PART III

The Housing Industry

Among the four hundred millions in China the poor still live in huts and hovels, and in caves in the loess region of north China while the middle and the rich classes live in temples. All the so-called houses in China, excepting a few after western style and those in treaty ports are built after the model of a temple. When a Chinese builds a house he has more regard for the dead than for the living. The first consideration of the owner is his ancestral shrine. This must be placed at the center of the house, and all the other parts must be complement and secondary to it. The house is planned not for comfort but for ceremonies, that is, for "the red and white affairs," as they are called in China. The "red affair" is the marriage or other felicitous celebrations of any member of the family, and the "white affair" is the funeral ceremonies. Besides the ancestral shrine there are the shrines of the various household gods. All these are of more importance than man and must be considered before him. There is not a home in old China that is planned for the comfort and convenience of man alone. So now when we plan the housing industry in China in our International Development Scheme, we must take the houses of the entire population of China into consideration. "To build houses for four hundred millions, it is impossible!" some may exclaim. This is the largest job ever conceived by man. But if China is going to give up her foolish traditions and useless habits and customs of the last three thousand years and begin to adopt modern civilization, as our industrial development scheme is going to introduce, the remodelling of all the houses according to modern comforts and conveniences is bound to come, either unconsciously by social evolution or consciously by artificial construction. The modern civilization so far attained by western nations is entirely an unconscious progress, for social and economic sciences are but recent discoveries. But henceforth all human progress will be more or less based upon knowledge, that is upon scientific planning. As we can foresee now, within half a century under our industrial development, the houses of all China will be renewed according to modern comfort and convenience. Is it not far better and cheaper to rebuild the houses of all China by a preconceived scientific plan than by none? I have no doubt that if we plan to build a thousand houses at one time it would be ten times cheaper than to plan and build one at a time, and the more we build the cheaper terms we would get. This is a positive economic law. The only danger in this is over-production. That is the only obstacle for all production on a large scale. Since the industrial revolution in Europe and America, every financial panic before the world war was caused by over-production. In the case of our housing industry in China, there are four hundred million customers. At least fifty million houses will be needed in the coming fifty years. Thus a million houses a year will be the normal demand of the country.

Houses are a great factor in civilization. They give men more enjoyment and happiness than food and clothes. More than half of the human industries are contributing to household needs. The housing industry will be the greatest undertaking of our International Development Scheme, and also will be the most profitable part of it. My object of the development of the housing industry is to provide cheap houses to the masses. A ten thousand dollar house now built in the treaty port can be produced for less than a thousand dollars and yet a high margin of profit can be made. In order to accomplish this we have to produce transport, and distribute the materials for construction. After the house is finished, all household equipment must be furnished. Both of these will be comprised in the housing industry which I shall formulate as follows:

a. The Production and Transportation of Building Materials. b. The Construction of Houses. c. The Manufacturing of Furniture. d. The Supply of Household Utilities.

a. The Production and Transportation of Building Materials

The building materials are bricks, tiles, timber, skeleton iron, stone, cement and mortar. Each of these materials must be manufactured or cut out from raw materials. So kilns for the manufacture of tiles and bricks must be put up. Mills for timbers must be established, also factories for skeleton irons. Quarries must be opened and factories for cement and mortar must be started. All these establishments must be put up at suitable districts where materials and markets are near one another. All should be under one central control so as to regulate the output of each of these materials in proportion to the demand. After the materials are ready they must be transported to the places where they are wanted by special bottoms on waterways, and by special cars on railways so as to reduce the cost as low as possible. For this purpose special boats and cars must be built by the shipbuilding department and the car factory.

b. The Construction of Houses

The houses to be built in China will comprise public buildings and private residences. As the public buildings are to be built with public funds for public uses which will not be a profitable undertaking, a special Government Department should therefore be created to take charge. The houses that are to be built under this International Development Scheme will be private residences only with the object to provide cheap houses for the people, as well as to make profit for this International concern. The houses will be built on standardized types. In cities and towns the houses should be constructed on two lines: the single family and the group family houses. The former should again be sub-divided into eight-roomed, ten-roomed and twelve-roomed houses, and the latter into ten-family, hundred-family and thousand-family houses, with four or six rooms for each family. In the country districts the houses should be classified according to the occupation of the people, and special annexes such as barns and dairies should be provided for the farmers. All houses should be designed and built according to the needs and comfort of man; so a special architectural department should be established to study the habits, occupations and needs of different people and make improvements from time to time. The construction should be performed as much as possible by labor-saving machinery so as to accelerate work and save expenses.