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ABSTRACT
Tracing the concept and phenomena of ‘cultural governance’, as it evolves along the agenda of China’s ‘modernization of governing capacity (of the state)’, this article tries to capture the various term-shaping processes against the backdrop of a political discourse that gave birth to them. The article discusses topics such as urban planning, infrastructure upgrading, community reformation, and the so-called cultural-sustainable development strategy adopted by the Chinese authorities with selected cases from three mainland Chinese urban centers (Shenzhen, Foshan and Dongguan) of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area. Pointing to both the flexibility and adaptability of the state’s involvement, the research elaborates the models adopted by and problems associated with various pioneering programs initiated by municipalities as they carry out what might be called, arguably, a ‘cultural turn’ of urban governance.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area’s ‘9 + 2’ cities include Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Huizhou, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen, Zhaoqing, Hong Kong, and Macau.
2. The Hakki Residence is the ancestral home of the Hakkas, for which the Chinese characters (kejia) literally mean ‘guest families’. The Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup, they are thought to have originated from relatively northern provinces. In a series of migrations, they moved and settled in their present areas in Southern China and from there, substantial numbers migrated overseas to various countries throughout the world.
3. UABB was supposed to hold its 9th session in 2021 and started to open call for curatorial proposals one year in advance. Unfortunately, due to the reform of government institutions and various social reasons, at the time of this article, the organizing committee had not showed a willingness to move the event forward.
4. Renovation projects are usually launched after the biennale but independent from it.
5. Data is collected from unstructured interviews with local residents in 2019–2021.
6. Shenzhen’s ‘ten cultural facilities of the new era’ includes the new Opera House, the Reform and Opening Up Exhibition Hall, the Creative Design Museum, the China National Museum-Shenzhen (later renamed as Guoshen Museum), the new Science and Technology Museum, the Oceanographic Museum, the Natural History Museum, the New Museum of Fine Arts, the Institute of Innovation and Creative Design, and Shenzhen Conservatory of Music.
7. Socialist New Countryside, proposed by the central government, is a blueprint for China’s rural communities, which are designed, as in the official documents, with features such as developed agricultural productivity, well-off life-styles, civilized customs, high-quality hygiene, and are to be ruled under the principle of democratic governance.
8. Data is collected from the interview with Li Jinghu, one of the founders of Shek Mai Space, in July 2021, summarized by the author in August 2021.
9. Ibid.
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Notes on contributors
Xianmei Luo
Xianmei Luo received a Ph.D. in the history of Chinese art from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). Her doctoral research focuses on private art museums in China, in which she tries to combine research methods and perspectives of sociology, economics and political science with that of art history. She has explored her interests from contemporary art and art museum to the prevalent issues in urban study, and has been making extensive efforts to further enhance the practices of interdisciplinary research. She is also engaged in writings on contemporary Chinese art and has translated books that elaborate modern and contemporary art in Hong Kong. She currently works as Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Cultural Industries at Shenzhen University (SICI).
Yurong Huang
Yurong Huang, PhD, is a professor of Institute for Cultural Industries at Shenzhen University, China. Her research focuses on public cultural patronage, cultural cooperation, cultural crowdfunding and digital cultural governance. She is the Principal Investigator of ‘System Design for China’s Cultural Patronage’ (2013-2018) and ‘Culture Governance in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Greater Bay Area’ (2020-present), both of them are funded by National Social Science Foundation, China. Currently her research focuses on regional cultural governance.