JACKSON HOLE (China), Dec 11 — Yearning to breathe untainted air, the band of harried urbanites flocked to this parched, wild land, bringing along their dreams of a free and uncomplicated life.
But unlike the bedraggled pioneers who settled the American West, the first inhabitants of Jackson Hole, a resort community on the outskirts of the Chinese capital, arrived by Audi and Land Rover, their trunks filled with French wine and their bank accounts flush with cash.
During the past decade, more than 1,000 families have settled into timber-frame houses with generous backyards, on streets with names like Aspen, Moose and Route 66. On Sundays, some worship at a clapboard church that anchors the genteel town square, outfitted with bronze cowboys and a giant Victrola that sprays water.
“America represents wilderness and freedom, and also a big house,” said Qin You, 42, who works in private equity and owns a six-bedroom home that features a koi pond, a year-round Christmas tree and what he proudly described as “American-style” electric baseboard heating. “The United States is cool.”
Welcome to “Hometown America”, as Jackson Hole is called in Chinese, a mammoth real-estate venture that is an exacting pastiche of an American frontier town, albeit one with a wine-tasting pavilion, a spa and security guards dressed as park rangers, who salute every passing car.
Modest entry-level homes sell for US$625,000 (RM2.67 million). Larger abodes — described by Jackson Hole’s developers as castles — have an attached vineyard and fetch nearly US$8 million. The developer, Ju Yi International, says that more than 90 per cent of the 1,500 homes have already been sold.
Occupying more than a square mile of arid land in northeast Hebei province, Jackson Hole has plenty of room to expand.
After weekend services at the nondenominational church, many residents gather at the nearby clubhouse, adorned with Navajo art and wagon-wheel chandeliers, for the all-you-can-eat buffet featuring “American pork chops”, smoked salmon and, in a nod to local tastes, tree ear fungus.
On a recent Sunday, the attire could be best described as American casual: Flannel shirts, sweatpants and sneakers. The tables were packed with extended families, nearly all of whom were drinking imported red wine.
Since coming to power three years ago, President Xi Jinping of China has aggressively promoted the “Chinese Dream”, a nationalistic paean to traditional culture and enhanced military might.
At the same time, Communist Party edicts and conservative commentators have sought to demonise so-called Western values like human rights and democracy as existential threats. Even if the menace is seldom identified by name, the purveyor of such threats is widely understood to be the United States.
But the campaign has done little to dampen popular enthusiasm for foreign ideas and products. American universities remain the top destination for students seeking an overseas education. Chinese consumers largely shun home-grown brands, making the Buick Excelle, the Volkswagen Jetta and the Ford Focus among the top-selling cars here. Imported holidays like Halloween, Christmas and Valentine’s Day continue to gain traction among young consumers.
Residents of Jackson Hole expressed annoyance at the suggestion that their embrace of all things American was somehow unpatriotic.
Gao Zi, 60, a retired military employee who organises an oil painting club for Jackson Hole residents, said that “we accepted the propaganda. But now people have the opportunity to travel abroad and see the truth for ourselves”.
Like Gao, Qin, the investment executive, has never been to the United States but he has long admired American ideals like personal liberty and blind justice. Five years ago, after his wife gave birth to their second child, Qin says the government fined him nearly US$30,000 for violating the country’s population-control policies. “This is not freedom,” he said, before continuing a tour of his expansive back patio.
The developers, it seems, are a bit more skittish about discussing the subject of American values. In the days after providing a tour of Jackson Hole, Liu Xiangyang, the man behind Ju Yi International, declined to be interviewed, saying he would only do so if given the ability to nix any politically sensitive content.
Chinese news media accounts have described Liu as a student of Western psychology and an avid practitioner of tai chi who studied psychology in Canada. Liu also has a home in Jackson Hole and residents say he frequently socialises with his neighbours. “In a typical Chinese development, you’d never be able to drink wine and tea with the owner,” Qin said.
Huo Zhaojie, a Ju Yi marketing employee, described the company’s prevailing ethos as “freedom and equality” but he said Liu’s decision to build a Western-themed subdivision should not be read as a political statement. “The company had already built European-style complexes so they wanted something different,” he said.
Still, residents gush about what they call Jackson Hole’s American-inspired openness and warmth. Strangers greet one another as they stroll along the landscaped cul-de-sacs and refer to one another by affectionate nicknames like “Vanilla,” “Little Lion” and “Old Hooligan”.
Meng Pu, 40, a homeowner who teaches flower arrangement, embroidery and baking to fellow residents, said the atmosphere promoted relationships, free from the compulsive networking and one-upmanship that can colour social interactions in China.
“Often we don’t even know each other’s real names, nor do we ask what kind of work they do,” said Meng, a former magazine editor whose husband is a newscaster at the state-run CCTV. “This place might not be exactly like America, but it’s definitely not like a lot of other places in China. In the city, you can live in a place for years and never know the person who lives across the hall from you.”
The sense of community is enhanced by more than a hundred clubs known as “dream-gathering tribes”. There are tribes for boy scouts, baseball, knitting and calligraphy, with new ones constantly being added, said Huo, the marketing employee. “If you dream of flying, we can take you to a flying school,” he said. All classes, he added, are free.
The developers, eager to keep residents at Jackson Hole year-round, are building a school as well as 200 modest-sized apartments that will sell for US$150,000 each. Also in the pipeline are 2,000 town houses that seek to capture the feel of Northern California’s wine country. Company officials say prices have nearly tripled since the first houses went on sale a decade ago.
But even utopia has the occasional flaw. Beijing’s notorious smog often shrouds the mountains surrounding Jackson Hole and Gao, the retired army employee, bemoans a smattering of unwelcome changes.
When she moved here eight years ago, it was rare to see front yards enclosed by gates and the houses were oriented to face the complex’s meandering streets.
But more recent arrivals have built houses on a north-south axis, hewing to Chinese feng shui tradition. An increasing number have also fenced in their homes, impinging on the open feel. “Putting up walls is part of the Chinese mentality,” she said. “The fear is not something that can be erased overnight.”
That said, Gao and her husband, a music teacher, would not dream of living anywhere else. The couple used to make the 90-minute drive from Beijing on weekends, but now Gao insists on staying all week long. “I never want to leave,” she said. — The New York Times
