architecture, while the layout of the development as a whole is adopted from Western terrace houses . Early period old type shikumen were built between 1869 and 1910. They retained more of the style of traditional Chinese houses, but with a much condensed footprint. There are typically 3 to 5 bays to each dwelling, and two storeys. They used

6424-494: The site of the main hall of the International Institute of China of Gilbert Reid , is another heritage protected shikumen precinct, which is now being renovated to become "shikumen hotels". Other re-developed shikumen precincts include Xintiandi , where the buildings were extensively reconstructed, and Tianzi Fang , which has been redeveloped for small businesses with an artistic bent, while largely preserving

6512-452: The size and wealth share of the middle class. Terminology differs in the United States , where the term middle class describes people who in other countries would be described as working class . There has been significant global middle-class growth over time. In February 2009, The Economist asserted that over half of the world's population belonged to the middle class, as a result of rapid growth in emerging countries. It characterized

6600-698: The social division of labor ... [is] ... the reproduction of capitalist culture and capitalist class relations;" the Ehrenreichs named this group the "professional–managerial class". This group of middle-class professionals is distinguished from other social classes by their training and education (typically business qualifications and university degrees), with example occupations including academics and teachers , social workers , engineers , accountants , managers , nurses , and middle-level administrators. The Ehrenreichs developed their definition from studies by André Gorz , Serge Mallet, and others, of

6688-508: The street, and branch lanes leading off the trunk lane. Cars became more popular, so the trunk lanes were typically designed to accommodate cars. The heyday of the "new type" shikumen was in the 1920s. From the 1930s they were replaced by newer building types, including newer types of lilong residences, as well as larger modern apartment buildings, before the civil war and the Second Sino-Japanese War completely disrupted

6776-454: The traditional litie ( 立帖 ) (or "brick nogging") style of brick veneer for load-bearing walls. The houses possessed walls of equal height at the front and back, so that each dwelling (despite being part of a terrace) was an enclosed whole, separated from the outside world. This made them popular with the upper end of the residential property market. The early period shikumen also possessed more features of traditional Chinese architecture: on

6864-570: The two shikumen lanes Huakang Li and Tai’an Li, dating from the 1920s, are undergoing restoration. Shikumens are two or three-story structures resembling Western terrace houses or townhouses , distinguished by high brick walls enclosing a narrow front yard. The name "stone gate" references these strong gateways. Each residence abuts another and all are arranged in straight side alleys called longtang ( Chinese : 弄堂 ; pinyin : Lòngtáng , Shanghainese : lon⁶ daon⁶ , IPA : [loŋ¹¹ dɑ̃²⁴] , sometimes written as 衖堂). The entrance to each alley

6952-454: The unoccupied concessions from the Chinese zones in Hongkou and Zhabei , and further afield, there was dramatically increased demand for housing in the concessions. "Second landlords" used increasingly creative ways to sub-divide rooms and build add-ons and lean-tos in the courtyards and on the terraces. Shikumen residences became known for being crowded and disorderly. It was not uncommon for

7040-522: The upsurge in demand, property developers began to build a large number of residential buildings for the new Chinese residents of the city. At first, these tended to be wooden buildings that were cheap and quick to build. These wooden buildings were built as terraces, and usually name with " Li " ( 里 , Shanghainese : li⁶ ) as suffix. These were the first " lilong " buildings in Shanghai. Within 10 months from 1853, 800 dwellings of this type were built. Because of their flammability, this type of construction

7128-580: The vast majority of the population. Many of these methods of comparison have been harshly criticised; for example, economist Thomas Piketty , in his book Capital in the Twenty-First Century , describes one of the most commonly used comparative measures of wealth across the globe, the Gini coefficient , as being an example of "synthetic indices ... which mix very different things, such as inequality with respect to labor and capital, so that it

7216-479: The west and east Siwen Li (in the process of being demolished), north Shude Li , and Daqing Li , built in 1915. One of the few old type shikumen developments to be preserved largely intact is Bugao Li , or Cité Bourgogne (built in the 1930s), in the former French Concession. New type shikumen were typically built from 1919 to the 1930s. They were also called "reformed style" shikumen residences. The main structural difference between new type and old type shikumen

7304-463: The width of lanes between terraces, but the width of each dwelling decreased - from a three-bay hall and two side wings (as was standard in the 19th century) to a two-bay or one-bay hall, and one side wing. Decorations became more elaborate: the main doors of the houses acquired the characteristic elaborate lintels, featuring architraves , archivolts and pediments . By around 1919, increasing population pressures and an increasing wealth gap encouraged

7392-414: Was "the middling sort". The term "middle class" has had several and sometimes contradictory meanings. Friedrich Engels saw the category as an intermediate social class between the nobility and the peasantry in late-feudalist society. While the nobility owned much of the countryside, and the peasantry worked it, a new bourgeoisie (literally "town-dwellers") arose around mercantile functions in

7480-411: Was banned by concession authorities in Shanghai. However, with a burgeoning property development market in Shanghai, developers adapted these wooden terraces into the Shikumen. They used the traditional Chinese " litie " technique of wooden frame and load-bearing brick veneer construction, and for each residence used the traditional three-sided courtyard or four-sided courtyard layouts commonly found in

7568-438: Was demolished in 1980. Another notable now-demolished development was Siwen Li , located on Xinzha Road. This late period old type shikumen development occupied 4.66 hectares, with 48,000 square metres of floor space. There were a total of 706 residences of two or three storeys. Most of these buildings were one-bay wide, without modern sanitary equipment. The house gates were noted for intricate baroque style lintels. Originally

7656-413: Was reached in China sometime between 1990 and 2005, when the Chinese "middle class" grew from 15% to 62% of the population and is just being reached in India now. The Economist predicted that surge across the poverty line should continue for a couple of decades and the global middle class will grow exponentially between now and 2030. Based on the rapid growth, scholars expect the global middle class to be

7744-527: Was reduced, but more attention was paid to natural lighting, and the laneways were widened. More Western architectural details found favour: bannisters, doors and windows, staircase, pillar capitals and arch buttresses all used Western decorative styles. The lintel of the main gate also became increasingly elaborate, decorated with semicircular archivolts, triangular pediments or rectangular architraves. Late period old type shikumen are far better preserved than early period examples. Representative examples include

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