Forward to the Past: Historical Preservation in Globalizing Shanghai

Abstract

This article examines the role of historical preservation in the spatial restructuring of postindustrial cities through a detailed case study of Xintiandi, a preservation–based redevelopment project in the inner city of Shanghai. At Xintiandi, two blocks of Shikumen houses, Shanghainese tenements built by Western landlords for Chinese tenants in the colonial period, were turned into a posh entertainment quarter by international developers and architects, with support from local governments. The history of Shikumen as dwellings of lower–middle–class tenants through the twentieth century is being carefully erased. The private–public coalition has repackaged Shikumen into a symbol of Shanghai's cosmopolitan colonial past by emphasizing its Western–influenced architecture. This article argues that historical preservation, far from hindering urban growth, serves the same development goal in globalizing Shanghai. Historical elements in the built environment are selectively recycled to produce a new transnational space.