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why go inside the city and pay attention to the lives of ordinary people?

in "into the interior of chinese cities (revised edition)", wang di gave his answer: "the degree of civilization of a country and city depends on their attitude towards the lower class and their efforts to give them a way out and let them to live a dignified life, let them disappear for the sake of so-called face. the population composition of a viable city should be multi-level. moreover, in a city, people should enjoy the benefits regardless of their economic status. same rights."

in order to observe the process of urban development in china in reality, wang di compared the three different concepts of urban development of corbusier, mumford and jacobs when writing. among the three, corbusier is the most famous in the architectural world. as a master of modernist architecture, his dream was to "invent an ideal industrial city with strict functional divisions." in corbusier's urban design, he is like a god, overlooking his achievements and letting everything run within his control.

in recent years, people have become increasingly fascinated with "overlooking the city." with the development of science and technology, aerial photography is no longer unattainable, and drones make local aerial photography possible. whether in the media or in life, a variety of overhead photos are becoming more and more common. many people are obsessed with this perspective, and when they show off the “magnificence” of being in a city, they often use overhead photos to prove it. in these photos, high-rise buildings are like concrete forests, densely planted into the earth, creating a spectacular scene.

"inside chinese cities (revised edition)"

however, an overhead photo cannot represent the entire city. it is indeed spectacular, majestic, and can satisfy some people's vanity. but precisely because of this, it exposes the structural flaws of the city and the flaws of people's thinking. the "overlooking" perspective is a grand perspective that shrinks the city in the field of vision and highlights its layout; but at the same time, it is also a perspective that ignores individuals. people who observe the city from this perspective are often confused. it's rare to see similar ones.

if you are just an appreciator or bystander, such "arrogance" is just a difference in perspective and aesthetics, but for urban planners it is different. this perspective is too deceptive and can easily mislead planners. just like corbusier's urban design plan, although it has its glorious and grand side, it obviously ignores the complexity of the city.

in 1929, le corbusier visited south america. with the help of two aviators, he inspected rio de janeiro from an aerial perspective. at that time, le corbusier had a long list of dazzling titles: the most famous architect and urban planner of the 20th century, the standard-bearer of modernist architecture, the founder of machine aesthetics, and the "father of functionalism"... the airplane served le corbusier · corbusier provided an unprecedentedly broad perspective, and rio de janeiro was reduced to a linear city. as a result, corbusier excitedly sketched out a planning sketch of the city. a concrete viaduct about 100 meters above the ground extended for several kilometers along the coastline. under the towering bridge were people's residences. he gained a lot from this exciting experience, and many theories and planning sketches were even born directly as a result of this expedition. however, according to jane jacobs, author of "the death and life of great american cities", he also so lost.

corbusier's urban planning is consistent with the direction of the bird's eye view. under his "scalpel", the city was cut into regular functional areas, and presented a geometric beauty from an overhead perspective. people are like chess pieces in this type of urban planning. they only need to appear in the functional areas where they should appear and assume their own social functions. strictly speaking, they are not essentially different from a car, a tree, or a piece of glass on a building's glass curtain wall.

looking over the city can indeed bring about a thrill that borders on power. however, no one in this world can always stay in the sky and overlook the city, and no one can always complete their life in the air. people will eventually look at the city they live in, walk on the streets, and enter shops, restaurants, schools, and office buildings. they are not "tool people" for urban landscaping, but users and enjoyers of urban functions. therefore, what is more important than overlooking a city is the feeling of walking into it.

wang di did just that. he refused to look down, and was accustomed to walking to the middle of the city, emphasizing empirical evidence and case studies. his works "teahouse" and "brother pao" reflect this. however, "inside china's cities (revised edition)" does not present it from a micro perspective, but instead discusses the methodology of micro history, the research path of urban history, the relationship between popular culture and elite culture, and the study of urban culture and public space. basic concepts, the relationship between daily life and public space, etc. from the book, we can learn that it was precisely relying on these theories that wang di was able to transform what he saw into empirical evidence for historical research.

wang di once analyzed two tendencies expressed in historical works: one is to conduct complex analysis on seemingly simple problems, leading readers into an unexpected realm, and discovering that there are such complex mysteries buried behind simple problems. this method is now commonly referred to as "discourse analysis". this trend has gradually entered the chinese academic field from the west and is increasingly favored by scholars. another tendency is to try to analyze complex issues in a simple and easy-to-understand way, to explain one's views in a relatively clear, direct and clear way, and to try to avoid using too many theories and terminology. the purpose is to not only allow experts in this field to or scholars in other fields can understand it, and it can be understood by general readers and they will like to read it.

in wang di's view, the latter method is to guide readers into the "event" and allow them to observe the "event" "in person", which is also the charm of micro history.

this writing method is obviously different from the well-known "throughout the past and present" style of historical writing. for a long time, the writing of chinese history academic circles has been dominated by heroic historical views and grand narratives. “historians who are keen on major themes regard all living beings as a drop of water in the ocean, dispensable, and disdain to observe their lives and experience and inner world.”

but as wang di said in his book: "china's history is recorded and expressed by the elite. the written materials about the people's thoughts more or less contain the ideological tendencies of the recorders. in other words, we get from the texts descriptions of popular thought and culture have almost always been filtered by elites. inevitably, these descriptions are infused with elite consciousness, and there is no doubt that these descriptions are biased. it can be said that what we can know about the lower class people in the past. the culture, beliefs and expectations of the lower class are almost all obtained through distorted perspectives and intermediaries. in this way, when we study the lives and culture of lower class groups, we face considerable difficulties. many traditional research materials have obvious limitations. they often represent elite and orthodox views that are dismissive of the population, unclear, or record distorted information.”

in the introduction to "inside chinese cities (revised edition)", wang di mentioned his two early english books - "street culture" and "teahouse" (later published in chinese). he believes that “the success of these two books certainly depends on various factors, but the important reason is that they reflect the new orientation of studying chinese cities using micro-history and new cultural history methods, as well as new ideas in theory, method and practice. explore."

take wang di's research on teahouses in chengdu as an example. his research mainly focused on three themes: first, teahouses as small businesses; second, the role of teahouses in people's daily lives; and third, the role of teahouses in public politics.

in wang di’s view, small business was the most important economic sector in chengdu during the late qing dynasty and the republic of china, and teahouses were the most important form of small business in chengdu. at the same time, no other shop has such a close connection with people's daily life as the teahouse. teahouses not only represent a unique way of doing business, but also form a rich and colorful daily culture. through the internal and external problems faced by teahouses, wang di examines the relationship between teahouses and customers, teahouses and local governments, analyzes the roles of teahouse industry guilds and teahouse workers unions, and observes how they become the relationship between local governments and industries, and between local governments. intermediary between government and workers' organizations. in addition, the role teahouses play in people's interactions and community or neighborhood life is also worth exploring. various social groups use teahouses to engage in economic, social, and cultural activities. they use teahouses as markets, where they do large and small transactions; they use teahouses as stages to provide and receive entertainment. the conflicts, control, and power struggles in the teahouse reveal the fact that political changes are always clearly reflected in the teahouse. the teahouse has become a political stage and a weathervane for the evolution of national and local politics. for example, before the anti-japanese war, the government promulgated many regulations to control teahouses on the grounds of maintaining the stability of public order. during the anti-japanese war and the subsequent civil war, the state and various other social forces used teahouses to serve their political purposes to an unprecedented extent.

an in-depth exploration of the teahouse led wang di to the conclusion: in the first half of the 20th century, the resilient local culture and customs continued to resist the impact of westernization, resist the cultural homogeneity model caused by modernization, and resist the infiltration of state power. and this the process of the penetration and increasing strengthening of state power ran through people's public life in the first half of the 20th century, that is, the state became more and more directly involved in people's daily lives.

as an important public space, the teahouse can be regarded as an important attempt by wang di to study public space. "public space" refers to the places in the city that are open to everyone, and "public life" refers to people's daily life in public spaces. in the process of human modernization, administrative power will always have an impact on citizens' public spaces, and the concept of "society" shrinks, deforms, and rebounds in the process. in previous studies, many western scholars believed that chinese cities lacked citizen organizations like european societies and believed that the administrative power of the imperial regime was the dominant force. however, wang di discovered in his research a quite autonomous and active public life.

this idea of ​​public space and public life is still part of the city today, and they are perhaps the most important part in wang di's eyes. in the book, wang di criticized the large-scale demolition and construction and the resulting cultural rupture, and advocated that people should enjoy equal rights in the city.

the development of traditional chinese cities is subject to various conditions. urban space and culture are mostly formed naturally and there is no overall plan. but precisely because of this, cities each present different styles, management models and lifestyles, and also give birth to different local cultures. since the late qing dynasty, the tide of modernization has hit china, bringing with it the urban reform movement to transform cities with a unified model and strengthen state control. "inside china's cities (revised edition)" writes: "this model includes renovating streets to improve transportation, rebuilding urban spaces to promote a 'modern' urban landscape, setting hygiene standards to prevent disease, and removing beggars from the streets to promote ' "progressive" city image, establishing various regulations to maintain public order, improving leisure and entertainment to "enlighten" the public, promoting patriotism to cultivate new national identity, strengthening politics to promote state control, etc. "

under the impact of this "modernization and growing state power, the weakening of local uniqueness and diversity is obvious. although some changes are drastic and some are slow," local culture has tenacious vitality and has evolved in different historical periods. although there are advances and retreats, it never dies.

in wang di's eyes, this is certainly valuable. he does not resist modernization, but hopes to retain the core, culture and vitality of the city in modernization.

at this point, many cities around the world have taken a detour. new york is an example. it once intended to complete the construction of a new city through large-scale demolition and construction. fortunately, jane jacobs stepped forward to challenge the mainstream discourse in the field of planning and gave american cities a different look. this is how " the death and life of great american cities.

regarding urban construction, there was a saying in the united states in the 1950s: "as long as i have enough money, i can build the city well," which is commonly known as "big courage and generosity."

in the death and life of great american cities, jacobs calls this idea "the myth of wishful thinking." she criticized urban construction in the united states at that time: "what did those first billions build: low-income residential areas became centers of juvenile crime, vandalism, and general social disillusionment...mid-income residential areas became lifeless, military barracks it is generally closed, and there is no vitality and vitality of urban life at all... i don't know where the sidewalk starts and where it extends, and there are no people strolling. the fast lane extracts the essence of the city and greatly damages the vitality of the city. . this is not the reconstruction of the city, this is the looting of the city.”

"the death and life of great american cities"

"the death and life of great american cities" angered american city planners at the time, who believed that jacobs was just a womanizer. but history has proven that it was jacobs's ideas that completely changed urban construction in the united states and ended the urban construction movement of the u.s. government in the 1950s, which was mainly characterized by eradicating slums and building highways. this woman who is accustomed to walking around the streets and paying attention to the details of the city discovered many things that planners ignored, and these are the true meaning of the city.

the core of jacobs' urban concept is nothing more than the word "humanity". it is not mechanical and even adapts to the situation. it transforms the city into an organic whole, full of vitality and endless diversity.

while wang di affirmed jacobs's ideas, he also quoted mumford's views. mumford once proposed six stages of urban development, namely "original city" (village), "city-state" (a collection of villages), "metropolis" (the emergence of important cities), and "metropolitan area" (the beginning of decline). ), “despotic cities” (overexpansion of urban systems) and “dead cities” (cities abandoned).

of course, in wang di's view, the sixth stage "city of death" is a bit alarmist. he wrote: "mumford refers to the destruction of ancient rome through war and disease. chinese cities should not die in this direction, but may decline in other ways. for example, problems such as transportation, water supply, and garbage in chinese cities it may make the city uninhabitable. some cities are dying due to the depletion of resources, such as yumen. now that the oil fields have dried up, people have left the city in large numbers and the city has begun to become desolate.”

at the same time, as big cities have become a world of cars, many cities have been forced to demolish their original side streets. "economic expansion has caused the destruction and renewal of cities, and the end result is large-scale demolition and construction, so the damage to cities has become more and more severe. the complete demolition of the old towns of many historical cities in china is a typical example. once the city if it is dominated by cars, its popularity will gradually disappear.”

what wang di hopes to retain is the city's diversity and popularity, as well as the irrecoverable history.