Up the Long Street

The sweeping neighborhood epic Up Long Street depicts the end of the Daoguang reign in the Qing dynasty, when the banks of the Ni Ji River in Huarong, Ezhou, were still wild marshland thick with reeds, with no one at the ferry and no town to speak of. The Liu clan had lived there for generations. Xia Lian, a poor young woman, remained faithful to her marriage vow after being widowed, earning the admiration of the community through her virtue. At last, the imperial court granted her a memorial arch honoring her chastity and filial piety, establishing the foundations of the settlement. The arch fixed the land’s destiny, and a street opened up a world of possibilities. Roads were carved through the wasteland, incense burned at ancestral halls, and the first shop opened. Neighbors settled there, and the nameless wilderness came to be called Up Long Street. The southern section centered on the memorial arch and ancestral rites, the central section on the Liu family lanes and commerce, and the northern section on the river port and trade. With the three sections joined, the old street took shape.

From its beginnings in the wilderness at the end of the Qing dynasty, through the heyday of its docks in the Republic of China, to its modern decline, a century passed, but the bustle of everyday life in its lanes never ceased. Liu Mancang was born and raised there. He witnessed the old street transform from muddy paths and earthen houses into rows of shops, and from a small riverbank ferry into a port crowded with boats. He saw businesses rise and fall, neighbors share joy and hardship, officials and merchants become entangled, and underworld feuds unfold. One street holds a hundred ways of life; a century reveals the human heart. Some built the street’s spirit through virtue, while others made their way through life by earning a living. As the landscape changed and fortunes rose and fell, prosperity and decline took turns, but the warmth of everyday life on Long Street endured, and the humanity at its heart remained unchanged. This is the story of an old street’s century of change and the everyday joys and struggles of generations of ordinary people.