The Eleventh Asian Studies Conference Japan was held on June 23-24, 2007, at Meiji Gakuin University in Tokyo.
The Asian Studies Conference Japan (ASCJ)
ASCJ emphasizes interdisciplinary scholarly exchange on Asia in English-language format to broaden communication among researchers of diverse disciplines and backgrounds who are based in Japan. The conference also welcomes scholars from other countries. ASCJ conducts a yearly conference. Everyone world-wide interested in Asian studies is invited to participate. The inaugural meeting of ASCJ was held in October 1997. ASCJ is an affiliate of the Association for Asian Studies, AAS
http://www.meijigakuin.ac.jp/~ascj/2007/ascj-program-2007.pdf
http://www.meijigakuin.ac.jp/~ascj/2007/ASCJ-abstracts-2007.pdf
East Asian Urban Transition - Manifold Scales of Contemporary Spatial and Cultural Transformation
Organizer/ Chair: Heide Jaeger, Manchester Metropolitan University
In recent years, different scholars addressed the changing urban space of the Asian city. While these cities are neither comparable nor identical, they share common problems, e.g. the displacement of local culture by modern life style. How does one read the contemporary Asian city on the edge between local past and global growth? The panel seeks to take a bottom-up perspective identifying common pathways which follow an approach beyond the discussion about nostalgia and modernity. The papers seek to affirm an urban identity that is threatened by marginalization of urban space, aiming to strengthen local life which is deeply seated in the citys interplay of past and present.
Four papers are presented, reflecting at different scales on case studies in Shanghai, Tokyo and Daegu, South-Korea. Demmler outlines problems of large scale planning approaches in the case of Shanghai Province, drawing at the inability to adequately address spatial qualities from an everyday life perspective. Iossifova describes the process of socio-economic and spatial transition with focus on the -joint line- between two opposing neighbourhoods. Analogous, Jaeger uses the case of Tsukudajima, Tokyo to reflect on the challenge faced by the local community to situate itself between low and high rise. Finally, based on small case studies Menzel/ Weiner explore how in the daily life style and environment of Daegu, Korean traditions and cultural roots are kept or cut. Taking multidisciplinary perspectives, the papers complete each other in questioning how global processes reshape the urban space in the Asian city.
1) Rolf Demmler, Independent scholar
Urbanization of the Lower Yangtze Delta – Human Scale Planning Approaches for a Regional Identity
Until 2020, the Lower Yangtze Region will see an intense spatial transformation. In order to strategically deal with an estimated rise in population of 3-4 million people in Shanghai Province, a massive development of autonomous urban satellite cities is envisaged. By absorbing this influx in Shanghais metropolitan hinterland rather than the city itself, further urban sprawl and further increase in Shanghai's already high density are thought to be prevented. The region will sustain agricultural production and a substantial rural community while making space for intense urbanization and industrial development. Shanghai inevitably remains the economical international and local centre.
The paper argues that the new hinterlands quality and its cities autonomy will greatly depend on the ability to define regional identity in opposition to the mega city, which necessitates a rigorous account of the hinterland's current and potential future assets. In a detailed outline of the official regional plan, the paper looks at inherent key problems of large scale planning approaches, especially the inability to adequately address spatial qualities from an everyday life perspective.
In order to fill this gap the paper suggests a bottom-up strategy to assist a sustainable regional identity by integrating an intimate scale into the big picture. Firstly, it explores how a phenomenological reading of spatial characteristics and a topological, more flexible notion of spatial and functional context can provide a detailed representation of the regions potential assets from a human scale perspective. Secondly, it identifies methodological approaches to integrate these findings into regional scale planning practice.
2) Deljana Iossifova, Tokyo Institute of Technology
The New Middle Class and the Old Poor: Spatial Manifestation in Shanghai
Economic progress in China within the past twenty years has introduced a hitherto unknown urbanization push – which has unfortunately proven to engage high environmental costs and numerous other unwanted consequences. The increasing gap between the well-off and the poor is just one of them. While housing reforms mostly aim to support a (questionable) middle class, those at the lower end of the social ladder are often left behind to deal by themselves with the issues at hand. This paper focuses on the spatial manifestation of this emerging gap, by examining two contrasting realities within the rising Chinese city. Two neighbouring Shanghainese communities of very different conditions – one grown and poor, the other just recently developed and relatively well-off – will be compared. Their respective spatial layout and the predominant everyday life patterns of their inhabitants (or users) will be evaluated in order to determine differences and similarities, if any. Thought will be given to the linear space between them, raising the question of whether it appears more as a permeable joint line or rather an impervious border.
3) Heide Jaeger, Manchester Metropolitan University
Between the Lines: Situating the Local Community between Low and High Rise – The Case of Tsukudajima, Tokyo
Tokyos positioning as global city has caused many discussions but seldom it was directly focused on to the processes which affect the life at the bottom edge. Saskia Sassens terms of centrality/ accumulation are predominant in areas of Tokyos new developments as Roppongi or Shiodome. But only a stone throw away we find local neighborhoods, opposed to the sprouting of skyscrapers. In Japan, small scale developments have historically produced a high degree of urban heterogeneity being maintained by the invisible, cultural coding of each ward. But since the 1980s, the government favoured larger developments, causing economically driven urban layers on top of the existing urban fabric. Taking the case of Tsukudajima, the paper draws firstly on the perspective of a local community, asking how here recent redevelopment has changed the local lifestyle.
But in between the High Rise we still find remaining alleys, crammed with small scale housing and tiny eateries. Many Tokyoites say that this kind of neighbourhood keeps the spirit of old Tokyo alive and offer reasons to walk around Tokyo searching for such lost spaces. However, the paper will secondly reflect on the question how the local residents can maintain their living inside the growing sea of skyscrapers? Is this a lost war, or to which degree can marginalized structures coexist or be integrated? Following Waleys -Moving the Margin of Tokyo- (2002) the paper will therefore finally outline to which extend the local space is still a part of daily life or only existing in the urban memory.
4) Hendrik Weiner, Leibnitz University Hannover
Todays Korean lifestyles: Cultural Roots and Western Influences – Examples in Design and Architecture
Todays Korean lifestyle is determined by strong stereotypical western images according to modern (family) life, pleasure, success and wealth. This affirmatively evaluated image guides the appearance of Korean society in the present and also to the future, getting obvious in political goals, advertising strategies, urban planning and solutions of the different design disciplines. Daily dreams of people follow these aims as well. The possession of new and expensive goods, global brands and a particular adaptation of western lifestyle symbolize the forward-looking and modern Korean citizen. Examining these symbols and expressions of todays lifestyle in Korea, there can be discovered an interesting mixture of western standards and eastern needs, interpretations and kinds of use.
What does this mix tell about the western influences on Asians daily lives and their cultural self-conception? How do western influences affect social approaches in East Asia? How do Korean traditions and cultural roots get kept or cut? Small case studies and examples in design and architecture of this cultural mixture will be presented. Focus is public and private environments in the city of Daegu, South Korea and representatively used products of every day life. We will review and converge to the question about how and if an authentic Korean approach in design and architecture could or might need to be created.
The paper is co-produced by Carmen Menzel, Keimyung University, Daegu and Hendrik Weiner, Leibnitz University Hannover.
Discussant: Prof. Geeta Mehta, Temple University, Tokyo
ASCJ emphasizes interdisciplinary scholarly exchange on Asia in English-language format to broaden communication among researchers of diverse disciplines and backgrounds who are based in Japan. The conference also welcomes scholars from other countries. ASCJ conducts a yearly conference. Everyone world-wide interested in Asian studies is invited to participate. The inaugural meeting of ASCJ was held in October 1997. ASCJ is an affiliate of the Association for Asian Studies, AAS
http://www.meijigakuin.ac.jp/~ascj/2007/ascj-program-2007.pdf
http://www.meijigakuin.ac.jp/~ascj/2007/ASCJ-abstracts-2007.pdf
East Asian Urban Transition - Manifold Scales of Contemporary Spatial and Cultural Transformation
Organizer/ Chair: Heide Jaeger, Manchester Metropolitan University
In recent years, different scholars addressed the changing urban space of the Asian city. While these cities are neither comparable nor identical, they share common problems, e.g. the displacement of local culture by modern life style. How does one read the contemporary Asian city on the edge between local past and global growth? The panel seeks to take a bottom-up perspective identifying common pathways which follow an approach beyond the discussion about nostalgia and modernity. The papers seek to affirm an urban identity that is threatened by marginalization of urban space, aiming to strengthen local life which is deeply seated in the citys interplay of past and present.
Four papers are presented, reflecting at different scales on case studies in Shanghai, Tokyo and Daegu, South-Korea. Demmler outlines problems of large scale planning approaches in the case of Shanghai Province, drawing at the inability to adequately address spatial qualities from an everyday life perspective. Iossifova describes the process of socio-economic and spatial transition with focus on the -joint line- between two opposing neighbourhoods. Analogous, Jaeger uses the case of Tsukudajima, Tokyo to reflect on the challenge faced by the local community to situate itself between low and high rise. Finally, based on small case studies Menzel/ Weiner explore how in the daily life style and environment of Daegu, Korean traditions and cultural roots are kept or cut. Taking multidisciplinary perspectives, the papers complete each other in questioning how global processes reshape the urban space in the Asian city.
1) Rolf Demmler, Independent scholar
Urbanization of the Lower Yangtze Delta – Human Scale Planning Approaches for a Regional Identity
Until 2020, the Lower Yangtze Region will see an intense spatial transformation. In order to strategically deal with an estimated rise in population of 3-4 million people in Shanghai Province, a massive development of autonomous urban satellite cities is envisaged. By absorbing this influx in Shanghais metropolitan hinterland rather than the city itself, further urban sprawl and further increase in Shanghai's already high density are thought to be prevented. The region will sustain agricultural production and a substantial rural community while making space for intense urbanization and industrial development. Shanghai inevitably remains the economical international and local centre.
The paper argues that the new hinterlands quality and its cities autonomy will greatly depend on the ability to define regional identity in opposition to the mega city, which necessitates a rigorous account of the hinterland's current and potential future assets. In a detailed outline of the official regional plan, the paper looks at inherent key problems of large scale planning approaches, especially the inability to adequately address spatial qualities from an everyday life perspective.
In order to fill this gap the paper suggests a bottom-up strategy to assist a sustainable regional identity by integrating an intimate scale into the big picture. Firstly, it explores how a phenomenological reading of spatial characteristics and a topological, more flexible notion of spatial and functional context can provide a detailed representation of the regions potential assets from a human scale perspective. Secondly, it identifies methodological approaches to integrate these findings into regional scale planning practice.
2) Deljana Iossifova, Tokyo Institute of Technology
The New Middle Class and the Old Poor: Spatial Manifestation in Shanghai
Economic progress in China within the past twenty years has introduced a hitherto unknown urbanization push – which has unfortunately proven to engage high environmental costs and numerous other unwanted consequences. The increasing gap between the well-off and the poor is just one of them. While housing reforms mostly aim to support a (questionable) middle class, those at the lower end of the social ladder are often left behind to deal by themselves with the issues at hand. This paper focuses on the spatial manifestation of this emerging gap, by examining two contrasting realities within the rising Chinese city. Two neighbouring Shanghainese communities of very different conditions – one grown and poor, the other just recently developed and relatively well-off – will be compared. Their respective spatial layout and the predominant everyday life patterns of their inhabitants (or users) will be evaluated in order to determine differences and similarities, if any. Thought will be given to the linear space between them, raising the question of whether it appears more as a permeable joint line or rather an impervious border.
3) Heide Jaeger, Manchester Metropolitan University
Between the Lines: Situating the Local Community between Low and High Rise – The Case of Tsukudajima, Tokyo
Tokyos positioning as global city has caused many discussions but seldom it was directly focused on to the processes which affect the life at the bottom edge. Saskia Sassens terms of centrality/ accumulation are predominant in areas of Tokyos new developments as Roppongi or Shiodome. But only a stone throw away we find local neighborhoods, opposed to the sprouting of skyscrapers. In Japan, small scale developments have historically produced a high degree of urban heterogeneity being maintained by the invisible, cultural coding of each ward. But since the 1980s, the government favoured larger developments, causing economically driven urban layers on top of the existing urban fabric. Taking the case of Tsukudajima, the paper draws firstly on the perspective of a local community, asking how here recent redevelopment has changed the local lifestyle.
But in between the High Rise we still find remaining alleys, crammed with small scale housing and tiny eateries. Many Tokyoites say that this kind of neighbourhood keeps the spirit of old Tokyo alive and offer reasons to walk around Tokyo searching for such lost spaces. However, the paper will secondly reflect on the question how the local residents can maintain their living inside the growing sea of skyscrapers? Is this a lost war, or to which degree can marginalized structures coexist or be integrated? Following Waleys -Moving the Margin of Tokyo- (2002) the paper will therefore finally outline to which extend the local space is still a part of daily life or only existing in the urban memory.
4) Hendrik Weiner, Leibnitz University Hannover
Todays Korean lifestyles: Cultural Roots and Western Influences – Examples in Design and Architecture
Todays Korean lifestyle is determined by strong stereotypical western images according to modern (family) life, pleasure, success and wealth. This affirmatively evaluated image guides the appearance of Korean society in the present and also to the future, getting obvious in political goals, advertising strategies, urban planning and solutions of the different design disciplines. Daily dreams of people follow these aims as well. The possession of new and expensive goods, global brands and a particular adaptation of western lifestyle symbolize the forward-looking and modern Korean citizen. Examining these symbols and expressions of todays lifestyle in Korea, there can be discovered an interesting mixture of western standards and eastern needs, interpretations and kinds of use.
What does this mix tell about the western influences on Asians daily lives and their cultural self-conception? How do western influences affect social approaches in East Asia? How do Korean traditions and cultural roots get kept or cut? Small case studies and examples in design and architecture of this cultural mixture will be presented. Focus is public and private environments in the city of Daegu, South Korea and representatively used products of every day life. We will review and converge to the question about how and if an authentic Korean approach in design and architecture could or might need to be created.
The paper is co-produced by Carmen Menzel, Keimyung University, Daegu and Hendrik Weiner, Leibnitz University Hannover.
Discussant: Prof. Geeta Mehta, Temple University, Tokyo
Heide Jäger - 28. Aug, 05:28
