Nail house
Encyclopedia
A nail house is a Chinese
neologism for homes belonging to people (sometimes called "stubborn nails") who refuse to make room for development. The term, a pun
coined by developers, refers to nails that are stuck in wood, and cannot be pounded down with a hammer.
, during most of the Communist era, private ownership of real property
was abolished. The central government officially owned all real estate, and could in theory dictate who was entitled to control any piece of property according to national interests. Private citizens, therefore, did not have a legal right to keep their property if the government decided they should leave (although in practice, entitlements arose for various reasons). With a strengthening economy and the rise of free market
s beginning in the late 1990s, private developers began building shopping mall
s, hotels, and other private developments in densely populated urban centers, which required displacing residents who lived on the land. Developers would typically offer relatively low compensation to the residents, reflecting the pre-development value of their properties or the cost of obtaining alternate housing elsewhere. Should residents resist, or try to take advantage of their bargaining position
, powerful developers could persuade local officials and courts to order residents off the land. In other cases, residents would be arrested on false charges or thugs would be hired to scare away the residents.
More recently, the People's Republic of China has begun to accept private ownership of real estate, including the still-controversial notion that owners are free to earn money when their land becomes more valuable due to planned developments, or even simply not to sell. Discontent arose among the people over accusations of illegal land seizures by developers and corruption by complicit government officials.
In March 2007, the People's Republic of China passed its first modern private property law. The law prohibits government taking of land, except when it is in the public interest. The law strengthened the position of nail house owners, but did not entirely resolve whether making room for private commercial developments was a public interest that entitled the taking of land.
A number of high-profile nail houses have received widespread attention in the Chinese press. In one famous case, one family among 280 others at the location of a six-story shopping mall under construction at the location of a former "snack street" in Chongqing
refused for two years to vacate a home their family had inhabited for three generations. Developers cut their power and water, and excavated a 10-meter deep pit around their home. The owners broke into the construction site, reoccupied it, and flew a Chinese flag on top. Yang Wu, a local martial arts
champion, used nunchaku
s to make a staircase to their house, and threatened to beat any authorities who attempted to evict him. His wife, a restaurateur
named Wu Ping
who had planned to open a restaurant in the home's ground floor, granted interviews and frequent press releases to generate publicity. The owners turned down an offer of 3.5 million yuan (US$453,000), but eventually settled with the developers in 2007.
In another example, a "nail house" remained in Changsha, even after a shopping mall was built around it, and now sits in a courtyard of the mall. One owner in Shenzhen
was paid between 10 and 20 million yuan (US $1.3 million to $2.7 million) for selling a seven-story building at the site of the future 439-meter (1,440 foot) Kingkey Finance Tower
, that had cost him 1 million yuan ($130,000) to build ten years before. The resident held out for months following an eviction order, and was subject to harassment and extortion attempts even after he reached a settlement. Two other nail house owners held out against the Kingkey development.
incident was initially called "coolest nail house in history" by a blog
ger, after which the incident was picked up by major media throughout China, including state-run newspapers, and became a national sensation. 85% of respondents to a poll on sina.com
supported the couple rather than the developers. Later, however, the Chinese government forbade newspapers from reporting on the event. Another blogger, vegetable vendor Zhou Shuguang
, traveled by train from his home in Hunan province to cover the incident, funded by donations from his readers. Writing under the pen name "zola", Zhou interviewed the participants, as well as crowds that had gathered and others who claimed to have been evicted from their homes. He was popularly referred to as China's first "citizen journalist" although his site was blocked as well. Others defied the prohibition as well, including the Chinese edition of Sports Illustrated
, which worked a subtle reference of the incident into a magazine cover.
construction projects began around them for the Narita Airport outside of Tokyo, Japan.
In the United States, private property is protected by the Fifth Amendment
to the Constitution
from seizure by the government without "just compensation". Under the concept of eminent domain
, local and national government agencies are entitled to take private property for purposes in the public interest, but must offer owners compensation amounting to the value of the property. The United Kingdom, New Zealand, and the Republic of Ireland
have a comparable process called compulsory purchase, and there are equivalent laws in Australia and South Africa. In Kelo v. City of New London
, the United States Supreme Court
held that the government is entitled to take land from private parties to give to private developers. The decision was widely unpopular, and spurred various states
to enact laws prohibiting the practice. However, the practice is common in other states. As in China, the efforts generally begin with an offer by the private group or government agency to purchase the land, and only become a question of eminent domain if the parties cannot negotiate a purchase price. When eminent domain seizures do occur there are often disputes over the value of the property, and whether it should fully compensate the landowner for the holdout value of the land. A famous historical example of a San Francisco nail house resulted in railroad investor Charles Crocker
building a spite fence
around a house owned by undertaker Nicolas Yung in the late 1870s, after Yung refused to sell his small property to Crocker, who was consolidating lots on which to build a mansion. Another well-known contemporary example was Edith Macefield
, who refused to sell her Seattle house to a developer.
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
neologism for homes belonging to people (sometimes called "stubborn nails") who refuse to make room for development. The term, a pun
Pun
The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use and abuse of homophonic,...
coined by developers, refers to nails that are stuck in wood, and cannot be pounded down with a hammer.
Historical background
In the People's Republic of ChinaPeople's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
, during most of the Communist era, private ownership of real property
Real property
In English Common Law, real property, real estate, realty, or immovable property is any subset of land that has been legally defined and the improvements to it made by human efforts: any buildings, machinery, wells, dams, ponds, mines, canals, roads, various property rights, and so forth...
was abolished. The central government officially owned all real estate, and could in theory dictate who was entitled to control any piece of property according to national interests. Private citizens, therefore, did not have a legal right to keep their property if the government decided they should leave (although in practice, entitlements arose for various reasons). With a strengthening economy and the rise of free market
Free market
A free market is a competitive market where prices are determined by supply and demand. However, the term is also commonly used for markets in which economic intervention and regulation by the state is limited to tax collection, and enforcement of private ownership and contracts...
s beginning in the late 1990s, private developers began building shopping mall
Shopping mall
A shopping mall, shopping centre, shopping arcade, shopping precinct or simply mall is one or more buildings forming a complex of shops representing merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a parking area — a modern, indoor version...
s, hotels, and other private developments in densely populated urban centers, which required displacing residents who lived on the land. Developers would typically offer relatively low compensation to the residents, reflecting the pre-development value of their properties or the cost of obtaining alternate housing elsewhere. Should residents resist, or try to take advantage of their bargaining position
Bargaining power
Bargaining power is a concept related to the relative abilities of parties in a situation to exert influence over each other. If both parties are on an equal footing in a debate, then they will have equal bargaining power, such as in a perfectly competitive market, or between an evenly matched...
, powerful developers could persuade local officials and courts to order residents off the land. In other cases, residents would be arrested on false charges or thugs would be hired to scare away the residents.
More recently, the People's Republic of China has begun to accept private ownership of real estate, including the still-controversial notion that owners are free to earn money when their land becomes more valuable due to planned developments, or even simply not to sell. Discontent arose among the people over accusations of illegal land seizures by developers and corruption by complicit government officials.
In March 2007, the People's Republic of China passed its first modern private property law. The law prohibits government taking of land, except when it is in the public interest. The law strengthened the position of nail house owners, but did not entirely resolve whether making room for private commercial developments was a public interest that entitled the taking of land.
Examples
Chongqing
Chongqing is a major city in Southwest China and one of the five national central cities of China. Administratively, it is one of the PRC's four direct-controlled municipalities , and the only such municipality in inland China.The municipality was created on 14 March 1997, succeeding the...
refused for two years to vacate a home their family had inhabited for three generations. Developers cut their power and water, and excavated a 10-meter deep pit around their home. The owners broke into the construction site, reoccupied it, and flew a Chinese flag on top. Yang Wu, a local martial arts
Martial arts
Martial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....
champion, used nunchaku
Nunchaku
is a traditional Okinawan weapon consisting of two sticks connected at their ends with a short chain or rope.-Etymology:The Japanese word nunchaku is the Kun'yomi reading of the Kanji term for a traditional Chinese two section staff....
s to make a staircase to their house, and threatened to beat any authorities who attempted to evict him. His wife, a restaurateur
Restaurateur
A restaurateur is a person who opens and runs restaurants professionally. Although over time the term has come to describe any person who owns a restaurant, traditionally it refers to a highly skilled professional who is proficient in all aspects of the restaurant business.-Etymology:The word...
named Wu Ping
Wu Ping
Wu Ping is a Chinese woman who became a celebrity over her holding out in one of the most famous nail house incidents in China.Ms Wu's house was in the middle of a construction site for a new shopping mall in Chongqing. She was the only one of 281 families in the area who rejected an offer of a new...
who had planned to open a restaurant in the home's ground floor, granted interviews and frequent press releases to generate publicity. The owners turned down an offer of 3.5 million yuan (US$453,000), but eventually settled with the developers in 2007.
In another example, a "nail house" remained in Changsha, even after a shopping mall was built around it, and now sits in a courtyard of the mall. One owner in Shenzhen
Shenzhen
Shenzhen is a major city in the south of Southern China's Guangdong Province, situated immediately north of Hong Kong. The area became China's first—and one of the most successful—Special Economic Zones...
was paid between 10 and 20 million yuan (US $1.3 million to $2.7 million) for selling a seven-story building at the site of the future 439-meter (1,440 foot) Kingkey Finance Tower
Kingkey Finance Tower
The Kingkey 100 , whose former name is Kingkey Finance Center Plaza, is a supertall skyscraper in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, China. It is located in Shenzhen's Luohu District in an area which can be described as the financial district....
, that had cost him 1 million yuan ($130,000) to build ten years before. The resident held out for months following an eviction order, and was subject to harassment and extortion attempts even after he reached a settlement. Two other nail house owners held out against the Kingkey development.
Media coverage
Nail houses have received an unusual degree of coverage in the Chinese press. The ChongqingChongqing
Chongqing is a major city in Southwest China and one of the five national central cities of China. Administratively, it is one of the PRC's four direct-controlled municipalities , and the only such municipality in inland China.The municipality was created on 14 March 1997, succeeding the...
incident was initially called "coolest nail house in history" by a blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
ger, after which the incident was picked up by major media throughout China, including state-run newspapers, and became a national sensation. 85% of respondents to a poll on sina.com
Sina.com
SINA is an online media company for China and Chinese communities around the world. SINA operates four major business lines: Sina Weibo, SINA Mobile, SINA Online, and SINA.net. SINA has over 100 million registered users worldwide...
supported the couple rather than the developers. Later, however, the Chinese government forbade newspapers from reporting on the event. Another blogger, vegetable vendor Zhou Shuguang
Zhou Shuguang
Zhou Shuguang is a Chinese blogger and citizen journalist. He has become known for traveling around China to document injustice done to citizens.-Personal:...
, traveled by train from his home in Hunan province to cover the incident, funded by donations from his readers. Writing under the pen name "zola", Zhou interviewed the participants, as well as crowds that had gathered and others who claimed to have been evicted from their homes. He was popularly referred to as China's first "citizen journalist" although his site was blocked as well. Others defied the prohibition as well, including the Chinese edition of Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
, which worked a subtle reference of the incident into a magazine cover.
Analogies in other countries
State-run media have commented that the nail house phenomenon is not limited to China, mentioning that there have been similar hold-outs in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan. In particular they have cited families that refused to move even as the original and subsequent runwayRunway
According to ICAO a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and take-off of aircraft." Runways may be a man-made surface or a natural surface .- Orientation and dimensions :Runways are named by a number between 01 and 36, which is generally one tenth...
construction projects began around them for the Narita Airport outside of Tokyo, Japan.
In the United States, private property is protected by the Fifth Amendment
Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, protects against abuse of government authority in a legal procedure. Its guarantees stem from English common law which traces back to the Magna Carta in 1215...
to the Constitution
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...
from seizure by the government without "just compensation". Under the concept of eminent domain
Eminent domain
Eminent domain , compulsory purchase , resumption/compulsory acquisition , or expropriation is an action of the state to seize a citizen's private property, expropriate property, or seize a citizen's rights in property with due monetary compensation, but without the owner's consent...
, local and national government agencies are entitled to take private property for purposes in the public interest, but must offer owners compensation amounting to the value of the property. The United Kingdom, New Zealand, and the Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
have a comparable process called compulsory purchase, and there are equivalent laws in Australia and South Africa. In Kelo v. City of New London
Kelo v. City of New London
Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469 was a case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States involving the use of eminent domain to transfer land from one private owner to another to further economic development...
, the United States Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
held that the government is entitled to take land from private parties to give to private developers. The decision was widely unpopular, and spurred various states
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
to enact laws prohibiting the practice. However, the practice is common in other states. As in China, the efforts generally begin with an offer by the private group or government agency to purchase the land, and only become a question of eminent domain if the parties cannot negotiate a purchase price. When eminent domain seizures do occur there are often disputes over the value of the property, and whether it should fully compensate the landowner for the holdout value of the land. A famous historical example of a San Francisco nail house resulted in railroad investor Charles Crocker
Charles Crocker
Charles Crocker was an American railroad executive.-Early years:Crocker was born in Troy, New York, to a modest family and moved to an Indiana farm at age 14. He soon became independent, working on several farms, a sawmill, and at an iron forge. In 1845 he founded a small, independent iron...
building a spite fence
Spite fence
A spite fence is an overly tall fence, structure in the nature of a fence, or a row of trees, bushes, or hedges, constructed or planted between adjacent lots by a property owner who is annoyed with or wishes to annoy a neighbor, or who wishes to completely obstruct the view between lots. The fence...
around a house owned by undertaker Nicolas Yung in the late 1870s, after Yung refused to sell his small property to Crocker, who was consolidating lots on which to build a mansion. Another well-known contemporary example was Edith Macefield
Edith Macefield
Edith Macefield achieved worldwide notoriety in 2006 when she stubbornly turned down US$1 million to sell her home to make way for a commercial development in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle. In the process, she became something of a folk hero...
, who refused to sell her Seattle house to a developer.
Fiction
- The 1942 American children's book The Little HouseThe Little HouseThe Little House is the title of a 1942 book written and illustrated by Virginia Lee Burton.-Inspiration:Author Virginia Lee Burton has stated that "The Little House was based on our own little house which we moved from the street into "a field of daisies with apple trees growing around." Burton...
tells the story of a woman whose house becomes a nail house through the passage of time. - The 1950 Warner Brothers Merrie MelodiesMerrie MelodiesMerrie Melodies is the name of a series of animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures between 1931 and 1969.Originally produced by Harman-Ising Pictures, Merrie Melodies were produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions from 1933 to 1944. Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Bros. in 1944,...
theatrical animated short Homeless HareHomeless HareHomeless Hare is a Merrie Melodies cartoon short starring Bugs Bunny, directed by Chuck Jones and released by Warner Brothers studios in 1950.This cartoon was produced in 1949 and released to theaters on March 11, 1950.-Plot:...
starring Bugs Bunny, centers on Bugs defence of his home from a developer (portrayed by the lead construction worker, referred to by Bugs as HerculesHerculesHercules is the Roman name for Greek demigod Heracles, son of Zeus , and the mortal Alcmene...
) to the point that Hercules surrenders by waving a white flag and arranges to have the building plans changed and approved. The final scene is a zoom down shot from the skyscraper roof to the ground showing a semi-circular notch built into the building to accommodate his nail house rabbit hole, complete with a surrounding patch of grass and mailbox. Bugs final words are "After all, a man's home is his castle." - The 1954 Warner Bros.Warner Bros.Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
Looney TunesLooney TunesLooney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
theatrical animated short No Parking HareNo Parking HareNo Parking Hare is a 1953-animated 1954-released Warner Bros. Looney Tunes theatrical animated short, starring Bugs Bunny. It was directed by Robert McKimson, and written by Sid Marcus. Similar in plot to Homeless Hare, Bugs finds himself squaring off against a construction worker who wants to...
starring Bugs Bunny, has Bugs defending his home from a Freeway that is being built right over it. In an end similar to Homeless HareHomeless HareHomeless Hare is a Merrie Melodies cartoon short starring Bugs Bunny, directed by Chuck Jones and released by Warner Brothers studios in 1950.This cartoon was produced in 1949 and released to theaters on March 11, 1950.-Plot:...
, work was finally diverted around Bugs' rabbit hole, this time with the freeway diverted around his nail house home. Bugs pops out to declare: "The Sanctity of the American Home must be preserved!" - The 1974 Disney movie Herbie Rides AgainHerbie Rides AgainHerbie Rides Again is a 1974 comedy film. It is the sequel to The Love Bug, released six years earlier, and the second in a series of movies made by Walt Disney Productions starring an anthropomorphic 1963 Volkswagen racing Beetle named Herbie...
centers on the defense of a nail house from a greedy real estate developer in San Francisco. - The 1987 American movie *batteries not included*batteries not included*batteries not included is a 1987 family-science fiction film directed by Matthew Robbins about small extraterrestrial living machines that save an apartment block under threat from property development....
features a nail house. - In the 1992 animated feature Tom and Jerry: The MovieTom and Jerry: The MovieTom and Jerry: The Movie is a 1992 American animated musical film directed by Phil Roman, and produced by Film Roman and Turner Pictures. It is a film adaptation of the Tom and Jerry series of theatrical shorts....
. Tom and Jerry live in a nail house at the beginning of the film. As Tom's owner moves out, the nail house eventually gets demolished by a wrecking crane after a bulldog chased Tom back. After demolition of a nail house, Tom and Jerry survived after losing their nail house. - The 1997 Australian comedy movie The CastleThe Castle (film)The Castle is a 1997 Australian comedy film directed by Rob Sitch. It starred Michael Caton, Anne Tenney, Stephen Curry, Sophie Lee, Eric Bana and Charles 'Bud' Tingwell. The screenwriting team comprised Sitch, Santo Cilauro, Tom Gleisner and Jane Kennedy of Working Dog Productions.The Castle was...
tells the story of the owners of a nail house beside Melbourne AirportMelbourne AirportMelbourne Airport , also known as Tullamarine Airport, is the primary airport serving the city of Melbourne and the second busiest in Australia. It was opened in 1970 to replace the nearby Essendon Airport. Melbourne Airport is the sole international airport of the four airports serving the...
involving constitutionalSection 51(xxxi) of the Australian ConstitutionSection 51 of the Constitution of Australia is a subsection of Section 51 of the Constitution of Australia providing that the Commonwealth has the power to make laws with respect to "the acquisition of property on just terms from any State or person for any purpose in respect of which the...
and CastleCastle DoctrineA Castle Doctrine is an American legal doctrine arising from English common law that designates one's place of residence as a place in which one enjoys protection from illegal trespassing and violent attack...
law. - The 2009 Disney/PixarPixarPixar Animation Studios, pronounced , is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California. The studio has earned 26 Academy Awards, seven Golden Globes, and three Grammy Awards, among many other awards and acknowledgments. Its films have made over $6.3 billion worldwide...
movie UpUp (2009 film)Up is a 2009 American computer-animated comedy-adventure film produced by Pixar, distributed by Walt Disney Pictures and presented in Disney Digital 3-D. The film premiered on May 29, 2009 in North America and opened the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, becoming the first animated and 3D film...
involves a nail house. - In early 2010 the China Film GroupChina Film GroupChina Film Group Corporation , abbreviated as CFGC, is the largest and most influential state-run film enterprise in China.-History:The predecessor China Film Corporation was established in 1949...
, China's state-run film distributor, withdrew the film AvatarAvatar (film)Avatar is a 2009 American epic science fiction motion capture film written and directed by James Cameron, and starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, Joel David Moore, Giovanni Ribisi and Sigourney Weaver...
from screens early. Many commentators in China drew connections between nail house evictions and depictions in the film of forced relocation of indigenous populations by a large company. The Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
reported that the decision was due to concerns that the film would trigger dissent over the country's nail house phenomenon.
Multimedia
An online flash game developed by Mirage Games, "The Big Battle: Nail House Versus Demolition Team", became popular in China in 2010.See also
- Chinese property bubbleChinese property bubbleThe Chinese property bubble is an alleged ongoing real estate bubble in residential and/or commercial real estate in the People's Republic of China...
- Economy of the People's Republic of ChinaEconomy of the People's Republic of ChinaThe People's Republic of China ranks since 2010 as the world's second largest economy after the United States. It has been the world's fastest-growing major economy, with consistent growth rates of around 10% over the past 30 years. China is also the largest exporter and second largest importer of...
- Real estate in the People's Republic of ChinaReal estate in the People's Republic of ChinaReal estate in the People's Republic of China is developed and managed by public, private, and state-owned red chip enterprises. Currently the market is experiencing tremendous growth and the central government has implemented measures to tighten interest rates, increase deposit and impose...
- Spite HouseSpite houseA spite house is a building constructed or modified to irritate neighbors or other parties with land stakes. Spite houses often serve as obstructions, blocking out light or access to neighboring buildings, or as flamboyant symbols of defiance...