1 Globalization and Chinaâs new urbanism
Fulong Wu
âBeing national is being globalâ (minzu de jiushi shijie de)
This is a common expression in China about how to become part of world culture; it emphasizes that world culture is itself composed of individual national cultures and that the more distinctively national the culture that one attempts to foster the more attractive and recognizable that national culture is in the world. Thus to become âglobalâ, rather than imitating others, one should maintain oneâs indigenous cultural roots. This introductory chapter is about the emergence of Chinaâs new urbanism in the context of globalization.
Globalization has now become a ânew metaânarrativeâ of contemporary world changes of which the global city has been represented as the key manifestation (Sassen 1991, 2002, Short and Kim 1999, Taylor 2003, Olds and Yeung 2004). The rise of global awareness on the other hand promotes the imperative of local knowledge. Even in what is asserted as a global economy, activities rarely operate truly at a âglobalâ scale â more or less this globalization means transcending national boundaries or being âtransâlocalâ (Smith 2001). The recent proliferation of local growth research has concentrated on the scale of the city and region through which the new global economy is formed and ânegotiatedâ (Scott 2001, see also the special issue of Urban Studies, 2003). An extensive literature on global cities has been developing ever since the seminal hypothesis was developed by Friedmann and Wolff (1982) and the research by Sassen (1991, 1994) and others (Knox and Taylor 1995, Short and Kim 1999, Marcuse and van Kempen 2000). The focus on the city has begun to reveal a soâcalled globalâlocal nexus (Beauregard 1995) through which globalization is no longer understood through the paradigm of âtopâdownâ and externally imposed processes. The critical local dimension has begun to be appreciated. It is this discovery that brings the need to address the imbalance in the literature, which is highly skewed towards Western economies. Despite some recent reflection on globalization in Asian Pacific cities (e.g. see the special issue of Urban Studies, 2000, Lo and Yeung 1998, Lo and Marcotullio 2000, Olds 2001) and on Third World cities, cities in developing countries have not been addressed adequately from the perspective of globalization (Smart and Smart 2003). More recently, there has been an appeal for studies to go beyond the âThird World cityâ to examine the similarities and dissimilarities of urbanization in Southeast Asia and the Western world (Dick and Rimmer 1998). From studies outside the âcoreâ global cities, it is shown that there are indeed different typologies of âglobal citiesâ in the making (Olds and Yeung 2004). While globalization does not necessarily lead to the âhegemonyâ of Western or American institutions (Hannerz 1992, 1997), such a notion still implicitly accepts that there is an external process called âglobalizationâ. Our view is that globalization is built up from the local â this is particularly important to the âdeveloping countriesâ, commonly regarded as the âperipheryâ and hence as being subject to âexternalâ global forces.
Nowadays globalization is used, together with âmarketizationâ, to capture the change in the Chinese city (Logan 2002, Ma 2002, Lin 2004, Wu and Ma 2005b). For mainland China, such a globalization process has been made possible by the âopen doorâ policy and the subsequent adoption of an âexportâorientedâ growth strategy, following the economic growth model in the greater China region and East Asia. This openingâup has been coupled with âeconomic reformâ. The initial stage (from 1979 to 1992) of economic reform was perhaps more oriented towards internal institutional changes. But since 1992, especially after China joined the WTO in 2002, the pace of openingâup has quickened. While recent research has begun to pay attention to the impact of globalization on Chinese society (e.g. Lin 2000, Zhou 2002, Ma and Cartier 2003, Zheng 2004), there has been no systematic attempt to address the economic, cultural and political implications for the Chinese city. This chapter aims to rethink the concept of globalization from the point of view of a much longer time scale. The study of Chinese cities under globalization may thus bring a fresh understanding of the global city. At the same time, using the perspective of globalization to examine the Chinese city will generate a deeper understanding about changing Chinese society. This edited volume explores the intersection between globalization and local changes in the Chinese city, thus attempting to contribute in a timely way to these global and local dynamics.
Our interrogation begins by rethinking the term of âglobalizationâ â a hectic and overloaded term (Yeung 1998, Jessop 1999). Globalization is often thought of as a very recent phenomenon associated with transnational corporations (TNCs) and supernational organizations (Knox and Taylor 1995) which are forming the âglobal economyâ. Yeung (1998), however, contests the common wisdom that globalization is creating a âborderless worldâ and argues that the state is important in creating necessary territorial conditions within which the global economy can operate. Now there are sophisticated views about globalization through concepts such as the politics of scale (Swyngedouw 1997, Brenner 1999) and âglocalizationâ as a placeâbased strategy (Jessop and Sum 2000), which are superseding the old notion of global and local dichotomy. The understanding of globalization has therefore shifted towards territorially based politics.
This âneutralâ treatment of globalization as a bottomâup and transâlocal process embedded in national territories is important in the context of this book, which is about the Chinese city. Here the term Chinese city is used with a collective meaning to include various cities within âGreat Chinaâ (Sum 1999). By including Hong Kong, Macau and Taipei, I attempt to highlight the cultural dimension of the âChineseâ city. This goes beyond treating the Chinese city only as the âpostâsocialist cityâ. Both perceptions of â(postâ)socialismâ and of Chinese versus âWesternâ society stress their âabnormalityâ as opposed to the norm seen in âmarket economiesâ and âdemocratic societiesâ. The study of globalization in these contexts often holds up an implicit instance to see how this abnormality is becoming normal through globalization. This instance can be seen from the use of soâcalled transitional economies1 and emerging markets, as these economies and markets are often believed to be âoutliersâ of the global market economy that are now returning to a ânormalâ market situation. This common perception is problematic because it falls into the global and local dichotomy and because it equates the âglobalâ with the âWesternâ.
Globalization, in its broad sense, is a process associated with increasing mobility and faster temporality driven by the changing âregime of accumulationâ.2 In a more openâended definition, globalization is seen as the âstretching and deepening of social relations across national borders so that everyday activities are more influenced by events at great distancesâ (Smart and Smart 2003: 265), or as Appaduraiâs (1996) five fluid and irregular âscapesâ brought about by âdeterritorializationâ, which loosens connections between people, capital, ideas and space. As such, a wider spatial manifestation results: we have seen a familiar reâconfiguration of urban space, with the emergence of differentiated residential space, relying on consumption together with its glamorous landscapes as a driving force, the creation of spaces of globalization itself (e.g. central business districts) and contrasting spaces of people who have migrated from different places. This process cannot be separated from its material existence.
By looking at it this way, we can avoid confusing globalization with âWesternizationâ â a term containing a specific meaning in the long Chinese intellectual anxiety towards the West. In 1890, Zhang Zhidong of the late Qing Dynasty proposed a compromise solution towards the overwhelming penetration of Western influence suggesting âChinese learning for the essential principles, Western learning for the practical applicationâ (zhongxue wei ti, xixue wei yong). He speciously invoked a Song Dynasty philosophical distinction between âtiâ (substance, the term literally means âbodyâ) and âyongâ (function, the term literally means âuseâ). Zhang was mainly arguing for the use of Western technology without fundamentally altering the foundation of Chinese culture. Essentially what he proposed was a limited and selective âmodernizationâ. Rather, this chapter attempts to see how globalization is constructed from below â a process embedded in place, by arguing that the Chinese city, now at the frontier of globalization, may be one materiality of globalization. As such, I am against the convergence thesis and the licensing of specific knowledge of the ânormalâ (Western) market as a universal one. This is not simply because there are geographical differences (âgeography mattersâ) but also because there are profoundly diverse materializations of globalization. This materiality is built upon historically and institutionally conditioned differences. As suggested in the special issue of Urban Geography (Wu 2005a), the âtransitional cityâ reflects the transition of the city. The global is, therefore, no more than a constellation of multiple microcosms. Indeed there is no such distinction between âWesternâ technology and âChineseâ principle. What has been described in this book is a set of local changes, but these changes clearly show the globalization.
As shown in the table of contents, all chapter titles bear the âcatchwordâ globalization. However, âlocal changesâ are coherently argued throughout the book. This chapter sets the scene by emphasizing the central âthemeâ of the book. By âthemeâ, I do not suggest there is just one defined and definite position. Understandably in a collection like this covering a wide range of topics, authors have different theoretical stances and hence do not produce a singular argument. But their discussions evolve around this theme. Part I of this book examines the reach and limit of globalization focusing on the relationship between globalization and urbanization: Chinaâs urban frontier in the age of globalization and the relationship between urbanization and openness (in particular foreign investment). Part II further examines Chinaâs most globally oriented cities: Beijing, Macau, Hong Kong, Taipei and the crossâboundary city region in the Pearl River Delta. Part III analyses the process of city building for global cities: city building and land rights, transplanting cityscapes and the influence of foreign built form on Chinese luxury housing estates. Part IV assesses urban political and economic implications for the highâtech industries, the new economic sector in the secondâtier cities, the emergence of âpublic spaceâ and the role of the state and the grassroots practices of âcommunity constructionâ.
Globalization and temporality
Temporality is absolutely critical but underâappreciated for understanding such a fashionable term as globalization. Is globalization a new phenomenon? There are assertions from cities such as Istanbul (Keyder 1999) or Cairo (AbuâLughod 1971) that world cities existed long before postwar episode of globalization. But the current phase of globalization does have something new. On what time scale do we observe the emergence of the soâcalled global city? By linking globalization (a process claimed to be recent) and the Chinese city (a place(s) in a civilization with a long history), this volume brings together a collection of reflective chapters to contribute to the understanding of the temporality of globalization. Despite the long history of Chinese cities, the city of modern industries is relatively new in China, and the city of âpostmodernityâ (a term of controversy) is also in its embryonic stage. Such a contrast between different temporalities might be an ideal context for rethinking globalization.
A thoughtful governor of the late Qing Dynasty, Zhang Zhidong, deplored that the defeat of the Middle Kingdom in the Opium War symbolized an unprecedented âgreat transformationâ (da bian ju) (Hao and Wang 1993: 186); Similarly, Li Hongzhang, the premier of Qingâs âall foreign affairsâ, suggested in 1872 that Chinese society had experienced great transformation in the last three millennia. In short, the defeated Chinese at that time had begun to realize that the change was âunprecedented in millenniumâ (âqiannian weiyou zhibianâ). What exactly was this unprecedented millennium change? The Western force of intrusion was seen no longer as that of a foreign nation but rather as the âforce of industrializationâ. The sentiment echoes anecdotally the scene of a machineâpropelled boat sailing fast upstream in the river (this was reportedly said by Fei Xiaotong,3 a Chinese sociologist). The scene is âloadedâ because it is a âWesternâ boat and it is against ânatural regularityâ â the regularity in the local everyday reality. Now we come to the core point: a boat is a boat, and to what extent does it become âWesternâ? What China faced was surely not foreign nations but rather a more profound transformation, now known as âglobalizationâ. The temporal scale of globalization can be seen from Table 1.1 where the reach of the global is associated with the new information era.
At the millennium scale, we see technological change (known as the âeraâ of informationâ) and the inherent change in production, which is often thought of as âforeignâ or alien, and a fundamental change in society (to what Fei Xiaotong characterized in Rural China as an anonymous, heterogeneous, highâdensity urbanism). In fact, before globalization became fashionable in Chinaâs politics, the same thing had been called âmodernizationâ.4 At a centennial scale, we see the shaped awareness of the ânation stateâ, a new construct different from the fated Kingdom and the resurgence of its strongest representation as state socialism. At decennial scale comes the notion of âsocialism and postâsocialismâ, and economic reform; at the yearly scale we see âWTOâ, foreign direct investment (FDI), the Asian Financial Crisis and international trade cycles. So it can be seen that the study of globalization should not be necessarily tied up with the very short episode of WTO, although it is necessarily a highlight.
Such a temporal perspective suggests that globalization, according to a narrowly defined concept, is something new; however, when judged by the source of
Table 1.1 The time scale of different eras: globalization from a temporality perspective
technological advances it is not entirely new. The emphasis on the ânation stateâ is however longer than this narrow âglobalizationâ, as shown in Chinaâs bitterly resented yet fondly embraced âWesternizationâ. Such a temporality also highlights that we should not see the ânationalâ as equivalent to the local. In academia, it has been emphasized that the nation state is still alive and well, but this is beating a straw man. Indeed, by focusing on the nation one might implicitly license the phantom of an externally existing global and confine oneself to a particular temporality. It is unnecessary to confine our radar of attention to very temporal constructs such as the WTO and FDI (but I do not suggest an immediate decease; rather, these temporal constructs will be the natural elements of the âeraâ). Even âWesternizationâ is too short a notion, as this millennium change has a more profound and prolonged temporality than that and this change is inherent in this civilization itself. As such, we come closer to the notion of the âordinary cityâ (Amin and Graham 1997, Robinson 2002) as the stunningly fast rhythms have become inherently âordinaryâ. From the perspective of a longer temporality, globalization is a millennium transformation in each ordinary place.
Globalizing Chinese cities: globalization as urbanization
The narrow view of urbanization refers to the increase in urban population or population living in the cities, and the decline in rural population. The broad view, however, believes that the process includes the deepening of âurbanismâ (as a particular set of behavioural norms of the society). According to this broad view, urban redevelopment and the upgrading of economic structures are also part of the urbanization process. Often, the impact of globalization on the city is assessed through the âglobal cityâ as a distinctive category of cities; but understanding urbanization broadly will include all city building activities towards the globally oriented economy. As will be elaborated later, the globalist view tends to see globalization as more overarching. That is, building the city for the global economy is the ultimate source of urbanization (hence the notion of territorially based globally competitive strategies â âglurbanizationâ). However, here I treat globalization as a more âordinaryâ scene, not confined to the global city. In fact, globalization is perhaps manifested more conspicuously in globalizing cities (see Marcuse and van Kempen 2000) than in the established command centres.
Attention to the impact of globalization on the city mainly focuses on global cities such as New York, London and Tokyo (Sassen 1991). However, there are other types of city regions that are deeply involved in globalization but have not reached the status of global city, that is, the command centres of the global economy. Xiangmin...