Chapter 32 Sanyi, Hanzheng Street: Changes of the No. 1 Street in the World

An article in "People's Daily" in 1982 made Hanzheng Street a representative place of the small commodity market, which attracted countless government officials and tourists to visit.Hanzheng Street, parallel to Han River, is the earliest central street in Hankou, Wuhan. Most of the time, it was a prosperous commercial street. However, in the era when small business was regarded as speculation, Hanzheng Street once declined. In 1979, the Hanzheng Street Small Commodity Market was restored, and it quickly regained its vitality in the first few years of reform and opening up. In 1967, Wuhan Hanzheng Street was renamed Xingwu Street.At this time, the Cultural Revolution had begun for a year.As we all know, Wuhan was the most prosperous city during the Cultural Revolution.

From the name of Xingwu Street, we can see the purpose it wants to achieve, nothing more than destroying capitalism and revitalizing the proletarian brothers.But giving Hanzheng Street the name of Xingwu Street is particularly ironic.Because this street was historically a place where wealthy businessmen gathered, Wu Qi, a poet in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, once wrote in a poem about Hankou: Ten miles of sail walls are built according to the city, and the lights of thousands of houses are bright all night. Later, these two poems will be quoted by almost everyone who writes the history of Wuhan.The prosperous scene it describes is talked about by Wuhan people.Wuhan writer Liu Fudao said in his book "The First Street in the World: Wuhan Hanzheng Street" published in 2001: "This is the history that Wuhan people are proud of, and almost all Wuhan historical records must be quoted. In today's Hanzheng Street These two lines of verse are printed everywhere on the front of the store, on the gift boxes, and on the paper cups. If Wu Qi can get the royalties, he will definitely be the number one rich man in Hanzheng Street."During the Ming Dynasty, Hanzheng Street "is lined with shops along the street, most of which are two-story buildings with white walls and gray tiles, simple and chic".

This street parallel to the Han River is the benchmark for the development of Hankou in the past five hundred years.In Hankou, the east-west streets parallel to the Han River and the Yangtze River are called XX Streets, and their main arterial roads are called XX Avenues; the north-south streets perpendicular to the Han River and the Yangtze River are called XX Roads.The names of the streets and alleys of Hanzheng Street also basically reflected its own commercial atmosphere. Many of them used the names of shops and products as street names, such as weft, clothes, socks, scissors, reed mat, straw paper, and button.Dakou Lane, which began to appear in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, was mainly a street for making Chinese-style clothes. During the prosperous period, many bank banks in Hankou also gathered in Dakou Lane.On this 3,194-meter-long street, there are countless legends about getting rich overnight and prodigal sons who are not filial.There is a ballad on Hanzheng Street: the first generation works hard, the second generation is beautiful, the third generation is lazy, and the fourth generation is naked.

But after 1949, this law of nature and all those legends were terminated and stopped updating.Several famous old stores on Hanzheng Street have become state-owned enterprises or disappeared in the process of public-private partnerships and socialist transformation of industry and commerce.Founded in 1885, Qianxiangyi Cloth Store was valued at RMB 470,000 by its owners Meng Naiquan and Ji Xingwu in March 1954, and joined the public-private joint venture lineup of Wuhan Department Stores. In 1958, Qianxiangyi was renamed State-run Qianxiangyi shopping mall.Ye Kaitai, a pharmacy as famous as Tongrentang in Beijing, Huqingyutang in Hangzhou, and Chenliji in Guangzhou, handed over all its assets to the public at the peak of its joint venture in 1956, and its employees were also arranged by the state.

The blow to private business has grown harder over time.In "The First Street in the World: Wuhan Hanzheng Street", Liu Fudao wrote: "Since the beginning of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in 1966, self-employment activities have been impacted. At that time (Shiqiao) Kou District 3415 individual traders, there were more than 400 households Business licenses were automatically handed over, and more than 30% of the individual businesses in the Hanzheng Street Market automatically closed down. With the deepening of the Cultural Revolution, by 1969, some self-employed individuals who traded in private were criticized and punished as speculators. In 1971, Wuhan City, in the name of the Revolutionary Committee, decided to stop issuing business licenses to individual handicraftsmen and vendors, and adopted a "gradual arrangement for the original self-employed households to mature one household, Arrange one household' policy. At this point, the individual businesses in the Hanzheng Street market tend to disappear. All commercial activities of individual vendors on Hanzheng Street are all regarded as taking the capitalist road, and they are characterized as speculative activities. Column. At that time, Hanzheng Street had only a few state-owned stores and cooperative stores, a few state-owned factories and cooperative factories, and a commercial street since ancient times turned into a depressed and deserted residential area.”

Wang Renchang is one of those affected by this change.In the 1940s, Wang Runji Yarn Co., Qianxiangyi, and Shenglibudian of the Wang family were the three most prominent companies in the gauze industry in Hankou, and they were also called the three knives of Hanzheng Street.Wang Runji's boss, Wang Renchang's father, Wang Yuqing, is described as a Confucian businessman who was familiar with the Three Kingdoms and did business well.But after 1949, it was defined as the "industrial, commercial and landlord class" that needed to be overthrown and reformed. After the three major reforms, Wang Yuqing could only sell big bowls of tea and watermelon on the street, or open an air gun stand.Wang Renchang is the eldest son of Wang Yuqing. Although he went to university, his background in an exploiting class family and his fiery temper made him spend his time in prison wearing shackles and handcuffs when he was identified as an "current counter-revolutionary and sentenced to 10 years in prison". One year and eight months passed.After repeated complaints, Wang Renchang was released from prison, but was arrested again shortly afterwards. This was in June 1977. This time, Wang Renchang said an astonishing sentence: "Deng Xiaoping came out, and I will come out soon!"

He was released from prison for the second time in June 1981 and returned to Hanzheng Street. "Hanzheng Street doesn't have his household registration, he can't even find a temporary job, and his life is not settled. It should be possible to become a monk in Guiyuan Temple. Without a household registration, he can't get it." A letter of introduction, even a monk can’t be a monk. Ten li Hanzheng Street, where is the place to stay? He had to look at the air gun stand for his old lady.” Liu Fudao said. Another legendary figure on Hanzheng Street, Zheng Juxuan, was released from prison on June 30, 1979. Zheng Juxuan, who was born in Hanyang in 1940, lost his eyesight due to smallpox when he was 6 years old, and eventually became blind in both eyes.But he was lucky because all five of his brothers and sisters died of smallpox.He started his own business in 1961. After the Cultural Revolution began, his home was ransacked repeatedly. One reason was that someone from the Zheng family went to Taiwan before 1949; the other reason was that Zheng Juxuan was the most famous "tail of capitalism" on Hanzheng Street.Then on January 8, 1978, Zheng Juxuan was imprisoned. After he came out, Zheng Juxuan "would rather go to the garbage dump to pick up vegetables and leaves to eat than do business again."

But at this time the atmosphere in China has been quietly changing.Ren Zhengxuan, deputy director of the Industrial and Commercial Bureau of Hankou (Shiqiao) District, who was in charge of the market at that time, recalled: "Hanzheng Street has a lot of 'speculation'. Zheng Juxuan is blind. His elder brother or younger brother is in the United States. He is always engaged in (business), and it is forbidden to do it secretly. 1978 In 1982, he was punished for speculation, locked up and later released without charge until October 1982. He went to the East Lake Hotel to hold an on-site meeting, which was convened by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce. We can’t afford so many households. For half of the households, make a change and issue a temporary license. The central government says it’s ok, and it’s issued. If it’s not, it’s accepted. Cross the river by feeling the stones. After the on-site meeting, it sprung up like mushrooms after rain, from Liji Road to Jijiazui, filled with 1982, when we were the chief. There were risks and pressure. Many people said that the restoration of Hanzheng Street’s charitableism, you are always the capital The backstage of the restoration of doctrine, the umbrella. If the second Cultural Revolution comes, criticism will not be escaped. In 1981, a worker wrote an article, "A lot of speculators in Hanzheng Street" and sent it to a certain daily in Beijing."

Zheng Juxuan was among the 103 self-employed households who initially set up stalls on the street.This burly, blind businessman seemed to be an unspoken business leader on Hanzheng Street.He also became the earliest ten thousand household in Hanzheng Street. "Canada Weekly" commented on Zheng Juxuan and said: "The self-employed in the small commodity market also have their own heroes. The 45-year-old Zheng Juxuan is a typical example of hardworking and resolute Chinese people." Wang Renchang later also became a well-known figure in Hanzheng Street.He amassed millions for himself through trade.In 1993, he even tried to take more than 1,000 self-employed businesses from Hanzheng Street to Wuhan Xin Railway Station to recreate another market comparable to Hanzheng Street.However, what really made Wang Renchang famous may be the TV series "Hanzheng Street" adapted from his novel "Curve Life".This TV series made Hanzheng Street a household name in China.

At the same time, politicians and the official media are constantly trying to correct the name of Hanzheng Street. In April 1985, Zhao Ziyang, then Premier of the State Council, visited Wuhan and offered to visit the Hanzheng Street Small Commodity Market.It took him 20 minutes to walk from Liji Road, Hanzheng Street, to Jijiazui, passing through the crowded market in accordance with the agreed rule of "walk only, keep looking, don't ask".The People's Daily published a comment on August 28, 1982, "The experience of the small commodity market in Hanzheng Street is worthy of attention", which freed Hanzheng Street from the accusations of being overwhelmed.

Afterwards, the commercial genes of Hanzheng Street began to be revealed.In 1988, the country’s first private self-employed school appeared on this street; in 1993, Dadi Company of Hanzheng Street native Li Yu’an merged Wuhan State-owned Match Factory; Employ hundreds of workers. Shenzhen is open to the outside world, and Hanzheng is invigorated internally. This street begins to reinterpret the story of adventurers and wealth. But in a business era, a region must have the ability to continue to grow itself in order to always lead the market. In 2005, "China Youth Daily" published an article saying: "After the rapid development in the 1980s and the extreme glory in the middle and early 1990s, Hanzheng Street began to decline. The market size of Hanzheng Street has expanded by 6 times. The growth rate has dropped from 31% to 10.2%, and the transaction volume has dropped from the top three of the top ten small commodity wholesale markets in the country to the seventh. In the past two years, the number of self-employed households in Hanzheng Street has been decreasing at a rate of about 10% every year. Hanzheng Street No. Among the 103 small bosses in the first generation, there are currently less than 10 left. The good name of "the first street in the world" has been replaced by the notoriety of "the first street of parallel imports". Most Wuhan people no longer go to Hanzheng Street." Beijing Xiushui Street and Shanghai Xiangyang Road, which were once as famous as Hanzheng Street and filled with cheap parallel imports of famous brands, faced the pressure of intellectual property rights of multinational companies and even declined.Naturally, Hanzheng Street cannot escape this fate.The only solution is whether Hanzheng Street can find its new position. An article in "Hubei Daily" on August 5, 2008 said, "Hanzheng Street is also reshaping its own business model. Behind the many shops today are clustered production enterprises. Hanzheng Street clothing industry in Hanchuan and other places Park is a brand-new expression of Hanzheng Street's "front store and back factory" model. Hanzheng Street is practicing the "headquarters economy" it summed up: Hanzheng Street is an information center, sales center, logistics distribution center, and manufacturing issuing center." It aspires to become Wuhan economic engine. Whether this transformation can be successful and whether Hanzheng Street can defend its position as a commercial center can only be judged in the future.Joseph Schumpeter's "disruptive innovation" is at work again.If Hanzheng Street does not want to be forgotten by the rapidly updated reality, it can only carry out this destructive self-innovation to find its own new positioning and growth point.