The powerful human stories hidden in Yangon’s crumbling colonial buildings

Daw Shwe Yin keeps track of family memories in her home on 50th Street. Her family has lived here for more than 40 years and is now facing pressure to leave. PHOTO/ TIM WEBSTER

Just about every major international media outlet has covered the battle to save Yangon’s colonial buildings: those mouldering mansions, quirky wooden houses and once-grand shops that give the city its distinctive character.

Less publicised is the plight of the people who make their homes in them. Many face an uncertain future as much of the city’s architecture is cleared to make way for new development. A new photo book, Yangon Echoes, tells their stories.

Over two years, Virginia Henderson, an oral historian, and Tim Webster, a photographer, interviewed 57 residents of dozens of historic buildings around Yangon, most of them more than 100 years old.

The tales are various. There are interviews with staff at the British ambassador’s residence, where Aung San and Ne Win once shared a bedroom while convalescing after contracting malaria. The son of a billiards teacher at exclusive British drinking hole the Pegu Club talks about the strangeness of living in the dilapidated husk of the building where his father worked. 

U Kyau Kye catches the breeze over a newspaper in downtown 50th Street. The entire city block has since been demolished in favour of a twelve-storey condominium development.

“In some ways the book is quite sad,” Henderson told Coconuts Yangon. “The heritage in this city is facing huge pressures from many corners.”

Several of those interviewed faced imminent eviction at the time of publishing.

At first, people were happy to speak to the pair – which Henderson puts down to eagerness to share with the international community after Myanmar’s military junta handed power to a semi-civilian government in 2011.

“When we started the project there was a great window of excitement and openness and I think now that window’s closing,” she said.

“In the last couple of years they’ve had experience with developers and they’re a lot warier.”
 

Ye Min Than and Daw Thein Nwet reside in repurposed office space on Pansodan Street. Ye Min Than has lived here all his life. “I don’t know what I’d do if I have to move away. Maybe I’ll demonstrate,” he said.

Of the 33 buildings profiled in the book, 4 have already been demolished, or the communities dismantled. Others are embroiled in complex legal disputes over ownership set to stretch far into the future.

“I’ve heard of one with 50 parties involved, in Yangon,” said Henderson. “There’s cousins or cousins who have some small claim.”
 

Daw Tin Tin Nwe and U Aung Htoo have lived on Lower Pazundaung Road for more than thirty years. Their three-room shack accommodates six.

Many of the poorest and most vulnerable are losing out, said Henderson.

“There’s obviously some people who are doing okay, but some people are not quite as savvy. They’re not so experienced in the ways of business. They don’t know what the deals or options are or how to negotiate.

“There needs to be communication so that the citizens know what they can do, what rights they have. Who gets a say in the whole planning of this new Yangon?”
 

U Khin Sein in the second floor lounge with his protégé, Aung  San. The former tailor has lived here six decades. PHOTO/TIM WEBSTER

Yangon Echoes can be found at Monument Books in Yangon and Myanmar Book Center as well as some hotels. The cover price is $35.

Photos: Tim Webster