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published_or_final_version / Architecture / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

A large amount of garden residential blocks were built in Shanghai in the 1930’s, which manifested the real estate surge of that time. These villas, which used to serve a single family (mainly for foreign expats in Shanghai), however, have been changed dramatically through the time, both socially and physically. Many of these old villas experienced the take over and invasion in the war time, process of socialization and subdivision in the 1950s and the chaotic period during the Cultural Revolution. The intricate property right situations and over-ridden housing condition make adaptive reuse difficult. Columbia Circle, as one of the most outstanding but obscure garden residential estates serving for foreign expats originally, mainly planned and constructed between 1928 and 1932 in succession, is a unique example to show the transition of the garden residential blocks in Shanghai. This thesis will focus on “Columbia Circle” to study the tracing of changes of its social fabric between the 1930’s and nowadays. Based on the historic study of the development plan and and current field survey, the research focuses on two aspects of the transition: one is the demographic composition of the community and the way of life; the other is the way of use of the villas and their property statues. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Landscape Architecture

Although there is no strict definition, the team “financial crisis” usually refers to an event in which the value of financial assets drops rapidly. The causes and consequences of different types of financial crisis could vary. The most recent global financial crisis happened in the year of 2008. The bursting of housing bubble in the U.S. and other countries caused the value of mortgage-related securities, created by financial institutions, to plummet. With governments' efforts to bailout banks, the collapse of global financial system was avoided. However, this crisis has resulted in unfortunate political and social turmoil. In 1910, a financial crisis happened in Shanghai, triggered by the bursting of rubber stock speculation bubble. Forty native banks (錢莊) in Shanghai, out of ninety-one, shut the doors by end of that year, attributed by global rubber material price fluctuation and the fraud in Shanghai capital market. As highly involved with stock speculation, several native banks incurred substantial losses, while the whole financial industry was encumbered with those native banks' insolvency, and then followed by the political and social turmoil, including the Xinhai Revolution (辛亥革命) in 1911. “The 1910 Financial Crisis in Shanghai” has been a popular topic. By further verifying historical materials, especially the articles on English and Chinese newspapers, this dissertation proves that some common understanding about the crisis cannot be re-affirmed. It is also proved that the modern economic model for financial crisis could be applied on the 1910 crisis in Shanghai. / published_or_final_version / Chinese Historical Studies / Master / Master of Arts

Fordism-Keynesianism gradually transited to neoliberalism during 1970s economic recession in capitalist society, shifting urban governance from managerialism to entrepreneurialism. At the same time, China’s 1978 political-economic reform has led to a rapid development and a profound urban transformation characterized by globalization, neo-liberal decentralization and marketization over the past thirty years. To sustain the development and further promote the transformation, mega-events as one of those entrepreneurial policy programs are increasingly favored and widely used by city policy makers. Adopting urban entrepreneurialism as the theoretical perspective, this research explores mega-events, aiming to resolve two debates concerning urban entrepreneurialism and mega-events in the context of China: whether mega-events are effective and sustainable ways for China’s urban development in entrepreneurial city discourses and whether Chinese cities and their local states are entrepreneurial in nature in mega-events? It then takes Shanghai Expo 2010 as the case, focusing on how the Expo as entrepreneurial city action impacts on Shanghai’s urban transformation and how different stakeholders behave in the Expo development. Analysis of the case provides some findings resolving the debates. First, through landscape reconfiguration, spatial restructuring and new sources provision, Expo 2010 effectively transforms Shanghai city within a short time, showing entrepreneurial city qualities in diminutive spatial scale. However, it fails to improve social life except those who under high media exposure and is powerless to impress the world as China has little voice in the Western mainstream media. Moreover, while Expo 2010 generally benefits sustainable development by using energy saving technologies in Expo Park, by creating “Shanghai Mode” rehabilitation for affected communities and by preserving industrial and cultural heritage for future creative industry development, it still negatively impacts general urban living and causes exorbitant investment. Then, entrepreneurial governance is manifested in Expo operation as municipal government unites various stakeholders to ensure the smooth progress of the event, a process explicable by both urban regime and growth machine models. The private sectors are encouraged by municipal government to join Expo market as sponsors or developers and are mobilized interests triggered by Expo opportunities. Civil communities play auxiliary roles that must be united by government to achieve long-term growth. Urban planners are important inter-mediators among stakeholders in Expo, serving municipal government for urban growth. Although “Local Developmental State” model exhibits at municipal level as “development” represents the primary legitimizing principle of the state above those of individuals and the plan-rationality suppresses the market rationality, the “Entrepreneurial State” model can better interpret the nature of government in terms of coordination and partnership in Expo 2010. The government start-ups commercially operate in financing, investment attraction and land development, actively cooperating with private, foreign capitals and other social forces. These findings imply that the event-led restructuring is overall effective for the transformation of urban order from traditional industries to flexible leisure consumption, from monocentric city to polycentric mega-city region, consistent with the tide of postmodern city. They also imply that the operation of Expo by municipal government is entrepreneurial in nature, corresponding to the emerging neo-liberalization with Chinese characteristics. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Philosophy

Traditional fabric and tailoring shops, which had a close relationship to the textile industry once flourished in Shanghai, used to play a vital role in people’s daily life and thus forming the culture of purchasing fabrics and tailoring. Nowadays, most of them are disappearing in a rapid speed without raising too many public concerns. Laou Kai Fook, as the most time-honored traditional fabric and tailoring shop, is a unique and rare example to show that how it relates to the textile industry and the role of it in forming the tailoring culture in Shanghai. This thesis will focus on “Laou Kai Fook” to understand its intrinsic heritage significance by studying its business history, and its connections to the development of the textile industry as well as the evolution of the tailoring culture. A new approach of understanding heritage significances will be introduced to emphasize the relationships between the tangible and intangible aspects in order to form a more comprehensive image of the cultural heritage in a larger context. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

The new town programme has been a widely adopted urban development strategy since the post-2000s in large Chinese cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. This study argued that the current trends of new town development in China need to be understood in light of its own political economy and urban contexts, particularly China’s shift to a socialist-market economy, participation in the global economy, and the rise of Chinese entrepreneurial cities. Using two new towns in Shanghai as case studies, this dissertation attempts to interpret Shanghai’s new town development from the perspective of urban entrepreneurialism, and contribute to the understanding of how the new town programme adds on the ‘entrepreneurial city’ nature to Shanghai. This dissertation is essentially a qualitative study based on data from planning and policy documents, media information, field trip observation, and interviews. Employing the concepts relating to the urban entrepreneurialism and entrepreneurial city theory, the development of the two new towns in Shanghai was examined in three domains: entrepreneurial urban policy and planning, entrepreneurial urban development practices and space production, and entrepreneurial governance. The major analytical elements include development objectives and planned functions of new towns, cultural or entertainment oriented mega-projects development, the fostering of cultural and creative industries, the roles of the state and types of state intervention, and financing mechanisms. This study found that the new town programme in Shanghai is an entrepreneurial urban development strategy to facilitate the building of Shanghai into a global city with international competitiveness, by equipping the metropolitan areas with new urban spaces and new growth capacities. Within the domain of entrepreneurial urban policy and planning, a number of policies were identified to promote industrial development and upgrading, and new planning practices were adopted for place promotion. Within the domain of entrepreneurial urban development practices, it is found that cultural or entertainment oriented mega-projects development was widely adopted, with entrepreneurial objectives such as raising land value and attracting affluent residents and consumers. Within the domain of entrepreneurial governance, a pro-growth coalition formed between the local governments and the government affiliated development corporations was found to be the most influential driving force in promoting the new town development, with their landownership, land selling power, and planning power. The new town programme has added on the entrepreneurial city nature to Shanghai by invoking innovative strategies and state-dominated entrepreneurial urban governance. Innovative entrepreneurial strategies were observed in five fields: producing new type of urban space for living, working, consuming, etc.; new methods for space production to creative locational competitiveness; opening new markets by providing attractive places for consumption; finding new sources of supply by land development and attracting human capital; and redefining urban hierarchy by developing regional nodal city and logistics hub. Urban governance in the new towns were found to be state-dominated in which the local governments themselves are entrepreneurs in pursuit of their own economic and political interests, instead of forming partnerships between the state and the market and facilitating private participation in the development process. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Also available in print.