Making sustainable creative/cultural space in Shanghai and Singapore
Publication Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2-2018
Abstract
Shanghai and Singapore are two economically vibrant Asian cities that have recently adopted creative/cultural economy strategies. In this article I examine new spatial expressions of cultural and economic interests in the two cities: state-vaunted cultural edifices and organically evolved cultural spaces. I discuss the simultaneous precariousness and sustainability of these spaces, focusing on Shanghai's Grand Theatre and Moganshan Lu and on Singapore's Esplanade-Theatres by the Bay and Wessex Estate. Their cultural sustainability is understood as their ability to support the development of indigenous content and local idioms in artistic work. Their social sustainability is examined in terms of the social inclusion and community bonds they engender; environmental sustainability refers to the articulation with the language of existing urban forms and the preservation of or improvements to the landscape. Although both Shanghai and Singapore demonstrate simultaneous precariousness and sustainability, Singapore's city-state status places greater pressure on it to ensure sustainability than does Shanghai, within a much larger China in which Beijing serves as the cultural hearth while Shanghai remains essentially a commercial center. See full text at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/1701/
Keywords
China, creative and cultural spaces, Shanghai, Singapore, sustainability
Discipline
Asian Studies | Human Geography | Sociology of Culture | Urban Studies
Research Areas
Humanities
Publication
Living in smart cities: Innovation and sustainability
Editor
Thomas Menkhoff, Kan Siew Ning, Hans-Dieter Evers & Chay Yue Wah
First Page
95
Last Page
124
ISBN
9789811203114
Identifier
10.1142/10785
Publisher
World Scientific
City or Country
Singapore
Citation
KONG, Lily. (2018). Making sustainable creative/cultural space in Shanghai and Singapore. In Living in smart cities: Innovation and sustainability (pp. 95-124). Singapore: World Scientific.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3487
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1142/10785
Comments
Reprint of article in The Geographical Review, 2009, 91(1), 1-22. See full text at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/1701/