Landscape Reconstruction of Customs Tower in a semi-colonial city of old China in the neo-liberalism China

Ref.: 181
Área temática: 02 Integridad funcional de los paisajes urbanos históricos
Fecha de recepción: 17/11/2008

AUTORES (* Autor principal)

WANG, Zilan * (Reino Unido de Gran Bretaña e Irlanda del Norte) - University of Cambridge
WANG, Keling (China) - School of History, Wuhan University

ABSTRACT

The concept of historic town or city has been addressed by scholars and institutions for many years, however, the historic urban landscape as part of the historic city (town) or as a more general concept of historic landscape need to be further discussed.

In this paper, we are going to define the concept and identification on HUL from the viewpoint of "historical memory" of international war and the transformation of sovereignty with the case study of "customs tower" in China. To define the concept of UHL, I may borrow the anthropological idea of "landscape" which is not just physical surroundings, but also cultural ones. We think the historic urban landscape is a cultural process: "a process located between place and space, inside and outside, image and representation". The HUL as a social process is also flexible, mutual-action, alterable, and trans-national.

How the local people "represent" the historic urban landscape will be a key issue addressed in the paper. For instance, in Chinese ports cities, such as Shanghai, Hankou, Tianjin, Guangzhou, the customs towers constructed in concession by colonist for seizing the sovereignty on customs and trade after the Opium war between UK and China in early 20th century were considered as the symbol of "national shame and humiliation" and the symbol of "the historical memory of being colonized" before 1980s. However, they have been considered as interesting exotic landscape by some Chinese in some of the years before 1949 and it are represented again as exotic historic urban landscape and "the historic urban landscape of international cultural exchange" by Chinese in the era of modernization and globalization. While some of the old function of customs tower as a symbol of sovereignty is retained till now and it is retaken by Chinese government in the first years of P.R. China to represent its new sovereignty of the country.

In sum, the custom tower as HUL is the symbol of global and national history and the symbol of historic memory on "international war and colonization" of local communities. It also is represented by local communities by new meaning, which shows the transformation and development of the global history: from conflict and colonization to communication and exchange. In another word, it is the symbol of a period when China began to be forced to open the door to the world by war and it is also the symbol of contemporary China when China actively opens to the world, especially by international trade. Therefore, HUL is a landscape of social process and it is not just physical, but also cultural subject. It is to continue the transformation in the future and shows the change of the ideas of local communities, for instance, how do they look at the history and look at the foreign countries and their culture.

Also, the conservation for HUL is more difficult than the conservation for the center of historic city (town). Some historic cities in world heritage list built new "cities" near the old historic center, however in most cases, UHL is just a series of fragments in metropolitan cities, which is difficult to conserve its authentic and integrity and it is difficult to draw a conservation circle. In most developing countries in the world, the metropolitan cities are in fast economic development and the land price is going up as the property companies and local people always try to construct new real estate projects. We may discuss the guidelines about the management and monitoring of HUL, which include retaining the original function of the HUL (such as it is still used as official building of administration of custom) and retaining the visible integrity as much as possible (although it is most difficult) and promoting the co-operation on the legal plan among international professional organizations, local government and local communities, and guarding against the "economic aggression" of the neo-liberalism exploitation of new real estate conducted by local government, private companies and others and preventing the functional appropriation for the purpose of illusive "tourism" and "economic" development.

Here are some descriptions of the case study.

The transportation port is a foundation of a city with economical functions, and the customs is a symbol of a city which opens doors to the outside world in the sovereign state. The European architectural style of the Customs Bell Towers constructed in early 20th century in the Chinese cities is generally referred to colonialism color and a landscape landmark of the old semi-colonial China. However, in recent years they have been assessed to "Cultural Heritage", associated with urban planning and construction in Chinese city history in modern times.

In today's China of fast-growing economy, the preservation state of customs landscape of several well-known cities, which opened doors to the outside world earlier, including Shanghai, Tianjin, Hankou, and so on, is different. In Wuhan, the largest inland port city in China, the famous Jianghan Customs Clock Tower in Hankou is intact. But the landscape environment in history has been damaged by groups of new high buildings all around and the large-scale reconstruction for constructing a modern megapolis with international standards; the spatial aesthetic perception of the transportational and economical functions of the city and the feature of Bell Tower as a central visual point and landmark of the city, as well as a display of landscape features of Wuhan in modern cultural open history is gradually disappearing.

This article takes the preservation state of historical landscape of Customs Bell Tower (important national preservation of cultural relics, 2001) in Jianghan District in Wuhan as an example, and explores the culture vicissitude shown in cultural ideas, ideological trend and transformation of the old cities, under the neo-liberalism development background of contemporary Chinese politics and economics. This article involves the planning of functional division of Chinese modern urban regions, the urban landscape and the esthetics of cultural landscape system and so on. Besides, we also discuss the component elements of historically cultural landscape, which needs to be protected, and its systematic structure, the function portfolio of modern city regions to which must be paid attention in order to protect its integrity, and the portfolio of architectural style, dimension and visual esthetic style in its structure of cultural environment. Thus, we can provide a case analysis and theoretical support for transformation of old cities in the world which are faced with the same problems.

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