Owning a home of your own is no three-year project! Two court cases over housing, two generations, forty years… People without homes hope to get one, even a small one. Those who already have homes want a bigger one, even a villa, calling it “an improvement in living conditions.” It might be better to take housing less seriously and stop comparing yourself to others. Those born in the 1960s were assigned homes; those born in the 1970s pooled their money to build them; those born in the 1980s bought homes with a down payment and a mortgage; those born in the 1990s lie flat, having caught the era of subsidized housing, low-rent housing, and affordable housing. Liu Wencai was born in the final years of the Qing dynasty. He claimed to be a descendant of Liu Bang and fiercely guarded the houses and fields passed down by his ancestors, becoming a true landlord. Yet he failed to hold on to the family home. Zhang Youfu, born before the founding of the People’s Republic of China, spent thirty years doggedly fighting to claim a home. With his dying breath, he left his wife and children one final instruction: continue the struggle to claim the home he had been unable to secure.
