Under the transformation from “rural China” to “urban China”, cities in this country are confronting with the increasingly complicated problems of urban decline, not just physical decay as well as functional deterioration. The approach prevalently adopted, however, is of tearing down the old and starting the new from scratch, which relies on immediate measures of physical construction but neglects the objectives of social inclusion and heritage protection. For Chinese cities, it is necessary to reconsider the issue on urban regeneration from a more holistic and multidimensional perspective. Since the late 1990s, a new concept—creative industries—has attracted interest over the world. In recent years, many big cities in China, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, have clearly seen a rapid growth of this new industrial sector; a variety of creative industrial clusters (CICs) have emerged in these cities, showing wide potentials for promoting urban regeneration. The recent rise of creative industries and CICs may provide us a new perspective to rethink the issue on urban regeneration in Chinese cities. This study tries to explore the relationships between creative industries, CICs and urban regeneration in Shanghai. Through the exploration, it expects to find an effective approach to promote comprehensive urban regeneration in Chinese cities under the transformation context. As “creative industries” is a relatively fresh concept and the boom of creative industries and clusters just happened in China in recent years, there is a big lack of research related to creative industries in the Chinese context. The research that links creative industries with urban regeneration is much less. This study is an effort to fill this research gap. Around an analytical framework developed from the understanding of three key concepts—creative industries, CICs and urban regeneration, this study conducts two-level analyses. Firstly, it discusses some key issues on urban regeneration, creative industries and clusters respectively at the municipal level. Secondly, it carries out the case study of M50—a CIC in Shanghai—at the local level, based on questionnaire survey and deep interviews. Through the two-level analyses on Shanghai, this study suggests that the policy makers in Chinese cities should recognize the complexity of urban decline problems and view the issue of urban regeneration from a more comprehensive, holistic and multidimensional perspective. Considering the significant implications of the creative industries and CICs for urban regeneration, this study also suggests that the policy makers should adopt the creative industries and CICs as an important strategy to promote urban regeneration, and produce an integrated and systematic plan specifically on CICs that is oriented to urban regeneration and incorporated in the city’s master plan. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

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published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Philosophy

With entertainment as its principle part, the cultural market began to develop in the early 1980s and became to be the first sign of cultural industries in Shenzhen. Some cultural enterprises developed in the background of the "Spiritual Civilization Construction" from the late 1980s to the early 1990s and printing, videos, cultural tourism, animation and cartoon started to grow up in Shenzhen. The government began to pay some attentions to cultural industries in the early 1990s and the scale of cultural industries in Shenzhen had grown up with the development of some important sectors. In the context of "Famous Modern Cultural City Construction" in the late 1990s, Shenzhen developed cultural industries further, cultural industries had produced economic benefits properly, the industrial structure had became pluralistic and the cultural industries developed intensively on a large scale, but faced many problems. Cultural industries in Shenzhen has met a new epoch since 2000 because of the implementation of the strategy of "Found the City on a Cultural Basis" and the orientation of cultural industries as the fourth economic support industry, not only both of its competitiveness and general strength and its economic contribution rate has enhanced a lot, but also cultural industries in Shenzhen leads mainland relatively. Some distinguishing features have been taken shape in printing, media, entertainment, cultural tourism, animation and cartoon, advertising, art and crafts, design, even though there are many problems and challenges in these fields. The development of cultural industries in Shenzhen could not do without the Hong Kong factor. Although the ideas of the development of cultural industries are different in Shenzhen and Hong Kong, they could cooperate closely. The "shop in the front and factory at the back" operation model had been and will still be the most practical cooperative model for two sides and printing, design, digital entertainment and cultural entertainment may be the most potential cooperative fields. In Conclusion, cultural industries in Shenzhen is moving from the fringes to the mainstream; cultural industries in Shenzhen had developed in a unique way; the general developmental level of cultural industries in Shenzhen still lags other industries; the development of cultural industries in Shenzhen has not been supported strongly by the whole society; the fundamental contradiction of cultural industries in Shenzhen is between cultural industries' economic attribution and ideological attribution and will continue to be the context of the development of cultural industries in Shenzhen; the government has controlled the upstream of the cultural industries chain, so the development of cultural industries in Shenzhen must take full advantage of the government resources; cultural industries in Shenzhen should focus on "industries" now; cultural industries in Shenzhen should take the Hong Kong factor seriously and make full use of it. / 王為理. / 呈交日期: 2005年8月. / 論文(哲學博士)--香港中文大學, 2006. / 參考文獻(p. 244-268). / Cheng jiao ri qi: 2005 nian 8 yue. / Adviser: Kwok Siu-tong. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-07, Section: A, page: 2711. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest dissertations and theses, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts also in English. / School code: 1307. / Lun wen (Zhe xue bo shi)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 2006. / Can kao wen xian (p. 244-268). / Wang Weili.

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Urban landscape offers an effective means to improve local capability for regional and global competitions. Along with the growing power of cultural economy, urban landscape with unique identity is increasingly repackaged as venue for cultural, particularly visual, consumption. At the same time, globally oriented cities compete with one another by promoting arts districts. In this context, arts districts have become a global urban phenomenon, contributing significantly to agglomerate cultural consumption activities. For the past two decades, arts districts in Beijing have gained rapid increase in terms of locations and spatial patterns. However ,they were called ‘artist villages’ which represent their undergrounded statues in the early 1990s.It was not until 2000s that some of them were soon commercialized with international galleries, trendy restaurants, caf?s and night clubs appearing on the scene. These underground settlements were eventually recognized as “creative clusters” by the government. Speculative developers have seized the opportunity to investigate arts districts along with the growing importance of cultural economy. Compared with western cases, Beijing’s arts districts merely took less than 20 years to shift from its isolated state to a tremendously popular one among local citizens and foreign visitors. Under this specific circumstance, the mechanism that contributes to such transformation has yet to be explored. Knowledge in this field in China is still on the stage of adopting the western model with a strong passion for explaining their economic capability. Whereas, in order to explore the relation between production landscape and consumption landscape, there is need to conduct a critical investigation for arts districts as a cultural spatial product in a social process. In light of the scenario given above, the study aims to examine the role of place identity in producing Beijing’s arts districts with special focus placed on their branding strategy. The first step of the study is to review the overall development process of Beijing’s arts districts to identify specific background conditions and analyze their development characteristics. In the given urban context, two case studies of Factory 798 and Jiuchang are carried out, which are designed to achieve the research objectives. The two cases display different patterns of development mode. However, according to the study findings, similarities between them can be explored. Based on the distinctive image that the cases create, the study arrives at a conclusion that the role of place identity is evident in forming the characteristic of the consumption pattern. The significance of place identity is recognized for lending its value to Beijing’s arts districts. Further, from production landscape to consumption landscape, the commodification process of arts districts is ineffective without the interplay of social actors. / published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Philosophy

Images of Shikumen Housing have been regularly present as Shanghai’s “collective memory”, serving as testimony to the city’s rapid growth from a backward colonial enter pot into a booming metropolis in the past decades. After 100 years of usage, it is now threatened by modern lifestyle, both functionally and materially. Revitalization is needed to extend the lifespan of the houses within. With a burgeoning enthusiasm towards urban revitalization, various approaches of revitalization have been tried, among which Tianzi Fang(田子坊), located in Taikang Road, Luwan District, is unique for its coexistence of original residents and creative industry practitioners. Results from the case study suggest that Tianzi Fang approach is more welcomed by direct stakeholders as well as visiting tourists. It challenges the conventional mode of urban revitalization by a community-initial approach. This dissertation investigates the case of Tianzi Fang. First hand survey on the spot together with secondary information collected and analyzed to have a comprehensive understanding of the characteristic and process of the revitalization for sustainable development. A literature review commented that the efficiency of public participation was appreciated which contributes a lot to Tianzi Fang’s success. A management proposal is raised at the end of the dissertation as a conclusion of the study and a reference for further research. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

Urban planning is not only about planning the city for people today but also planning decades of year ahead for next generations. Growing complexity and dynamics of the urban system make planning, decision-making and problem-solving to be more challenging. In order to achieve sustainable development, the notion of creative city is aroused in academic field and also advocated by many policymakers recently. Creative city notion suddenly becomes the panacea for many urban problems such as revitalizing dilapidated old urban area, enhancing the competitiveness of the city in the global economy, and boosting local employment rate, etc. However, among the polemical meditations on the creative cities notion, there is insufficient study on what vital preconditions are for creativity to be emerged in the metropolis, what creative activities are generated and how actors are interrelated with each other and with the environment regarding social, economic and physical dimensions. This dissertation proposes the “creative ecology” framework for analyzing and contextualizing the interrelationship and dynamics of stakeholders in the “creative ecology” and with the surrounding environments. An empirical study which applies the framework to a local district of Hong Kong, Yau Ma Tei, is conducted. The study tries to trace out the interrelationships of local creativity scene to the environments, and the dynamics within the ecology supported by the comprehensive study on the empirical setting from the perspective of Hong Kong to local district like Yau Ma Tei, and in-depth face-to-face interviews with key stakeholders. The analysis shows, in particular, how the “creative ecology” rooted in a local district operates and how a balanced “creative ecology” can be achieved in relation to the sustainable urban development. The recommendation is concerned passim with cultural policy and urban planning issues. The dissertation is concluded by summarizing the concept of “creative ecology” and highlighting its nature of continuous evolution, as well as addressing the main contemporary challenges while Hong Kong is in the transition process to be a more creative place. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

Cultural and creative industries are often considered as one of the latest knowledge-based economy that prevailed around the world. Globalization makes the concept of cultural and creativity spread all over the world. The rise of the creative class, which has permanently transformed our economy and society, has rapidly transformed the world (Florida, 2002). Florida has suggested the creative classes have become more pronounced in recent decades and people around the world start to live differently, pursuing a new stage of lifestyles (Florida, 2002). In Hong Kong, cultural and creative industry has only been considered in the Policy Address in 2009, which has become as one of the six new pillars industry in Hong Kong. The transformation of the economic and industrial structure in Hong Kong has injected new value-added elements in economic development. How could Hong Kong react to this change? Currently, the territory does not even have policies that promoted cultural and creative industry. Cultural and creative industries are not greatly promoted. Different artists joined together and formed different artists organization in order to protect their own value and promote the concept of cultural and arts among citizens. In this dissertation, the clustering of cultural and creative industry in Hong Kong will be discussed. Different concepts and theories about the shaping of a cultural city will be analysed. Locational factors that lead to the clustering of cultural and creative industry in Hong Kong will be examined. A local case study – Fo Tan – will be examined by all the theories and concepts regarding to this clustering effect of cultural and creative industry. Fo Tan is one of the most significant industrial areas with most cultural and creative industries in Hong Kong. Different locational factors will be examined and see if they could be fitted into the local context. Moreover, the institutional setting of cultural and creative industry and urban planning system will be analysed and see if there are any deficiencies. With all the above mentioned, this dissertation hopes to see if government policies could help the development of cultural and creative industries and if different sectors in cultural and creative industries could co-exist in Fo Tan. Looking into the future, we would like to see what the Government or other private sector could do in order to help consolidate the cluster of cultural and creative industry in Fo Tan. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

Adaptive reuse of industrial buildings into creative spaces has recently sparked global (Mommaas, 2000, 2004; Daniels, Ho, and Hutton, 2012)and local interests (Leung, 2010; Kong, 2012). The clustering effects of creative spaces have also inspired extensive research on how creative spaces could contribute to urban development and in particular economic growth (Pratt, Andy C., 2004; Evans, 2009; Mommaas, 2009). This dissertation critically reviews existing literature and examines the hypothesis with a comparative study of the Fotanian Artist Village (Fotanian) and Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre (JCCAC), which represent two distinctive development trajectories namely organic and planned creative spaces in Hong Kong. It is argued that the development of creative spaces in industrial buildings is strongly correlated to the intention of the public sector to promote creative economies, as well as market assumptions in dealing with obsolescence in urban environment. Both are governed by the concept of neoliberalism, which advocates utilization of land resources based on exchange value rather than use value, and the use of creative spaces as urban development tools. Thus, developing creative spaces in obsolete places through adaptive reuse would restrain the organic growth of creative spaces, or result in its commodification and institutionalization. The hidden neoliberal agenda has also led to the misconception that creative spaces should be assessed for its efficiency and effectiveness as a cluster based on the agglomeration effect of industrial cluster in traditional sense. Fotanian and JCCAC are selected to test against their success performances based on the cluster theory. The two cases are compared to examine whether the planned is less successful than the organic as suggested by the literature. Findings suggest that neither one of them entirely fulfills all the conditions of creative cluster identified in the literature for a successful creative space. Indeed the clustering effect is an inconclusive, if not misleading, criterion of successful creative spaces, given that the development of creative spaces in cities might bring a variety of benefits. Studies have shown that the adaptive reuse of obsolete places might pose potential threats to creative spaces. It is argued that the success of organic and planned creative spaces can only be possible in the long term when breeding and sustaining factors are introduced. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning