Mass-scaled migration, demolition, construction… These take place every day in China, changing China's landscape in a bid for rapid urbanization. How much has 15 years of urbanization changed Chinese cities?
In the July issue of Chinese magazine New Weekly, the feature "Ranking of Alienated Cities" 城市异化排行榜 (chéngshì yìhuà páiháng bǎng) lists metropolises that have dramatically changed physically over the past 15 years. The article's intro read (translated into English):
"In 1998, 'New Weekly' featured a list of the charms of Chinese cities. We wrote, 'a city is like an individual, although it cannot be perfect, a city with it's distinct culture and essence has to be a city well-liked, and a city most memorable.'
Over the last 15 years… Urban public resources have become scarce, urban living has become suffocating.
Over the last 15 years… Metropolitans have become black holes that suck in everything, middle and small-level cities lack vitality.
Over the last 15 years, Chinese cities have begun to yearn for titles like 'global metropolis', 'global financial center', 'global transportation hub', 'internationally famed manufacturing city', 'center of international corporate headquarters', 'international exhibition city', and so on.
Over the last 15 years, migration, tearing down the old to build the new, from subways, high-speed railway to skyscrapers, our cities possess the tallest, largest, and most expensive features of urban cities. But social gap has increased, and buffering of social conflicts has decreased.
15 years of urbanization spikes and marches on, all cities are becoming uniform.
In 2013, we remade the list of Chinese cities. Not to look at their charms, but to look at their alienations. To see what they have been doing over the past 15 years and what they have become.
What kind of city makes life worse?"
New Weekly remarks on the various changes that have taken place in China's urbanization process. The total number of cities in China in 2013 has decreased to 658 from 660 in 1998, yet the urban population has overwhelmed the rural population. Small cities and towns are considered satellites or new districts and part of larger cities nearby, creating city clusters and mega-sized metropolises. Cities are also trading traditional names for commercial ones, as the city of Simao becomes Pu'er and the town of Zhongdian becomes Shangri-La, driven by the need to boost the local tourism industry.
The numbers and sizes of traditional architecture have dwindled too. As Beijing's hutongs disappear, and Shanghai's longtangs and shikumen fade in people's memories, quaint streets are being replaced by 4-lane or 6-lane ring roads, temples and pavilions by shopping malls and office buildings, tea and opera culture by coffee and the Top 40.
Every city has a Xintiandi, (at least) a CBD, and wants a subway system. It seems every city "preserves" a historic location by tearing the old architecture down to erect a replica.
Here is the 1998 list of Chinese cities' charms vs. 2013 Chinese cities' alienation (translated from New Weekly):
Beijing: The Most Magnificent City — The Most Miserable City
Shanghai: The Most Luxurious City — The Most Arrogant City
Guangzhou: The Most Undefinable City — The City Most Unlike Guangzhou
Shenzhen: The City With Most Desires — The Most Shanzhai City
Hangzhou: The Most Feminine City — The Most Sleepwalking City
Nanjing: The Most Poetically Melancholic City — The Most Dull City
Suzhou: The Most Delicate City — The City That Should Not have Expanded
Wuhan: The Most La Vie Quotidienne City — The Most Anxious City
Chengdu: The Most Laid-back City — The Most Sales-y City
Chongqing: The Most Fiery City — The Most Breathless City
Dalian: The Most Masculine City — The Most Face-Loving City
Xi'an: The Most Ancient Looking City — The Most "Elderly Devouring" City (which refers to its overdependence on old relics and tourist industry)
Zhuhai: The Most Romantic City — The Most Beingless City
Xiamen: The Most Heartwarming City — The Most Xiaoqingxin-less City (because it is a hailed holy destination for xiaoqingxin)
Lhasa: The Most Mysterious City — The Most Bubble-Bursting City
Hong Kong: The Most Hard-Working City — The City Most Afraid of Mainlanders
Taipei: The Most Strangest City (as in estranged) — The City Closest to Peking (which mocks how Taipei resembles the original China more than Beijing)
The Magical Surrealist Cities: Ordos, Yumen, Tangshan, Tatong, and Rizhao.
Of all the changes that have taken place or are ongoing in China, some are of natural outcomes and unavoidable effects of urbanization, while some are state-led GDP driven. It is easy to look upon the past through rose-colored glasses, but every once in a while, we get the urge to tell China: slow down.
Article by Weijing Zhu
