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Aspects of Aspects of Urbanization in China China in Urbanization of Aspects Urbanization in China Shanghai, Hong Kong, Guangzhou Edited by Gregory Bracken › Gregory Bracken (ed.) amsterdam university press Aspects of Urbanization in China Publications Series General Editor Paul van der Velde Publications Officer Martina van den Haak Editorial Board Prasenjit Duara (Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore) / Carol Gluck (Columbia University) / Christophe Jaffrelot (Centre d’Études et de Recherches Internationales-Sciences-po) / Victor T. King (University of Leeds) / Yuri Sadoi (Meijo University) / A.B. Shamsul (Institute of Occidental Studies / Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia) / Henk Schulte Nordholt (Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies) / Wim Boot (Leiden University) The IIAS Publications Series consists of Monographs and Edited Volumes. The Series publishes results of research projects conducted at the International Institute for Asian Studies. Furthermore, the aim of the Series is to promote interdisciplinary studies on Asia and comparative research on Asia and Europe. The International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) is a postdoctoral research centre based in Leiden and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Its objective is to encourage the interdisciplinary and comparative study of Asia and to promote national and international cooperation. The institute focuses on the humanities and social sciences and, where relevant, on their interaction with other sciences. It stimulates scholarship on Asia and is instrumental in forging research networks among Asia scholars worldwide. IIAS acts as an international mediator, bringing various parties together, working as a clearinghouse of knowledge and information. This entails activities such as providing information services, hosting academic organisations dealing with Asia, constructing international networks, and setting up international cooperative projects and research programmes. In this way, IIAS functions as a window on Europe for non-European scholars and contributes to the cultural rapprochement between Asia and Europe. For further information, please visit www.iias.nl. Aspects of Urbanization in China Shanghai, Hong Kong, Guangzhou Edited by Gregory Bracken Publications Series Edited Volumes 6 The publication of this book is co-financed by the Delft School of Design (DSD) and the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft). Cover photo: Gregory Bracken Cover design: Maedium, Utrecht Layout: The DocWorkers, Almere ISBN 978 90 8964 398 8 e-ISBN 978 90 4851 306 2 (pdf) e-ISBN 978 90 4851 561 5 (ePub) NUR 758 © IIAS / Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2012 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright re- served above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or in- troduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owners and the author of the book. Table of Contents List of Tables and Illustrations 7 Acknowledgements 9 INTRODUCTION 1 Aspects of Urbanization in China: Shanghai, Hong Kong, Guangzhou 13 Gregory Bracken GLOBAL AMBITIONS 2 Towards an Understanding of Architectural Iconicity in Global Perspective 27 Leslie Sklair 3 Shanghai and the 2010 Expo: Staging the City 47 Jacob Dreyer 4 Guangzhou’s Special Path to Global City Status 59 Xiangmin Guo and Changtao Liu CULTURAL EXPRESSION 5 Repairing the Rural-Urban Continuum: Cinema as Witness 79 Ana M. Moya Pellitero 6 Revisiting Hong Kong: Fruit Chan’s ‘Little Cheung’ 101 Tsung-yi Michelle Huang 7 Sensual, but No Clue of Politics: Shanghai’s Longtang Houses 117 Lena Scheen 6 ASPECTS OF URBANIZATION IN CHINA ARCHITECTURAL EXPRESSION 137 8 Urbanization and Housing: Socio-Spatial Conflicts over Urban Space in Contemporary Shanghai 139 Non Arkaraprasertkul 9 It Makes a Village: Hong Kong’s Podium Shopping Malls as Global Villages 165 Jonathan D. Solomon Contributors 183 Bibliography 187 Index 199 List of Tables and Illustrations List of Tables Table 4.1 The external trade routes of Guangzhou in the Qing Dynasty 63 Table 4.2 The value of imports and exports and the amount of cargo loaded and unloaded in Guangzhou 68 Table 9.1 A comparison of the transit network between Elements Mall and IFC Mall 172 List of Illustrations Figure 2.1 Niemeyer’s Congress buildings, Brasilia 36 Figure 2.2 Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur 39 Figure 2.3 Jin Mao Tower, Shanghai 43 Figure 2.4 Zhang Huan, Donkey (2005), Saatchi Gallery London Exhibition 2008 44 Figure 4.1 The external trade routes of Guangzhou in the Qing Dynasty 64 Figure 4.2 Guangzhou’s path towards global city status 69 Figure 4.3 GDP growth rates of Chinese cities 71 Figure 5.1 Migrant ‘village’ (cun) in Fangzhuang, Beijing (2001) 86 Figure 5.2 Film still from King of the Children (1987) 90 Figure 5.3 Film still from Platform (2000) 94 Figure 5.4 Film still from So Close to Paradise (1998) 97 Figure 7.1 Cover of The Song of Everlasting Sorrow by Wang Anyi 127 Figure 8.1 Aerial photograph of Shanghai in the 1930s 143 Figure 8.2 Diagrams showing the basic structure of a typical lilong neighborhood 144 Figure 8.3 A poster at the booth of the People’s Republic of China at the United National Human Settlements Program’s World Urban Forum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (March 2010) 146 Figure 8.4 Aerial photographs of Shanghai in the 1930s and 2008 148 8 ASPECTS OF URBANIZATION IN CHINA Figure 8.5 A Starbucks coffee shop in Xintiandi retail district 152 Figure 8.6 The famous view of ‘Old Shanghai’ during the 1930s 152 Figure 8.7 A typical lilong branch lane 153 Figure 9.1 The Airport Core Program 168 Figure 9.2 Pedestrian passage networks in Elements Mall 170 Figure 9.3 Pedestrian passage networks in IFC Mall 171 Figure 9.4 The main entrance to Elements Mall 173 Figure 9.5 View from Elements Mall 174 Figure 9.6 Elements Mall: an atrium linking to the Airport Express Rail 174 Figure 9.7 Elevated podium of Elements Mall 175 Figure 9.8 Tsim Sha Tsui, Jordan, and West Kowloon: the vicinity of Elements Mall 175 Figure 9.9 Public passage networks in Central District that connect to IFC Mall 177 Figure 9.10 Interior of IFC Mall 178 Figure 9.11 Link from IFC Mall to Exchange Square 178 Figure 9.12 IFC Mall’s urban context 179 Figure 9.13 Foreign domestic workers gather on the footbridges outside of IFC Mall and Exchange Square 179 Acknowledgements First of all, I would like to thank the contributors, without whom there would be no book. This book would not have come about if it had not been for the suggestion of Paul van der Velde and Martina van den Haak at the International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden, so thanks to you, too. I would also like to thank the International Institute for Asian Studies in general, especially Deputy Director Manon Osseweijer and Director Philippe Peycam, for giving me the opportunity to work there in the first place and engage in this interesting research – your support is very much appreciated. I would also like to thank the Delft School of Design (DSD) at the Technical University of Delft, especially founding director Arie Graafland and current director Deborah Hauptmann, as well as the DSD’s very generous financial support of this book. I would also like to make special mention of Annemieke Bal- Sanders and Patrick Healy, both colleagues at the DSD, who have given me invaluable assistance, each in their different ways, over the life of this project. Finally, I would also like to particularly thank the book’s peer reviewers, whose insightful analysis and constructive criticism helped form the project into what it is today, something that I feel con- fident we can all be proud of. INTRODUCTION 1 Aspects of Urbanization in China: Shanghai, Hong Kong, Guangzhou Gregory Bracken Urbanization is as old as civilization. As societies change and develop, urbanization tends to be part and parcel of that development. In fact, the evolution of the city has mirrored human development in a symbio- tic way. Mankind’s chief glory has always been its cities. They represent all that is best in human endeavor: the ability to plan, to construct, and to live together in comity. Cities are evidence of mankind’s ability to reshape the environment to better suits its needs, and to exhibit the best that can be produced by human hands and minds, not just in engi- neering terms but in architecture and the arts as well. Cities also act as crucibles of change; the way a society will develop is often first dis- cerned in a city. They have been the birthplace of art, culture, and com- merce and have enabled us to be who we are today. There have been waves of urbanization throughout history, from ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia to the flowering of the Greek city- states, through the rigorous planning of the Romans to the ad hoc mer- cantilist zeal of the Renaissance. The nineteenth century, with its stag- gering technological development, saw the Western empires establish new cities all over the world, invariably founded to control the flows of goods and people. At the end of the twentieth century there was a seismic shift of wealth, power, and influence back to the East. Asia is experiencing its own renaissance as a center of world power, and now it is China’s turn to engage in city building. China, of course, has a long and venerable history of urban development. Beginning as far back as the second mil- lennium BCE, Chinese cities were ritual centers surrounded by artisan workshops in service to royal courts. The creation of a united empire under the Zhou Dynasty, around 1110 BCE, saw the development of large walled towns, and it was in the Han and the Tang Dynasties that followed that a pattern of centralized control was first devised that enjoyed an unparalleled duration and thoroughness.