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Figure from:Building Civilised Cities

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‘Be Civil’. Street musician in front of a poster in Shanghai. Dhatn: Elickr/hadhrathar — Figure 8 ‘Be Civil’. Street musician in front of a poster in Shanghai. Dhatn: Elickr/hadhrathar

Related Figures (15)

Good morning, Shanghai: image taken at Tianlin Road, 26 January 2013. Photo: Phreddie

Oxygen infusion in Shanghai, 16 June 2013. Dhotn: Madhi Rah Pandi An Uncivilised Air

Real-time Air Quality Reporting System in Shanghai, 26 September 2013. some idea of the size of such particles, we would note that the dot above the letter ‘i’ in a typical newspaper measures about 400 microns. Micro-parti- cles collect in vital organs and can also enter the body through the surface of the skin. Since the nineteenth century, people in industrialised cities have suffered unknowingly from some amount of exposure to micro-pol- lutants. Scientific knowledge of the health consequences of PM2.5 has cir- culated only since the early 2000s. The fact that China is industrialising at a time when pollution is a global concern means that its citizens and for- eign residents, as well as the media and potential visitors, expect that the authorities will strive to meet international standards. In response to the news about poor air quality, foreign tourist arrivals decreased markedly in 2013.

‘Better City Better Life’ signifies Shanghai's status as a major economic and cultural centre. Photo: Wolfgang Staudt The model city programs in China today have their historical and aes- thetic roots in such Maoist-era models and the political campaigns used to promote them. For example, big red banners with political statements and exhortations still herald ‘model’ activities. Yet now, instead of basing a mod- el on a particular place, such as was the case when the whole nation was exhorted to ‘In Industry Learn from Daqing’ (gongye xue Daqing Tsk? x Jk), the contemporary approach combines measures for social control with regulations for urban governance. What has not changed is that today’s model city guidelines provide idealised visions of development, official- ly approved standards for urban modernisation. An early contemporary example of such a campaign was the National Environmental Protection Model Cities program launched in 1997. Others include the National Eco- logical Garden City, National Hygienic City, National Model City for Science and Technology, National Excellent City for Comprehensive Management of Public Security and National Entrepreneurial City. But unlike schemes targeting one particular goal, the National Civilised City model involves a set of goals, criteria and indices of measurement designed to regularise urban governance and promote its standards nationwide. secause rapid industrialisation and rapid urbanisation have proceeded and in hand, China takes a multi-faceted approach to questions related o modernisation and development. Still, many forms of urban policy are either readily visible to observers nor directly comparable to the kind of pproaches taken in other countries. For example, in China today there re different types of what are called ‘model cities’ (mofan chengshi ## 3% xP). The political history of the ‘model’ (mofan #3 or dianxing ##!) in hina derives from the Maoist-era use of model production workers, mod- 1 streets and model places, which the propaganda apparatus held up for mulation. The most famous model places in the Maoist heyday were the ilfields of Daqing (Daqing youtian x Jk 44) and Dazhai People’s Commune Dazhai renmin gongshe X#AK.2#). The media repetitively idealised heir trumped-up successes in collective production and support for the yarty-state: as sites for political pilgrimage they were outstanding symbols f Potemkin-village propaganda. They were also geographical contexts for he Stakhanovite labour mobilisation model, introduced to China from the oviet Union in the 1940s. Alexey Stakhanov was the mythologised model vorker who symbolised a zealous socialist work ethic and ‘socialist com- etition’. Villages, factories or industrial towns thus competed to increase heir production through collective effort. If they reported that they had ‘Retter City Better Life’ signifies Shanghai's status as a maior economic and cultural centre. urban governance and promote its standards nationwide. petition’. Villages, factories or industrial towns thus competed to increase

New Year's poster celebrating civilised behaviour at the CCTV headquarters in Beijing. Photo: Jim Gourley/rudenoon City governments voluntarily apply to be assessed for evaluation. To qual- ify, jurisdictions must attain the status of being designated an ‘Advanced Civilised City’ (xianjin wenming chengshi At XA sk), based on a set of sta- tistical indicators, in order to prepare for site evaluation. Local Spiritual Ci- vilisation Offices in cities co-ordinate with other branches of government to plan and implement activities that will meet their goals in some nine categories, based on over 100 indicators. In 2005, the Spiritual Civilisation Commission recognised ten cities as National Civilised Cities. They were: Xiamen, Qingdao, Dalian, Ningbo, Shenzhen, Baotou, Zhongshan, Yantai, Langfang and Zhangjiagang. Three urban districts made the cut: Tianjin’s Heping district, Shanghai’s Pudong New Area and Beijing’s Xicheng dis- Heping district, Shanghai’s Pudong New Area and Beijing’s Xicheng dis

The Yan‘an Elevated Road in Jing’an, Shanghai is illuminated with LEDs on Friday and Saturday nights. BPheéee Deaknvi el Ann, The current evaluation manual emphasises some categories more than others. Categories four, five and six, which together cover social and cul- tural resources, management and services, are the most clearly articu- lated. Among them, category four, ‘healthy human environment’, has the most criteria. Not surprisingly, these include evidence of such ‘civilised be- haviours’ as no spitting, littering and so forth. There’s a Lei Feng-style sec- tion on moral conduct and sections on volunteerism, which reflect histor- ical practices and values from the Maoist era. More than 90 percent of the citizens of the aspiring Civilised City must be aware of volunteer service organisations, and at least eight percent must undertake volunteer work. This category also includes international-style urban development criteria for cultural affairs and the development of cultural industries. Cities must make an economic commitment to cultural services for which the evalua- tion standard is evidence of local government spending on the cultural sec-

A group of chengguan urban law enforcers in Shenzhen. Photo: Wilson L.

From the series ‘Great Mall of China’ 'P 44 7 3%. Photo: Adrian Suddenly Gordon Pin % parses and elevates what is distinctive within categories. With uneven social development in China, the concept of pin informs party-state concerns about the potential to transform the suzhi of the population. Yet the notion of striving for ‘scientific’ improvement in the suzhi of individu- als holds less significance today than the historical mission of civilising the collective. In the Reform era, the city is the key collective and holds highest rank among places, and so the National Civilised City ranks first in the offi- cial honours for ‘civilised’ places. verse ideas about rank and assessment with notions of inherent quality.

Jiang looks sternly into the camera: Iam a chengguan, and I can speak up for myself.

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