Writing Beijing

Urban Spaces and Cultural Imaginations in Contemporary Chinese Literature and Films

Yiran Zheng

One of the oldest cities in the world, Beijing was an imperial capital for centuries. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, Beijing became not only the political center of the new communist country, but also the signifier of socialist ideol-ogy and revolutionary culture. Now, in the 21st century, Beijing embodies global conflicts and global connections. Over the course of the last century, then, Beijing moved from the quintessential “traditional” capital to the symbol of communist urban form and finally to a cosmopolitan metropolis. These three stages in the history of Beijing and its shifting representations are the topic of this study.
Like other capitals, Beijing is much more than its physical entity. It also functions as a concept, a representation. As city planners have (and continue to) present Beijing to the world as a model, the fluctuating images of Beijing have become solidified in urban space. Today, the urban form of Beijing juxtaposes diverse spaces that span centuries, embodying the various representations of the city by its planners in different eras. These representations of space also provide possibilities for writers to rethink and rebuild the city in their literary works. Chinese writers and filmmakers often essentialize those urban spaces by making them symbols of different urban cultures, the old houses representing “traditional,” “patriarchal” Chinese culture while soviet-style buildings reflect revolu-tionary culture. Finally, the more recent sprouting of apartments, condos, and townhouses stands for the invasion of western modernity and provides evidence of global capitalism in contemporary China.
Inspired by Henri Lefebvre, this study establishes a framework that connects urban spaces (representations of space) to writers and literary productions (representational space). I analyze the three major urban spatial forms of traditional, communist, and glob-alized Beijing and examine what these urban spaces mean to Chinese writers and filmmakers as well as how they use them to configure particular images of Beijing. I argue that these different configurations are actually the projections of those writers and filmmakers’ own cultural imaginations; they provoke a form of emotional catharsis and also produce alternative visions of the cityscape.

Lexington Books

Pages: 150 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-1-4985-3101-6 • Hardback • April 2016 • $92.00 • (£71.00)

978-1-4985-3103-0 • Paperback • September 2017 • $47.99 • (£37.00)

978-1-4985-3102-3 • eBook • April 2016 • $45.50 • (£35.00)

Subjects: Social Science / Regional Studies, Literary Criticism / Asian / Chinese, Social Science / Human Geography, Social Science / Culture

Writing Beijing

Urban Spaces and Cultural Imaginations in Contemporary Chinese Literature and Films

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

One of the oldest cities in the world, Beijing was an imperial capital for centuries. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, Beijing became not only the political center of the new communist country, but also the signifier of socialist ideol-ogy and revolutionary culture. Now, in the 21st century, Beijing embodies global conflicts and global connections. Over the course of the last century, then, Beijing moved from the quintessential “traditional” capital to the symbol of communist urban form and finally to a cosmopolitan metropolis. These three stages in the history of Beijing and its shifting representations are the topic of this study.
Like other capitals, Beijing is much more than its physical entity. It also functions as a concept, a representation. As city planners have (and continue to) present Beijing to the world as a model, the fluctuating images of Beijing have become solidified in urban space. Today, the urban form of Beijing juxtaposes diverse spaces that span centuries, embodying the various representations of the city by its planners in different eras. These representations of space also provide possibilities for writers to rethink and rebuild the city in their literary works. Chinese writers and filmmakers often essentialize those urban spaces by making them symbols of different urban cultures, the old houses representing “traditional,” “patriarchal” Chinese culture while soviet-style buildings reflect revolu-tionary culture. Finally, the more recent sprouting of apartments, condos, and townhouses stands for the invasion of western modernity and provides evidence of global capitalism in contemporary China.
Inspired by Henri Lefebvre, this study establishes a framework that connects urban spaces (representations of space) to writers and literary productions (representational space). I analyze the three major urban spatial forms of traditional, communist, and glob-alized Beijing and examine what these urban spaces mean to Chinese writers and filmmakers as well as how they use them to configure particular images of Beijing. I argue that these different configurations are actually the projections of those writers and filmmakers’ own cultural imaginations; they provoke a form of emotional catharsis and also produce alternative visions of the cityscape.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 150 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-1-4985-3101-6 • Hardback • April 2016 • $92.00 • (£71.00)

978-1-4985-3103-0 • Paperback • September 2017 • $47.99 • (£37.00)

978-1-4985-3102-3 • eBook • April 2016 • $45.50 • (£35.00)

Subjects: Social Science / Regional Studies, Literary Criticism / Asian / Chinese, Social Science / Human Geography, Social Science / Culture

Author

Yiran Zheng is assistant professor at the Institute for Cultural Studies at Capital Normal University (CNU), Beijing.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents
List of Figures
Introduction
Part I
Chapter 1 Work Unit Compound: An Emergence of a New Urban Space
Chapter 2 “Gongheguo xingui (New Aristocrats of the PRC)”
Chapter 3 Red Nostalgia in the Literature of Military Compound
Part II
Chapter 4 Siheyuan: Signifier of Traditional and Masculine City
Chapter 5 Second-generation Beijing Flavor Writers
Chapter 6 Traditional Beijing and Masculine Beijing in Second-generation Beijing Flavor Literature
Part III
Chapter 7 Modern and Postmodern Architectures: Presentations of the Global Context
Chapter 8 Beijing Floaters
Chapter 9 Cosmopolitan Metropolis as An Urban Dream in Six-generation Films
Conclusion
References
About the Author

Reviews

Writing Beijing makes a remarkable contribution to the growing cultural studies of Chinese cities. Zheng not only engages in insightful discussions of the urban spaces of Beijing, including the important yet hitherto neglected military compound, but also provides exciting new interpretations such as “gendered city.” With its breath and clarity, this book would be an essential reference to anyone interested in Chinese cities, Chinese literature, film and society.
— Yanjie Wang, Loyola Marymount University

This book makes a substantial contribution both to urban study and literature and film studies. It has provided a superb model which connects city, people, and cultural production together. By exploring how urban space is reconstructed by political power and global capital, and revealing subtle relationships between reality and imagination of a city, it opens up important debates for further consideration.
— Dongfeng Tao, Capital Normal University, Beijing