(This chapter is due to be published in 2011)

This chapter will begin by looking at Shanghai as a key site for the encounter between Chinese tradition and Western Modernity; Shanghai emerges as a city in which these two complex forces are re-negotiated within a new kind of urban cultural economy. It will question the ‘decadent’ image of the city – projected as western fantasy and communist condemnation – and emphasise the active engagement by Chinese intellectuals, businesspeople and urbanites with a modernity that was experienced as opportunity and not just threat. Shanghai rapidly became a global metropolis but in which the currents of alternative modernities flowed very strongly. Much of this was lost during the 1930s as the Nationalists, the Japanese and eventually the Communists fought over the city.

The second part of the chapter begins from the perspective of the ‘revival’ of the city in the early 1990s. After a brief account of the transformation of the economic, social and urban landscape of the city we will focus on the cultural dimension. The organizing concept will be that of ‘retro-modern’ – the attempt to re-launch the global image of the city based on the mobilization of a previous modernity. How was this previous modernity understood, framed and mobilized for use within this new project of modernization? The ‘futurescape’ of the skyscrapers that throng the city are accompanied by the promotion – readily accepted by ‘the west’ – of the glamorous city now retrieved for the present. How are these two modernities – promoted by the city and echoed by the global media – related?

We look at the recent promotion of the creative industries and creative clusters as a way of getting at some of the fine detail of this. Through this lens we can look at other ‘lost’ modernities. Most obviously the recent industrial past, recycled through ‘creative clusters’, which was rapidly closed down with many workers now retired still in their fifties. There is also the modernity of the cultural revolution, which had its headquarters in Shanghai. As Andrew Ross reminds us, this also had its impact on western modernity through the new social movements and counter-cultures of the 1960s. Though Mao-related souvenirs can be found, very little is offer about the cultural revolution. Yet this deeply marks many of the older residents.

The chapter ends by discussing the debates about singular and multiple modernities from the perspective of Shanghai’s future development.

Panel Session: Taking Matters into third hands: intermediaries and the organization of the creative economy

Session organized by:

Bas van Heur (Maastricht University)

Doreen Jacob (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

Abstract:

official site: http://www.maolive.com/

Shanghai MAO:

http://www.douban.com/host/maosh/

Beijing MAO:

http://www.douban.com/host/maolivehouse/

Dan Hill

Title: Cities and Cyberspace

Justin O’Connor and Gu Xin

Title: Shanghai: Retromodernity: the City of ‘Other People’s Dreams’

Justin O’Connor

Title: Manchester: Original Modern: Popular Culture as Resource

Locating Identity and Practice in the Formation of Value

Submission deadline: 31st Dec 2010

For more information, please refer to the website of ‘European Journal of Cultural Studies’ @

http://ecs.sagepub.com/content/by/year

Markets are technologies. See also implicit cultural policies.

Three approaches – art as social basis; art/ modernism as totalarian; liberal humanist – Malraux; conservative – about social forms and values eroded by modernity – especially 1960s – scruton.

Write up china blog – Benjamin style. Think about an entry of pedestrians – naples and Moscow!

China futures – after jaques

Interview in M50

Xue Song (first artist in M50): I chose here because it’s close to where I live. I wanted to find a work studio near my home. M50 used to be a factory so it offers the ideal settings as an art studio.

Hou: M50 brings good karma for us, but it was a random choice back then. It was a special time though, during the outbreak of SARS in 2003. We didn’t have a particular set of standards, only looking for a place suitable for future development. We looked at places in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai, and there’s some certainty we chose M50 in Shanghai. From Northern to Southern China, there is an increasing emphasis on market and less on arts. Designers think differently and thus produce design works using different methods. Geographically Shanghai is located in the middle, between Beijing and Guangzhou, therefore enjoys a balance between arts and commerce. The arts is commercial expression and commerce is the soul of the arts. It promotes the design efforts if designers work in such an environment. We would like to make efforts in two dimensions. First, research on the materials, forms and concepts of design; Second, service to address market demand.

Jin: When we emphasize the artistic atmosphere, we also need to faces the reality. There’re plenty of artists in Beijing, Shanghai and other cities, but each has their own particularities. In terms of building creative clusters, it is hard to avoid commercialization. As artists are the solid base for industry development, we need to attract artists and retain them when there’s a good business model. It influences not only the development of individual firms, but also urban development.

Date of visit: 20/11/2009 (afternoon)

(The visit was led by Ms Zhou, project manager of ‘shanghai creative industry investment Co.,Ltd.’ This is a company behind many old warehouse renovation project in Shanghai.

Below is notes taken from my meeting with her during this visit.
)
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This building was built by municipal committee in 1933 as a slaughterhouse thus the name ‘1933’. It was then a masterpiece building designed by British architect. Majority of the building material was also shipped here from England. This reinforced concrete building occupies around 1,000 square meter. Its Baroque style was represented in every detail of the four levels building including its chimney and circular stone roads leading up to the top of the building.

Walking along these roads, you will be thrilled by the massive umbrella-shaped pillars that support each floor. In fact, the whole building has a distinctive European ‘gladiator’ feeling to it with its open and empty circular shaped ground in the middle of the building surrounded and supported by the strong concrete edge. The roof of every floor is relatively lower than normal buildings giving it a ‘dark’ and ‘cold’ feeling. The interlocked walkways are built in an elevated way so that the blood of the animals can flow back to the room at the bottom.

1933 situated at the intersection of used to be Hongkou Port and Shajing Port in the public concession area. It is next to Hailun road, Jiulong Road, Zhoujiazui Road, Sipin road and Wuzhou road.

The new plan aims at turning 1933 into the ‘museum of original Shanghai living’ themed around ‘laneways’ (shi ku men) and riverside lifestyle (next to ‘Suzhou river’). As Mr. He said, 1933 will be a mixture of ‘Tianzifang’ and ‘Xintiandi’. It will integrate the shanghainese living with community life, creative workshop, art exhibition space and leisure and entertainment area.

In the blueprint of its plan, the ambition of 1933 renovation project expanded to include building of value chain for those creative industries chose to situate themselves in 1933. It will therefore introduce a series of services and hard infrastructures including hotels and public transportation into the surrounding area to serve the needs of those within.

Question 1: will they work? Can we know in advance whether the creatives would like to be in an ‘artificially’ planned cluster? Will the hard infrastructures and connections being linked to the cluster serve the needs of those within? As planner, how can we integrate communications in the cluster?

In a word, can we build a ‘creative community’? How can we judge the success of a creative cluster?

Question 2: how far can the unique feature and history of a place (original design of the place) affect the development of creative cluster? How far is the atmosphere of the place (purpose of the design) important in attracting creative people?