Do not hang up! Here is the latest news on the fate of the old phone booths

Shanghai’s famous red public phone booths carry some nostalgia for people over a certain age, but they don’t carry much weight in the digital age.

Wu Duan, an assistant professor at Tongji University, still remembers the first four digits of a campus public phone she had often used 20 years ago: 6598. The kiosk was her only link with family and friends.

“It’s emotional for a lot of my generation,” Wu said.

Today, there is only one phone booth left on the campus, and it is outdated.

Wu, who teaches at the College of Design and Innovation, and several of her students recently launched a campaign to renovate old telephone booths in the nearby Siping community in Yangpu District.

Its goal is to keep them alive by updating them with innovative designs and new technologies such as 5G, wireless phone charging and touch screens.

Shanghai’s first known telephone booth was installed on the Bund by a British businessman in 1882, just six years after it was invented in the United States.

The first public telephone appeared in a community tobacco shop in the Hongkou district in 1952. In the following decades, the kiosks provided invaluable communications to residents.

Wang Rongjiang / brilliance

In the old city lane neighborhoods, it was once common to hear community workers shouting at residents that they had received a phone call. Later, people could use phones in public kiosks with coins or smart cards.

In 2006, there were 10,000 phone booths all over Shanghai, but the number has been halved amid the popularity of mobile phones. Most of the remaining booths are largely dedicated to emergency calls. Few people actually use it.

There has been a fierce debate online about whether or not the dozens of phone booths along Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall should be maintained. Naysayers argued that the stalls were outdated and useless. Supporters defended them as cultural symbols.

On the popular movie and book review site Douban, more than 140 people have shared stories related to public phone booths.

One netizen wrote: “I was calling my parents, who are migrant workers in another city, with a smart card on a public phone.” “After three rings, I would hang up and it was a signal for them to call me back. It saved me money.”

A man said that he would call his wife from a pay phone near the house whenever there was a spat between them because she only answered calls from an unfamiliar number.

“I spent most of my monthly salary on smart cards to talk to my friend who was working in another city,” one woman recalls. “It’s a bittersweet memory of a romance that went on.”

Wang Rongjiang / brilliance

The future of public telephone booths has been discussed in many countries.

The UK stopped building new telephone booths in 2001, and the existing ones are being phased out. There are now about 20,000 phone booths, compared to nearly 100,000 before.

New York City has announced plans to upgrade about 10,000 public phones along its highways, providing them with free Wi-Fi and advertising to cover maintenance costs.

The “Wind Phone”, an offline phone booth in the Japanese town of Otsuchi, has welcomed more than 30,000 global visitors, who can have one-way conversations with dear departed. It was opened to the public after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that killed more than 15,000 people.

Some phone booths in Nara and Osaka have been renovated and converted into goldfish aquariums as new street attractions.

Near the house, a bronze statue entitled “Telephone Girl” has become a landmark on the bustling Huaihai M Road. This figure is considered the “daughter of Shanghai” because she is said to “listen to the rhythm of the city”. The statue, which was created in 1996, was reconstructed after being damaged several times.

After the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, a face mask appeared on the statue. It has not been removed by the authorities.

Wang Rongjiang / brilliance

Professor Wu said there are ways to save public phone booths. She noted that the famous London kiosks were printed on postcards and turned into fridge magnets, key chains and other souvenirs.

Why can’t Shanghai’s phone booths be saved with similar creativity?

Based on the design of Wu and her students, several “new stalls” were unveiled on Chifeng Street, an old workers’ community populated largely by older residents.

Pedestrians can charge their mobile phones at the kiosks and use the touch screen to get information about community activities or urban renewal projects. Wu said the kiosks could become a prototype for an “information service kiosk in the 5G era”.

The kiosks are part of the university’s 2035 Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship Neighborhoods project, which aims to offer a glimpse into the future life of the community.

tee jung

Another booth design created by Wu’s team is located in Nanxiang Ancient Town in Jiading hinterland. It offers tourist information, digital postcards, and mobile phone charging services.

Her students have come up with more outlandish ideas, such as turning kiosks into robotic cafes, emergency medical service stations, miniature convenience stores and even COVID testing sites.

“While most of them will probably never materialize, it shows the endless potential for creative thinking about the urban landscape,” Wu said.

CFP

China Telecom is helping to reincarnate telephone booths. The telecom giant has unveiled “digital kiosks” in 10 commercial districts in eight downtown areas.

Integrating 5G and artificial intelligence, the kiosks offer one-click services for calling taxis, medical appointments, information about nearby retail outlets and COVID testing. It is mainly designed to help the elderly.

However, the basic dial functionality has been retained. Each user is allowed to make a free call for three minutes.

China Telecom said an average of 3,000 calls are made from public kiosks in Shanghai each year, most of which are emergency calls to the police.

“It’s easier to operate than a smartphone,” said Li Huifang, 65, who lives near a kiosk in Yangkou community in Jing’an District. “You don’t have to type in an address to call a taxi or record complex information to schedule a medical appointment, as is required in mobile apps.”

Wang Rongjiang / brilliance

China Telecom said it plans to digitize about 300 old phone booths by the end of the year, with 1,000 to be upgraded by 2025.

These smart kiosks also provide a history of cultural attractions. A booth on Yan’an W Road near the former secret telegraph station of the Communist Party of China displays the working environment of the early revolutionaries and a prototype of an old telegram machine.

A kiosk near the site where the party youth league was set up invites customers to call a special number to hear about the history of the area.

Wang Rongjiang / brilliance

The most famous renovation of telephone booths in Xuhui District began in 2018. Many booths near Huaihai Road M. have been converted into mini-libraries and reading kiosks; Others have been turned into “celebrity booths” with photos and introductions to writers and artists who once lived in the area.

“It is a great idea to convert telephone booths into reading rooms,” said Alexis Michy, an expat from Nantes, France. “Passers and travelers need a place to relax and read. We have similar reading sites in French cities.”

Xinhua Road District

However, there are only a few books left in the reading stalls nowadays because maintenance has been affected by the coronavirus outbreak. However, “celebrity booths” are still operating, with videos about literati.

Zhou Hongtao, a professor at Tongji and Wu’s colleague, led the renovation of 10 telephone booths into mini art galleries in the Siping community. It features master’s work in traditional arts such as paper cutting and clay sculpting.

He also said that the kiosks can provide shelter for the elderly from the rain or even places for a little sunbathing.

“One square meter of space can have a variety of uses to help and entertain residents,” Chu said. “Kiosks are, in a sense, the link between urban life in the past, present and future.”

Jiang Xiaowei / brilliance

Wang Rongjiang / brilliance