On Conservation Historic District Conservation in China: Assessment and Prospects

This study examines policies and practices related to the conservation of historic districts in China, where urban conservation has become a significant concern and pressing issue in the present era of economic reform and urban redevelopment. In addition to illustrating the evolution of approaches to historic district conservation, the study reveals some of the social and political problems that have arisen as a result of the weakness of current state-led urban conservation practice. It concludes by proposing a collaborative approach to urban conservation among state and nonstate actors, facilitated by changes to current institutional and funding frameworks. Such an approach might help meet the challenge posed by conflicts between the country's urban conservation and redevelopment agendas. Tremendous changes have emerged in Chinese cities since 1980 as a result of the incorporation of market forces into the economy and the revival of land and property development. At the same time, the transition from a command to a market economy has provided an excellent opportunity to examine the Chinese urban built environment under conditions of profound institutional and administrative change. Among the major shifts brought by this transition has been a desire to maximize the economic potential of scarce inner-city land. In the past two decades this has resulted in the demolition of old buildings, the clearance of slums, the resettlement of populations from central-city areas, and the erection of new buildings at a furious pace. This push for change has also greatly threatened urban heritage, one of the main embodiments and expressions of local identity. For instance, urban redevelopment in Beijing is now blamed for the wholesale demolition of hutong, the traditional lanes and quadrangle houses of the city, without heed for heritage controls or the social consequences for displaced residents. Driven by an ideology of globalization, capital flows into urban redevelopment in China present a major threat to the nation's cultural heritage; and recently, contentious issues related to conservation vis-à-vis redevelopment have gained prominence on the urban planning agenda. On the one hand, this climate of conflict reflects the pressures of the present real estate boom and the issuance of much stricter rural land expropriation policies in the mid-1990s. But it also reflects recognition of the detrimental impacts on urban heritage of redevelopment-dominant urbanization. The term " historic district conservation " (lishi jiequ baohu) first appeared in Chinese conservation contexts when the State Council recognized a second group of 38 …