Liang Wendao: The image focus of global cities is moving from "landmark buildings" to "neighborhood blocks"

Neighborhoods, as an urban cultural space, are becoming the "new business card" of cities around the world.

At present, social platforms are full of photos of young people's "punch-in" characteristic neighborhoods, the famous travel magazine "time out" began to select the world's coolest neighborhoods, as a consulting agency JLL is also focusing on core urban areas, its 2021 urban renewal white paper proposes that global cities are relying on the development of core areas to reshape urban temperament and enhance their global influence.

At the recently held 2021 World Urban Culture Forum, this has also become a hot topic. Among them, liang Wendao, a writer and media person, gave a speech on "Neighborhoods of Global Cities" at the theme forum held by the Institute of Literature of shanghai academy of social sciences - Shanghai as a global city development vision and region.

In his view, the competition of global cities has expanded to the cultural level. Among them, the international appeal of traditional landmark buildings is decreasing, replaced by the city's global neighborhood blocks. He believes that the development trend of such neighborhoods and the challenges it will bring are new topics, "which are worth exploring for both policymakers and researchers." ”

The following content is from Leung Man Dao's public speech and exclusive dictation, which has been segmented and slightly edited for ease of reading.

Since the end of the last century, thanks to the efforts of a group of scholars such as Sassen, the concept of "global cities" has gradually replaced the concept of "world cities". Global cities are a new trend emerging under the globalization of the economy and the globalization of the market.

For example, Sassen believes that multinational corporations are a very important player in globalization. The larger and more global the operations of these multinational corporations, the more they need a highly centralized headquarters. When headquarters operations become complex, outsourcing services begin to evolve.

As a result, multinational enterprises began to gather around the headquarters of many law firms, accounting firms, financial firms and so on. And because of the space of these professional service companies, it is possible to attract more multinational companies. Gradually, when a large number of multinational corporate headquarters are gathered in one or more areas, it is possible to form a global city that plays a pivotal role in the globalized economy.

After the rise of the concept of a global city, many media outlets have paid attention to it. In 2008, Time magazine proposed a concept called "nylonkong", which is the collective name of New York, London and Hong Kong, and the global financial network of these three cities has affected the world economy.

Starting with this narrative, over the years, many research institutions have wanted to define and seek out the most important global cities today. For example, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and UN-Habitat have created a set of indicators that list the world's most important global cities every year. There is also gawc – the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, which is a collaboration between the Free University of Berlin and the Imperial University of London. There are also some private consulting firms, such as Kearney, which have also introduced indicators.

After 2017, several cities across the country have launched a new round of urban master planning, which invariably includes global cities in the positioning of future development. For example, Beijing should be a world-class harmonious and livable city, Guangzhou should be a global city led by socialism with Chinese characteristics, and Shanghai should be an outstanding global city and a socialist modern international metropolis with world influence.

Today, sovereign states remain the most important core players in the international arena. It can be assumed that if a country has one or more core global cities, the more prominent its global leadership at multiple levels will be. So, we see a lot of countries wanting to compete for global cities.

It is worth noting that in 2019, the largest financial institution in the Netherlands created a very special set of indicators, and its entry point is "the most discussed city in the world." "They hypothesize that the city that more people talk about is likely to be playing a pivotal role in economics, politics, etc., or that its cultural soft power has an important place in the world." So they studied the most searched and discussed cities in the global media (including Baidu, Google, etc.) and then made a ranking table.

As can be seen from this set of indicators, our focus on global cities today has shifted from very hard economic and political indicators to another level.

There is also an interesting trend in the international media, when it comes to the development of global cities, it is easy to mention a question - how to build the image of a city? This issue was often raised in the 1990s when discussing cultural soft power.

For the image of the city, it is often discussed that there are many landmark buildings. Especially some art centers, cultural centers, museum buildings, etc. The most famous examples are the museums built by Frank Gehry in Spain, and the city of Dubai, which invited many internationally renowned architects to build the city like a mirage.

In the past decade or so, when we talk about urban soft power, we think that the easiest thing to do and the most attractive thing to everyone is that those landmark buildings. The highly creative building can be featured in various international media and on the international stage, attracting everyone's attention.

But the problem is that there has been a new trend in the last five years – the gradual decline in the attractiveness of landmark buildings. One reason for this is that the work of the same group of star architects has spread across the globe. For example, Saha Hardy, Frank Gehry, or Jean Nouvel (the Pudong Art Museum in Shanghai) has spread to several or dozen cities around the world – cities that want to compete with global cities, so they have all made landmarks there.

These works have the distinctive characteristics of the architects themselves. Over time, when we see a newly built landmark, it is likely that we will not be able to accurately identify its relationship with a specific city or even a country. Tadao Ando's art museum can be in Shunde, Guangdong, China, Osaka, Japan, or Austin, Texas, USA, and it can be anywhere.

As a result, whether it is international tourism or international cultural image promotion, everyone has begun to focus on another area - the global neighborhood.

Previously, the British international travel magazine Time Out was selected by editors of different editions around the world to select the world's 49 coolest and most attractive neighborhoods. The 49 blocks are ranked in no particular order.

These include the community of Copenhagen, Denmark, naurebro, the area near the 3rd Street subway station in Seoul Middle Road, South Korea, and some neighborhoods in China, such as the Shanghai North Shaanxi Road/Kangding Road area in Shanghai, Sanlitun in Beijing, and Wan Chai in Hong Kong. The neighborhoods they elect can be said to be unspecific and representative. But it shows us a trend where the focus of urban image is shifting from landmarks to neighborhoods.

Why?

As we just said, landmark buildings are losing their role as landmarks because they can be detached from the local environment and put into any city. But the neighborhood is not.

The city's neighborhoods grow from the local culture, traditions and the economic context of the community. We might think that these neighborhoods are less prominent than landmarks, but they convey something more appealing to today's international tourists, expatriate workers, and that is a unique atmosphere.

This atmosphere can be visualized visually. For example, the building in Wong Kar-wai's "Chongqing Forest", it is not a landmark building, but it forms an atmosphere with the surrounding area. We can also see Brooklyn in New York and Saint-Germain in Paris in the movie, and this community atmosphere is not difficult to show on various social platforms today, and it shows more attractive than landmark buildings.

What should be the conditions for neighborhoods that are considered cool around the world? Before we get into that, this new, global neighborhood and the international communities that already exist in many cities are not a thing.

Before the global city was concerned, many of the country's largest cities already had international communities. In Shanghai, such as Biyun Community, Lianyang Community, and Donghe Apartment. These places have a large foreign resident population. As early as 2015, 76 districts in Shanghai accounted for more than 50% of the foreign population.

In our past understanding, global cities were clusters of regional or global headquarters agencies, which of course had a lot of expatriate staff. So we will consider, what kind of community do these expats need to live in? So, we went to supporting hospitals, nurseries, international schools, in the planning of the city, with the participation of real estate developers, developed a relatively closed and isolated international "small community" designed for expatriates.

There are even some "foreign" buildings in these communities that satisfy their homesickness. For example, the Biyun community has Mediterranean-style buildings, or builds large gardens, large lawns, etc. This is our traditional philosophy of international community planning and construction.

At present, not only China, but also many countries have paid attention to the international community, but there is no consensus on what the international community is and what kind of indicators it should have, both domestically and globally.

Regardless of the definition, these international communities, which are specifically designed to meet the needs of expats and attract foreign investment, are different from the global neighborhoods.

In 2020, Shanghai's Xuhui District will be built by several real estate developers to build an international neighborhood center, the core of which is a number of huge monolithic buildings, trying to provide a variety of supporting facilities and services needed by the international community population.

Why isn't it what we call a global neighborhood?

To put it simply, first, the global neighborhood is by no means a single building, or even a residential community planned by a real estate developer, such as the Biyun Community in Shanghai. It should be a complex community of urban life, composed of multiple owners, multiple tenants, multiple merchants and residents.

Second, a global neighborhood neighborhood is a living community, not a commercial street in the form of a block. The most obvious example is Shanghai's Xintiandi. Xintiandi is a monumental project in domestic urban renewal, but its essence is a shopping mall, a shopping mall with a community appearance.

For example, Daikanyama in Tokyo has always been known for its "Western" restaurants, bars, and coffee shops, but over the years it has entered some workshops with different production elements, making outsiders and locals feel that this is a place that integrates work and leisure.

Third, such global neighborhood neighborhoods should be "organic." It can be planned, but not entirely out of planning. For example, it is not what we often do - to set aside a piece of land next to the headquarters of an international company, build some more foreign houses, facilitate the residence of foreign workers, or attract more foreign investment. It grows naturally on the original streets of the city, and because of this, it will definitely show the coexistence of old and new, and the situation of urban renewal.

These neighborhoods, far more cultural resources than landmarks, can be disseminated and projected onto the world stage, becoming the most attractive thing in the eyes of millennial international tourists and international workers.

The global mobility of millennials is already different from the previous generation. Since he has come to a strange place, in addition to the convenience of life, he is also eager to really feel a little "taste" of the city. In other words, this place must have its own character, not like any international community in the world that has been planned.

What is the "taste" of a place? It's none other than these elements: the city's original streetscape, the local residents, and the various facilities that serve the locals, such as small parks, shops, restaurants, and cultural venues.

In addition, such a neighborhood should also have facilities needed by people from all over the world, such as international restaurants.

Therefore, the global neighborhood should be a mixture of new and old, local and international. It includes both foreigners, domestic tourists and local citizens, where young people can experience different cultures and meet people from different parts of the world.

Today's visitors, for example, when they visit New York, think of Williamsberg, Boerum Hill, and other places in Brooklyn, famous for their local creative communities. Every local wants to enjoy this atmosphere, and it has become a focal point for tourists.

It's also worth noting that such neighborhoods are also places where local creativity and new culture are spawned.

Over the years, After Berlin became the "artist capital" of Europe, Berlin in turn had an important impact on Germany's own art culture and creative industries. [These neighborhoods of international artists] became a place for the birth of a local creative industry. Therefore, such a neighborhood, its significance is very significant.

When people of many different cultural backgrounds gather, there are also many challenges in the global neighborhood, and one complex challenge is the problem of class. We see that the traditional international community often emphasizes its high end. For example, the Biyun community in Shanghai, yes, according to the definition of a global city, it is a place where a large number of international corporate headquarters or regional centers are gathered, and the executives, technicians, etc. here have high incomes.

However, global cities are not only "high-end" expats, it will also attract many lower- and middle-income expatriates to participate in the daily service industry.

Shanghai can already see that many service personnel in the hotel and catering industry come from the Philippines and Indonesia, such as the chef of an Argentine restaurant and the manager of a French restaurant. In fact, their income will not be very low, but it is not like the executives, who can live in a place like the Biyun community.

According to current experience, whether it is New York, London, Hong Kong, or Tokyo, the larger the global city that forms a cluster effect, the more foreigners in this category of middle and lower incomes.

Where will they live? Today's Shanghai is bound to face this problem. What will their daily lives look like when this type of expat increases? The communities they often visit also offer a variety of low-end (international) services and meals, which may be at the same level of consumption as those places that locals need. So what kind of relationship they form, and whether there will be some tension in the middle, this is worth exploring.

Again, all global cities have a side effect in the globalized economy. Frankly speaking, it is the gap between rich and poor. We can see clearly from New York and London that the income level of an executive of a public company is likely to be hundreds or even thousands of times that of a service worker. But the city must need a large number of so-called "low-end" service personnel. Moreover, the distance between the high-income class and the low-income class will become wider and wider.

Specific to the community space, it will reflect the problem of "defamiliarization" of the community. For example, the area around Sheung Wan to West Wan in Hong Kong, one of the liveliest cosmopolitan communities in Hong Kong in recent years, was originally an "old district" where local Residents of Hong Kong lived. Because of this, many internationals are attracted by the local flavors here, including some grocery stores, temples, and Hong Kong's traditional handicraft gathering area. After they arrived here, many apartments, coffee shops, and restaurants began to appear that served them, and the land price naturally rose, and the rent rose with it, thus crowding out the original residents. Such a situation is not uncommon in history and in the world.

This kind of "defamiliarization" problem is a manifestation of the class gap and income gap. Shanghai aims to be a global city premised on socialism. How to better promote social equality in the development of these neighborhoods is also a challenge that needs to be faced.

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