Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

2-2007

Abstract

This paper examines the advertising themes and rhetoric that have been assembled in the place-marketing of Shanghai's newly built gated communities. We demonstrate how place-marketing strategies, in this case selling the Chinese dream home, draws upon specific landscape meanings and values that are embedded in Chinese/ Shanghainese history, even as symbolic and cultural capital from the contemporary scene also exert their influences. Collectively, these representations of the good life both reflect and reinforce the exclusivist housing aspirations and privatist visions of middle-class residents of gated communities in contemporary Shanghai. While advertisements do not always achieve the outcomes that property developers wish for, there is no doubt that they play significant roles in both shaping and reflecting landscape meanings and values. As medium and outcome, they reveal the growing aspirations of a new Chinese middle class. Copyright © 2007 by V. H. Winston & Son, Inc. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Chinese middle class, Gated communities, Place-marketing, Shanghai, The good life, Cultural landscape, Marketing, Strategic approach, Tourism market, Tourist destination, Urban development, Urban housing

Discipline

Asian Studies | Human Geography | Urban Studies

Research Areas

Humanities

Publication

Urban Geography

Volume

28

Issue

2

First Page

129

Last Page

159

ISSN

0272-3638

Identifier

10.2747/0272-3638.28.2.129

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.2747/0272-3638.28.2.129

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