Live-Action Dwarf Fortress
January 27, 2015 12:58 PM Subscribe
The Rat Tribe of Beijing. A photo-essay about diverse folks who live in former bomb shelters turned into private apartments underneath the streets of Beijing. By Al-Jazeera America.
A curiously uplifting little story. Living in a Beijing basement isn't nearly as bad as living in a 19th century New York tenement.
posted by monotreme at 1:37 PM on January 27, 2015
posted by monotreme at 1:37 PM on January 27, 2015
🐭
posted by leotrotsky at 1:41 PM on January 27, 2015
posted by leotrotsky at 1:41 PM on January 27, 2015
Oh, the giant baby room!
posted by GenjiandProust at 1:52 PM on January 27, 2015
posted by GenjiandProust at 1:52 PM on January 27, 2015
god damn this is so fucking cyberpunk
posted by emptythought at 2:04 PM on January 27, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by emptythought at 2:04 PM on January 27, 2015 [4 favorites]
I've always wanted to live underground and, to me, the way that people tend to think that living underground is necessarily very weird and awful has always been baffling. When I learned about SubTropolis here in Kansas City (an Atlantic article about it) -- a 55 million square foot facility -- I really hoped that they had residential housing down there, too. But they don't.
Also the former missile silos that come up for sale from time to time -- there was a NYT article about one outside of Roswell just the other day. I grew up about 60 miles from Roswell, so I briefly got excited about it and then remembered that basically the last place in the world I'd want to live is where I grew up, even if it were in a fabulous underground lair.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 3:49 PM on January 27, 2015 [2 favorites]
Also the former missile silos that come up for sale from time to time -- there was a NYT article about one outside of Roswell just the other day. I grew up about 60 miles from Roswell, so I briefly got excited about it and then remembered that basically the last place in the world I'd want to live is where I grew up, even if it were in a fabulous underground lair.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 3:49 PM on January 27, 2015 [2 favorites]
I don't know, I've always thought of myself as a nocturnal person - feel most awake in the evenings - spend a lot of time indoors without much sunlight - and yet the few times I've stayed in hotel rooms without windows, it's been absolutely awful waking up in pitch black with no sense of what time it is supposed to be.
posted by pravit at 5:37 PM on January 27, 2015
posted by pravit at 5:37 PM on January 27, 2015
Here's one reason, Vanja: Seasonal affective disorder. Manifests as depression, is often caused by lack of sunlight.
posted by Harald74 at 11:29 PM on January 27, 2015
posted by Harald74 at 11:29 PM on January 27, 2015
Nice to see an article with portraits of individual Chinese, by the way. It seems like Western press and popular culture often just lumps them together in one undifferentiated mass.
posted by Harald74 at 11:31 PM on January 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Harald74 at 11:31 PM on January 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
“I found a lot of people still hope one day to buy a house, or at least to live above ground,” Li says. “They have a positive spirit.”They should check with their local Eloi representative whether or not the time is right. Be sure to hang onto that positive spirit, though!
posted by flippant at 12:48 AM on January 28, 2015
Very interesting article. I'm impressed with the positive attitude expressed by these people who are living in what's probably considered subadequate housing - they find the reasons that make it okay for them and go with it; it's only for a few years, it's only until they can gain better employment/better education, or it's a refuge and better than living and working so hard on the farm, women can earn a living of their own, etc. They seem to feel at least as safe as they would anywhere else, too.
Of course, there are only a few interviews here out of close to a million people living underground so it's a pretty sure bet that there are better places and worse ones, safe ones and not safe ones, and people who are struggling very hard to get by and find something positive in a day. Still, it's worth noting that the government hasn't shut all this down and pushed everyone out onto the street or back to their towns/villages.
I'll read more about this and about similar living situations in other places. Thanks for the post.
posted by aryma at 11:33 PM on January 28, 2015
Of course, there are only a few interviews here out of close to a million people living underground so it's a pretty sure bet that there are better places and worse ones, safe ones and not safe ones, and people who are struggling very hard to get by and find something positive in a day. Still, it's worth noting that the government hasn't shut all this down and pushed everyone out onto the street or back to their towns/villages.
I'll read more about this and about similar living situations in other places. Thanks for the post.
posted by aryma at 11:33 PM on January 28, 2015
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posted by leotrotsky at 1:27 PM on January 27, 2015 [1 favorite]