ABSTRACT
On 18 June 2007 the government of Shenyang’s old industrial district, Tiexi,
inaugurated a permanent exhibition on the lifestyles of the industrial
workers who had been living in a neighbourhood known as the ‘workers’
village’ for the last five decades. The exhibition is located in one of seven
buildings singled out for preservation in this Soviet-style residential area
that, built in 1952, originally included 143 large three-storey constructions
and a total area of over 700,000 square metres. The exhibition featured
reproductions of the one-room apartments with shared basic facilities and kitchens, and displayed the evolution of daily life in the neighbourhood
since the 1950s. Young university graduates wearing wireless microphones
told the curious visitors the pioneeristic adventures of China’s working class
and paid tribute to their struggle to build the glory of the socialist state.
