Rogelja, Igor (2014) The production of creative space in Taiwan and China. PhD Thesis. SOAS, University of London. http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/20323 Copyright © and Moral Rights for this PhD Thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non‐commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This PhD Thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this PhD Thesis, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the PhD Thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full PhD Thesis title", name of the School or Department, PhD PhD Thesis, pagination. The Production of Creative Space in Taiwan and China IGOR ROGELJA Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD in Political Science 2014 Department of Politics and International Studies SOAS, University of London Declaration for SOAS PhD thesis I have read and understood regulation 17.9 of the Regulations for students of the SOAS, University of London concerning plagiarism. I undertake that all the material presented for examination is my own work and has not been written for me, in whole or in part, by any other person. I also undertake that any quotation or paraphrase from the published or unpublished work of another person has been duly acknowledged in the work which I present for examination. Signed: ____________________________ Date: _________________ 2 Abstract The concept of ‘creativity’ has in recent years gained significant currency in spatial governance, particularly as a form of urban redevelopment. Looking at three case cities in Taiwan and China, this thesis aims to answer how creativity is incorporated in urban redevelopment schemes and what the deployment of creative strategies means in practice, particularly in marginal urban space. While all the case cities have in recent years adopted a variety of ‘creative city policies’, they retain a vastly different capacity and style of governance, as well as different configurations of state and non-state actors participating in the production of creative space, resulting in local transformations of related policies. Given that the norms and articulation of urban planning involve mechanisms of state control and management, while creativity is often understood as individual or grassroots practice, the research analyses the different approaches to the production of creative spaces along the state-society ledger, between the commonalities of the macro level and the contingent complexity of the micro level of politics. Using an ethnographic approach, eight creative areas in Taipei, Kaohsiung, and Beijing were analysed, adding to our understanding of how global policy discourses are localized based on differences in the organizational capacity of the state and non-state actors involved. Moreover, the emphasis on non-state actors has provided new insights into tactics of avoidance, persuasion and integration vis-à-vis the state. The resulting typology, differentiating corporative, entrepreneurial and normative approaches to creative space production, helps frame our understanding of how creativity is operationalised, as well as providing a comparative look at the Taiwanese and Chinese state’s style of governing. 3 Table of Contents Abstract 3 Figures and Tables 7 Chapter One: Introduction 8 1.1 Creativity in the City 8 1.2 Methodology and case selection 12 Research design and case selection 12 Methods 13 Key terms and concepts 15 1.3 Structure of the thesis 16 Chapter Two: Towards a Typology of Creative Spaces 19 2.1 Introduction: Planning and living the city 19 2.2 Space, a critical approach 23 Taxonomy of space 24 Situating creativity in the comparison of spaces 27 Planning and spontaneity 29 Capacity, power, neoliberalism 30 2.3 Political economy of space in Taiwan and China 35 Chinese urban forms in the 20th Century: heritage and visions 35 China’s urban landscape in the reform era 38 Globalization 41 Taiwan, model developer? 43 2.4 The Creative City in Taiwan and China 48 2.5 A typology of creative spaces in Taiwan and China 53 Style of governance 55 Grassroots-level practice 56 Institutions of creative space production 56 Integration of marginal spaces 57 Chapter Three: Making Municipal Practices of Creative Space in Taipei 59 3.1 Introduction: Developing tools of creative space production 59 3.2 Taipei’s Urban Space - from developmental collateral to engine of development 64 ‘Neoliberal’ Space in Taipei 66 Integrating marginal spaces: dependents’ villages and ‘illegal’ neighbourhoods 69 3.3 Treasure Hill: From Taipei’s favela to a living museum 72 Treasure Hill 1: from demolition to preservation 75 Treasure Hill 2: Contesting creativity 80 Treasure Hill 3: Living museum, dead village? 85 3.4 Conclusion 91 Chapter Four: Institutionalizing Creative Space Production in Taipei 95 4.1 Introduction: Building institutions of corporative space production 95 4 4.2 Institutionalizing the production of creative spaces in Taipei 99 Huashan 1914 - ‘patient zero’ of Taiwanese creative spaces 101 4.3 Corporate art foundations 108 JFAA - JUT Foundation for Art and Architecture 111 4.4 Urban Regeneration Stations (URS) - a corporative approach to creative city production 116 Urban acupuncture to soft urbanism - development of a concept for urban intervention 118 Urban Regeneration Stations at Dihua Street: creative preservation 120 Charles Landry and the ‘Creative Imperative’ - legitimising role of a global professional actors 123 Village Taipei - spreading the narrative of the creative city 126 4.5 Conclusion: Corporative space production in a post-developmental city 129 Chapter Five: Normative Creative Space in Deindustrialising Kaohsiung 132 5.1 Introduction: Art, beautification and conflict in a port city 132 5.2 The origins and formation of Kaohsiung’s ‘Cultural Turn’ 138 5.3 Out with the old: Gongyuan Road 146 5.4 In with the new: New Asia Harbour and the Pier-2 Art Center 156 New Asia Harbour 156 Pier-2 Art Center 159 5.5 Conclusion 175 Chapter Six: Entrepreneurial Creative Space in Beijing 179 6.1 Introduction: Culture and capital in the capital 179 6.2 Art and state in early reform China 183 6.3 Cultural-Creative Industries: Culture and state meet again 189 6.4 From Yuanmingyuan Artist Village to Beijing East Village: creativity as marginal practice 193 Yuanmingyuan Artist Village 196 Beijing East Village 198 6.5 798 Art Zone – mainstreaming creative space 200 6.6 Conclusion 206 Chapter Seven: Beijing’s Creative Spaces in Flux 211 7.1 Introduction 211 7.2 Caochangdi: from one artist’s village to one village’s art zone 213 New Socialist Countryside, New International Art Village 215 Avoiding state approval 218 7.3 Back to the Hutong – creative space, preservation and ‘gentrification’ in Beijing’s historical neighbourhoods 223 Authenticity and development 224 Hutongs as a space of micro-politics 227 Dashilar – the ‘platform’ as integration of non-governmental inputs in culture-led regeneration 230 7.4 Conclusion 237 5 Conclusion: Governing Creativity in a New Policy Field 240 Governing between discourse and spatialization 240 Macro-level commonalities 242 Marketization and competitiveness 243 Necessity of negotiation 244 Micro-level diversity 245 Interspace tendencies 248 Bibliography 252 Appendix – Interview list 281 6 Figures and Tables Figure 1 - Eviction of the Treasure Hill Commune. Photograph courtesy of Treasure Hill Commune. ............................................................................. 83 Figure 2 - Tourists posing in front of the remaining buildings of Treasure Hill Village. Photograph by author. ................................................................... 90 Figure 3 - Yancheng 'Green 8' green corridor development plan. Source: Kaohsiung City Public Works Department ................................................ 148 Figure 4 - Benches constructed out of old machine parts. Photograph by author. .................................................................................................................. 151 Figure 5 - Laser-cut art installation used to dry clothes. Photograph by author. .................................................................................................................. 152 Figure 6 - One of the woodworking workshops organised by the TRA to promote traditional architecture. Source: Takao Renaissance Association ............ 173 Figure 7 - Illegal structures are shown in black. Source: BASEBeijing Caochangdi, 2012 ..................................................................................... 220 Table 1 Typology of approaches to creative space production………..….……54 Table 2 Chronology of major events at Treasure Hill, 1980-2010…......…....….80 Table 3 URS locations in Taipei…………………………………………......….…117 Table 4 Control and legitimacy mechanisms in Beijing’s art scene...….......…185 Table 5 Beijing's art and space in the reform period…………………....….......194 7 Chapter One: Introduction 1.1 Creativity in the City During my fieldwork in Taiwan and China, I realised my movements were being closely followed – by a giant rubber duck. The artwork by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman sometimes followed, sometimes anticipated my movement, having appeared in Kaohsiung, in Xiamen, in Taipei and in Beijing. The