Spatial informality, urban regularization, and social resistance: Tianqiao as a public space for the poor, 1911–1937

ABSTRACT

This study examines Tianqiao, the largest commercial and entertainment centre, which underwent a significant transformation into the most popular public space in Republican Beijing. Spatial informality has often been overlooked in planning history, due to its deviation from traditional disciplinary norms, tools, and materials, yet it can offer valuable insights into Chinese urban public spaces and their social values. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including government documents, newspapers, social surveys, and personal records, this paper elucidates how everyday life and popular culture emerged as effective strategies for the poor population to exert their political power and passively resist the state's incomplete urban regularization efforts. This exemplifies a distinct type of Chinese public space that acts as a mediator between the state and society, particularly from a bottom-up perspective of urban modernization.

Acknowledgements

This study is based in part on my doctoral thesis, ‘Contested Beijing: the modernization of urban space, 1900–1937’, at ETH Zurich. I thank Professor Josep Lluis Mateo and Professor Philip Ursprung for commenting on earlier versions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Laoshe, Rickshaw, 144.

2 X. Huang, “Space, State, and Crowds”; X. Huang, “Transfer of Foreign Modernity”.

3 AlSayyad and Roy, Urban Informality, 79; Wright, “Informal Cities, Multiple Realities”.

4 Jacobs, Death and Life of Great American Cities; Rudofsky, Architecture without Architects; Banham, Los Angeles; Venturi, Brown, and Izenour, Learning from Las Vegas; Jackson, Discovering the Vernacular Landscape.

5 Crawford, Introduction, 7.

6 Elsheshtawy, “The Informal Turn,” 6.

7 Lombard, “Making a Place,” 45.

8 Dong, Republican Beijing, xvi.

9 Yue, Space, Self, and Society; Yue, Obscene Place.

10 J. Wang, “Wangfujing Street and Sky Bridge.”

11 Brillembourg, Feireiss, and Klumpner, Informal City: Caracas case, 19.

12 Elsheshtawy, “The Informal Turn.” 5.

13 Gamble, Peking; Li, “A Discussion”; Qiusheng, “A Social Survey”; Zhang, A View of Tianqiao.

14 “Tianqiao of Old Beijing.”

15 Oswalt, Overmeyer, and Misselwitz, Urban Catalyst, 94.

16 Thompson, The Making of The English Working Class.

17 Scott, The Moral Economy of The Peasant; Scott, Weapons of the Weak; Kerkvliet, The Power of Everyday Politics.

18 Kuhn, Origins of the Modern Chinese State.

19 D. Wang, Street Culture in Chengdu; D. Wang, The Teahouse.

20 Gamble, Peking; Meng and Gamble, Prices, Wages and the Standard; Tao, A Study on Living Expenses.

21 Li, “A Discussion”, 3; Tao, A Study on Living Expenses, 7–8.

22 Tao, A Study on Living Expenses, 8.

23 Ibid., 43.

24 Li, “A Comparison of the Standard of Living,” 7.

25 Tao, A Study on Living Expenses, 10, 27.

26 Li and Tang, Tianqiao, 161; Z. Huang, Memories of Tianqiao, 9.

27 Zheng, Records of Beijing, 407.

28 Qi, “Preface.”

29 According to ‘The Song of Tianqiao [天桥曲]’ written by Shunding Yi in 1913, ‘in the relatively limited area of Tianqiao, there were two men’s theatres, three women’s theatres, three men’s music stages and three women’s music stages. […] using woven mats and huts, and were often bustling with visitors, predominantly comprised of impoverished residents. […]’, Zhang, A View of Tianqiao, 113.

30 As recorded in the Aiguo Vernacular Newspaper, ‘Due to the Department of Interior's decision to demolish the gate-yard of Zhengyang Gate, all merchants from the Zhengyang Market were to be relocated to a vacant area west of Tianqiao’. Patriotic Vernacular News [爱国白话报], October 1, 1914, 4.

31 Masses’ Strength Daily [群强报], October 15, 1914, 4.

32 See Gao, A Financial Report, 1–2.

33 Zhang, Collected Writings about Tianqiao, 12–13.

34 Zhang, Manuscripts of Tianqiao, 1.

35 Lian, Collected Writings on the World, 28.

36 Zhang, A View of Tianqiao, 11.

37 Ibid.

38 Q. Wang, “Spatial Production and the Masses' Revel,” 173; Gao, A Financial Report, 8.

39 “Tianqiao, an Amusement Park for the Poor.”

40 Lian, Collected Writings on the World.

41 Ibid., 279.

42 Zhang, A View of Tianqiao, 45.

43 S. Wang, Records and Maps of Xuannan, 20.

44 Li and Tang, Tianqiao, 77.

45 S. Wang, Records and Maps of Xuannan, 20.

46 Patriotic Vernacular News, November 5, 1919, page 4; Patriotic Vernacular News, April 11, 1921, 4.

47 Mingong, “Glimpse of Tianqiao.”

48 Ibid.

49 Zhang, A View of Tianqiao, 23–24.

50 Qiusheng, “Social Survey on Tianqiao Market.”

51 Mingong, “Glimpse of Tianqiao.”

52 Lian, Collected Writings on the World, 279.

53 Ibid., 307.

54 See Zhang, A View of Tianqiao, 67; Lian, Collected Writings on the World, 200.

55 Qiusheng, “Social Survey on Tianqiao Market.”

56 Ibid.

57 Zhang, A View of Tianqiao, 12; Dong, Republican Beijing, 179.

58 D. Wang, The Teahouse, 1.

59 Ibid., 1–2.

60 See D. Wang, Street Culture in Chengdu, 132–37.

61 Patriotic Vernacular News, September 18, 1913, 4.

62 Patriotic Vernacular News, October 19, 1913, 4.

63 Masses’ Strength Daily [群强报 ], November 18, 1917, 1.

64 Masses’ Strength Daily, September 4, 1921, 1.

65 Ibid.

66 Department of Public Works of Beijing, Municipal Government Monthly [市政月刊], Issue 13 & 14, No. 01 & 02, 1927, 30–32.

67 Beiping Government Secretariat, Beiping Municipal Bulletin [北平市市政公报], Issue 151, 1932, 2–3.

68 Ibid.

69 Ibid.

70 Department of Public Works of Beiping, Public Works Combined Issue for the 21st and 22nd Years of the Republic of China [北平市工务局民国二十一二十二两年份工务合刊], 297–9.

71 Ibid, 301–4.

72 Ibid.

73 Ibid.

74 Ibid.

75 Beiping Government Secreariat, Beiping Municipal Bulletin [北平市市政公报], Issue 151, 1932, 2–3.

76 Gao, A Financial Report, 10.

77 Zhang, A View of Tianqiao, 12.

78 “Regularizing Tianqiao”.

79 Ibid.

80 Ibid., 57.

81 Qiusheng, “Social Survey on Tianqiao Market.”

82 Ibid.

83 Zhang, A View of Tianqiao, 13.

84 B. Wang, “Preface.”

85 Qi, “Preface.”

86 Ibid.

87 “Regularizing Tianqiao.”

88 Davis, Parades and Power; D. Wang, Street Culture in Chengdu, 159.

89 Davis, Parades and Power, 29–30, as cited in D. Wang, Street Culture in Chengdu, 160.

90 D. Wang, Street Culture in Chengdu, 160.

91 See the similar situation in Chengdu in ibid.

92 Zhang, Manuscripts of Tianqiao, 10.

93 See the Map of Constructing The Lotus Pond in Outer Fifth District.

94 Ibid.

95 See X. Huang, “Between a Government Project.”

96 Q. Wang, “Spatial Production and the Masses' Revel,” 173.

97 See “The Future of Tianqiao [天桥之未来观]”, Factual Vernacular News [事实白话报], July 26, 1922, 2; “Dispute Over Tianqiao Vendors' Land Property [天桥商贩地盘纠葛]”, Social Welfare Tientsin [天津益世报], April 29, 1927.

98 “Dispute Over Land Property at Tianqiao [天桥地皮之风潮]”, Morning Post [晨报], June 28, 1923, 6; “Dispute over land sales at Tianqiao [天桥售地之纠葛]”, Dawn [黎明报], February 19, 1924, 3; “Merchants Oppose Land-Price Increases at Tianqiao [天桥商民反对地价加利]”, Voice of The People [民声], July 19, 1924, 3; “Tianqiao Chamber of Commerce [天桥之商业联合会]", Voice of The People, September 30, 1924, page 3.

99 “Dispute Over Land Property at Tianqiao [天桥地亩纠纷]”, New Morning Post [新晨报], March 27, 1929, 6.

100 Yue, Obscene Place, 43, 53, 83.

101 Scott, Weapons of the Weak; Piven and Cloward, Poor People's Movements.

102 D. Wang, The Teahouse, 57.

103 It is recorded that ‘compared with pullers in other Asian cities, Beijing rickshaw men were slow to act and organize’ in Strand, Rickshaw Beijing, 61.

104 Ibid., 63.

105 Qiusheng, “Social Survey on Tianqiao Market.”

106 Strand, Rickshaw Beijing, 63.

107 Schmiechen and Carls, The British Market Hall, 14.

108 Scott, Weapons of the Weak; Foucault, Discipline and Punish.

109 See Naquin, Peking.

110 Dong, Republican Beijing, 183.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 51708102]; the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [grant number 2242023K40006].

Notes on contributors

Xusheng Huang

Xusheng Huang is an Associate Professor at the Department of Architecture, Southeast University. He received his doctoral degree from ETH Zurich and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Singapore-ETH Center. His writings have been published in Architectural Theory Review, Urban History, Planning Perspectives, Architectural Journal, etc. His current research examines urban modernization and the history of urban space.