798's Yesterday The 798 complex, which brings together contemporary art, architecture, and culture at a historically interesting location and with an urban lifestyle, is located in the Dashanzi area, to the northeast of central Beijing. It is the site of state-owned factories including Factory 798, which originally produced electronics. In the 1990's, because the productions of most factories did not sell well, the factory owners rented out some of the unused workshops in order to tide over the difficulties.The 798 complex came into being in 1995, when the Central Academy of Fine Arts' rented it to use as a sculpture workshop. The workshop, which in its early days was known as the sculpture factory, is still thriving.In 2000, an American named Robert, an active figure in Beijing's art circles, came to the area. Robert changed the factory dinning hall into an art bookstore, which has since become the haunt of local artists. Upon Robert's recommendation, more and more people came to 798 to set up art workshops, exhibition halls, and galleries. Robert, in effect, introduced factory 798 to the world. Beginning in 2002, more and more artists and cultural organizations began to divide, rent out, and re-make the factory spaces, gradually developing them into galleries, art centers, artists' studios, design companies, and even restaurants and bars. Hence, gradually the 798 complex became a "Soho-esque" area of international character, replete with "loft living," attracting attention from all around. Blooming in Spring The people who work or live in this area are not merely limited to the urban fringe -- bei piao (those who want to find a job or develop their career in Beijing) --, but also include a large number of contemporary artists. One such artist is Li Xiangqun, a professor from the Fine Arts Academy of China's prestigious Tsinghua University, and also the creator of the Guangan Deng Xiaoping sculpture. Li said that the artists in "798" include those who once studied at domestic well-known artistic colleges and universities, or who have studied abroad for many years, noting there are also some artists from Germany, France, England, Italy and so on. Li added that many of the artists are active characters in their respective domains. The 798 complex gathers multitudinous contemporary artistic sorts, including design, publication, performance, and artist studios, as well as some service-based businesses like luxury furniture, high-end fashion, and purveyors of food and drink. Keeping in mind the prerequisite of preserving the historical and cultural remains left in this place, inhabitants have re-made the factory spaces, putting their own interpretation to the new architecture. These spaces have become works of architecture, hovering somewhere between the ties of history and the imperatives of development, between pragmatic necessities and aesthetic diversions. In other words, the spaces enter into a living dialogue with their old surroundings. The livelihoods of those denizens are living proof of China's economic reform, revealing a new connection between individual identity and social and economic organization: between utopia and reality; between memory and future. The 798 complex represents the accumulation and maturation of youth culture in this new era. The reshaping of 798 perfectly represents the coexistence of avant-garde consciousness and traditional sentiment, the combination of experimentation and social responsibility, the double-victory of spiritual fulfillment and economic planning, and the interaction of the elite and the masses.Presently, there are 20,000 square meters of art studio in the 798 complex, all acting as venues for a broad scope of exhibitions and seminars. "Settlers" here often compare it to the SOHO district of New York, in which, as recalled by the New York Times, factories were also preserved in their primary state.In a sense, 798 is becoming a ideal place for people to observe China's modern art up close, and is unceasingly attracting more and more attention from artists from other places of the world. In 2003, Beijing appeared on the annual Newsweek world cities list. One of the reasons was the virtue, existence, and development of the 798 arts complex. Articles in Newsweek and the New York Times about 798 have brought many intrigued foreign artists and interested businesspeople to Beijing for a glimpse of the art complex. In May 2004, China's first non-governmental arts festival was held at factory 798, and more than 30 art activities took place that month. Among them were influential avant-garde concepts such as visionary and audio art, along with live concerts, dance, drama, performance art, architecture, and design exhibitions. There were also four individual film festivals and eight photographic exhibitions. During this merry month more than 200 well-known artists from both home and abroad came to exhibit their works at 798. Threatened Future Nowadays, this former suburban industrial area's value has escalated alongside its development into an up and coming area of the city and is now believed to be worth billions of RMB (Chinese currency). Artists originally rented spaces here very cheaply, but since the area began to thrive, property owners have raised their rents. Also, Beijing is considering building a new electronics industrial area that will encompass factory 798. Either way, whether it becomes a real estate project or a new industrial electronics area, property owners stand to clean up. Most rental contracts are up next year, which will cast a cloud over 798, as many currently resident artists will have no choice but to leave.Huang Rui, a returnee from Japan, is as part of a group of people about to publish the picture album 798 in Beijing. Each artist living at 798 has participated in this common call to preserve the factory complex. The group has also set up a coordinating team that includes Robert, whose function is to liaise with property owners.All the artists are trying to protect their "home." Li Xiangqun once said the complex is uncommonly sturdy in structure and rich in natural light, such an ideal workshop that is rare in China. He adds that if the place is allowed to develop naturally, it's more likely to become an art "CBD" like "SOHO" in the United States, with an immeasurable art value.