The word "Wushu" means "Chinese Martial Arts" and was first used in 1971 to encompass the many schools of martial arts in China. What is most interesting about this word is that it was created by the Peoples Republic of China in an effort to homogenize its martial arts culture. With reference to urban life in post-Mao China I believe "Wushu" really embodies the Modern Chinese experience. The homogenization of Chinese culture and the struggle one must endure to make their way through the harsh realities of urban life in modern Chin. It was overwhelmingly apparent to me in my experiences in China that urban life is harsh and difficult. So, "Wushu" in its application throughout this blog really refers to how people in urban China are getting along.
The modern Chinese family
The Chinese family faces many challenges in making a life in modern urban China. Issues of affordable housing, adequate infrastructure/services, access to open public space, and overcrowding, an issue that complicates all others. Needless to say the future of China and her cities ultimately rely upon the future vitality of the family unit. As this section of society shapes policy and defines structures in society. How this aspect of my experience relates to the rest of the blog is up to you to explore how the Chinese family is being shaped in modern China through governmental decisions of land-use and the effects of globalization. It is imperative that the development of Chinese cities consider how the form of the city affects the dynamics of the Chinese family and vice versa.
There's no City Hall in China
When our group ventured out to the planning museums of Beijing and Shanghai I was excited to experience planning Chinese style. But shortly after both of my visits my excitement turned into dissatisfaction as I was left wondering how Chinese planners address urban issues. With my already limited understanding of China and globalization the exhibitions did little to inform me about rapid urbanization in mainland China. In fact, the planning museum felt more like walking through a museum of a perceived achievement than walking through a institution of planning.
This rather calculated attempt to impress me about the growth of China as a model country and not to inform me about the challenges and the strategies that were used to solve urban issues was a theme found with class mates professors and others throughout the rest of my trip. As long as environmental and humanitarian concerns of public health and safety remain unchecked in China not to mention the growing inequalities and ever growing income disparities I count it as progress but not the good kind rather the kind from half a century ago.
My training and perspective teaches me that urban planning is treacherous and must be approached with honesty and sincerity. Unfortunately, do Chinese communities know what they need under such historic circumstances? This is where urban planners and experts enter the equation to aid in the process. Without a democratic process (and frankly even with one) solutions to the issues wrapped up in urbanization and globalization are treacherous indeed. Maybe thats why a museum of planning was easier to produce.
The crowds
Are there too many people in China? According to the Peoples Republic of China there are. But is the one child policy working? Let's take this street in Shanghai, is it overcrowded? and if so how do the people get along. Is overcrowding a cultural or social construct or is there such a thing as reaching maximum urban capacity. Are the residents driving this street's activity or is the government?
My education has led me to believe that population is not the core issue here. Frankly, it is an element among many. The effective allocation of resources can be an issue of good design and poor design. But even when design is not a factor, which in my opinion it rarely isn't, isn't this the ideology behind the compact city. However, if western designs like the automobile and the strip mall are China's idea of strategies for the rapid urbanization of mainland China then this alone might drive a zero population culture without the application of statutory force. Further as we are learning in our American cities an auto oriented lifestyle like most things has a maximum capacity overload and it may be time to hit the reset button.
The Peoples MOMA?
From a totally selfish standpoint I love this place. The MOMA-linked hybrid showcases art in a creative and purposeful way. The way architect Steven Holl connects his apartment towers with gallery space is awe-inspiring. The views while walking the elevated corridors serve as a unique backdrop to the exhibitions. The gallery and common space connects the art with the backdrop of the city. The open space surrounding the site was vast and engaging, the nodes at the end of the corridors made for great gathering spaces, and the overall quality was unique.
From a critical point however, there are many problems. If you can overlook the fact that it's perfectly exclusive and ignores Beijing's poor than it will work for you. In fact, we had difficulty getting inside the complex ourselves and were harassed at every step of our tour by nagging security guards. From my experience only the upper strata of society benefits from a project like this. What a shame.
Social Equity
Anyone who has traveled knows that good public infrastructure is not universally shared. In the States, it is easy to become entitled to many things like clean running water. From a strictly humanitarian perspective no one should be subjected to living like this. But from a public health and safety perspective this is a fundamental challenge that plagues cities like Beijing (insert most American Metro areas here as well) the world over. Still in a 21st century city like Beijing when children don't have a proper place to go to the bathroom and clean themselves then something is horribly wrong, especially as that city and country boasts unprecedented economic growth.
To me what this picture really says is, while newly constructed areas of urban China begin to improve their public infrastructure and the face of China appear to be progressing other areas like this Hutong who without representation are ultimately marginalized voiceless and without representation.
Nationalism
Another meme or trait I found throughout my travels was a strong sense of national pride. Pride in everything China has accomplished and is now accomplishing. But while national pride is one thing and people's individual pride or individual sense of self worth is something else how the two co-mingle is interesting in China.
The Chinese Leadership must be critical of themselves in order to progress. Ironically since my trip I view China in an entirely different way. I have acquired a sense of respect for China and have put my western (American and democratic) perspective that has caused me in the past to be overly critical aside long enough to analyze the towering pressures on the people of China. Perhaps our tendency to overlook the tragedies of life, in this case poor living conditions among other things, has more to do with our own sense of pride than it does with the politics or culture of a place.
It was once put to me like this from a respected Chinese friend, who speaking of the Chinese culture said, "the Chinese believe in doing the most efficient thing and all other considerations are ignored". With a country literally bursting at the seems it is possible that the strategic policy of China is confusing and misleading to the west.
Still, China must learn from the west and from anywhere else that can offer insights to the massive migration from the rural areas to the urban centers. Because China is urbanizing at a pace unprecedented planning is not a luxury it is a necessity.
The revolution is inside your mind
After covering up or erasing centuries of its own culture Post Mao China has recently witnessed a resurgence of spirituality. As far as I can tell the revolution was never really about philosophy it was only really about centralized power. It was like most things are a really good propaganda.
While on my trip I found the reluctance of my Chinese counterparts to discuss issues that were controversial interesting. Once it became apparent to me that they were not going to discuss politics or religion with me I couldn't help but wonder why. Was it because I was from the west and wouldn't really understand? Was it because I was too opinionated. Was it because there were Chinese cameras and recording devices keeping track of our conversations, ha.
One of my Chinese friends Wong however was to engage me in just about anything I wanted to discuss but especially about American Entrepreneurs, a subject I know very little about. Wong, who half of the time shared his ideas and the other half shared all the propaganda he had been brought up on liked talking about politics and religion. In fact on multiple occasions he recited to me full citations from speeches of prominent American businessmen Warren Buffet, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates all the while convincing me that we should become business partners someday. I found the fact that he had memorized these speeches remarkable and inspiring. As for the communist rhetoric that too was great to listen to.
Other peoples ideas aside, what I learned from Wong was the "Wushu" spirit, the ability to reach down deep and think big, to dream. I think as long as China produces more Wongs then real progress is inevitable. My only hope is that some of my western thoughts sunk down as deeply in him as his talk of ancient Chinese traditions did with me. The lesson learned here is that try as they may the PRC's attempt to homogenize their people's culture in order to centralize their control much like the consumer driven culture of America nulls us into a sense of security this is a huge waste of time and the solution lies in my friend Wong. As long as China produces more thoughtful, ethical, and self motivated people like Wong they will figure it out.
"Wushu" economic development
One very encouraging theme I encountered while on my trip was seeing the way public space was used. What this picture doesn't tell you is that this man is not only cutting hair but is running a legitimate barber shop right in front of an apartment complex. What is most heartening about this picture is that this public space is not only activated but truly public in every sense of the word. A challenge for designers and planners alike. So what are the Chinese doing to create such good public spaces? What I can gather from this space is that there is nothing unique about its design. What makes it work the way that it does is culture. I found that culturally the Chinese people prefer being outdoors and this explains why the Siheyuan has survived so many years. This barber has the "Wushu" spirit and this type of energy was found all over the city and throughout all of my travels in mainland China.
Shanghai in its own right is something of a World Expo to architecture. The Chinese were gracious and their reception of foreigners was warm. The site selection offered amazing views of the city. But despite all of these great advantages the World Expo gave China very little to put to use.
First of all, China has three of the worlds Megacities Beijing, Hong Kong, and Shanghai and there was little in the way of high density design strategies for megacities at the Expo a little disappointing. What China really needs is creative density sensitive and ecologically sensitive approaches to housing and living scenarios. The closest the Expo came to any type of scenario for dense urban China was the Urban Best Practices Area's, Shanghai Eco-house and London's Liverpool boost both of which were medium density and really were more about "sustainable mid-sized design" than anything else. But as an Urban Best Practice in China these scenarios were still out of context. Of course a fundamental problem I have with any Expo has been themes. This years theme, "Sustainability" tops my list of rather disappointing portrayals of scenarios that address the issues of global climate change, bio-diversity, and other ecological imbalances stemming from human settlement practices. What does sustainability really mean when you consider the context of a Megacity like Shanghai? We should be re-thinking how we use space effectively and wether our cities form follows its natural environment and eco-system. We should be asking questions of functionality while determining if the city's form is determined by classical tradition or by modern traditions. Ultimately, whatever we do we must figure out if our settlements work into the system in a holistic way or rather extract from it leaving us resource poor looking for technology to save us from our poor designs.
As for the Expo's planning I was not impressed. Especially as it relates to its circulation element. The Expo was separated by the Huangpu river, which could be seen as a mistake, and each side had great public transportation access to the Expo site but in terms of connectivity between both sites it was nearly impossible to maneuver, was this intentional and if so, then the isolation of both sides of the river was well accomplished. Most visitors made it across the river by the cross-river ferry which needless to say was highly impacted and one could find more than half their day spent just trying to access the other side of the Expo by river ferry. Those with less patience found a very convenient cross-river bus line that in a fraction of the time it took to brave the ferry carried its riders to the other side of the river in a tunnel. What's more the buses all ran on a state of the art electric powering system known as "Supercapacitor fuel cell" technology that by my estimation was one of the high points of a "better city better life".
A final word
If China is destined to surpass the west which is not hard to imagine, then from what I've seen they must learn from the lessons of the west. No other example could be more timely than that of the automobile. I live in Los Angeles county and even with 10 million people there just isn't the capacity to accommodate everyone and their cars. If you double that figure then you get a city like Beijing or Shanghai. There simply isn't the infrastructure. Even more important than people adopting the car is people adopting debt. If Chinese banks start issuing credit cards then China is destined to follow the same blunders of the west. Needless to say it is likely that the next century will fuel a historic revolution in science and technology but until then appropriate technology may be what we really need.
