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Two Water Towns in the Qingpu District of Shanghai Semprebon

1. INTRODUCTION: FRAGILITIES
AND UNCERTAINTIES
Since the Open-Door policy implementation
in 1978, domestic tourism in China gained
constant impulse from the new economic
system based on state-oriented capitalistic
mechanisms. Immersed in a heritage setting
or traditional ambiences, a growing number
of historical settlements have witnessed
development strategies where tourism played
a fundamental and guiding role. In many
cases, despite such plans having envisaged
grotesque forms, materialising threats and
losses to the consistency of tangible and
intangible local culture, the tourism industry
has also revitalised local economies by
generating new job opportunities and Figure 1. Aerial view of Zhujaijiao (top) and Liantang
attracting outside capital. In this context, both (bottom) water towns. Source: Elaboration by author
the traditional architectures and built fabrics, on a satellite image from Bing Maps
conceived as economic assets and places of
consumption, have become the destination of settlements, the paper discusses the
financial fluxes targeted to maximize profits controversial modalities of mass tourism
and amplify visitors’ experiences. development implemented on historical sites,
The problematic relationships between where conflicting political, cultural, and
the significance of original historical artefacts socioeconomic forces reclaim spatial
and the potential offered by their economic resources. To be negotiated is the physical
exploitation put the fields of design oriented appearance of buildings and sites, and the less
to cultural valorisation in a delicate visible, but no less impactful, social tissue
dimension, where disciplinary and academic that manifests in everyday communities’
dogmas often conflict with the demands relationships, epitomising a condition of
expressed by agencies pursuing local fragility. This complex notion addresses the
development [Figure 1]. At the elbow of the multiple and intersecting connotations of a
millennium, Cheng posed the question of broad process of fragilization of the space-
whether the absorption of Western canons society relationships, considering different
was the unique possible route towards the vulnerabilities from environmental to social,
[1]
[2] 1
modernization of Chinese society , fuelling economic, and political . In this case, a
a debate that attracts scholars’ attention to the dilemma of former residents and demolition-
present days. relocation dynamics emerges, sharpening the
This research grafts on this contended problem of conjugating socioeconomic
domain and investigates how heritage tourism improvement with the valorisation of cultural
has impacted and could impact two inheritance. This study addresses fragility as
comparable historic sites, Zhujiajiao and weakening the bonds between sites and
Liantang water towns, differing in one communities: a process generating a lack of
substantial characteristic: the fact that it is or care, alienation, and loss of identity. As in the
have already been the target of tourism-led selected case studies, in many traditional
development strategies. By observing the settlements, how to include heritage assets in
current conditions of these two historical a long-term sustainable development plan

1 The definition is inspired by the research project “Territorial Fragility” enacted by the Department of
Architecture and Urban Studies and funded by the Ministry of University and Research (MIUR) for 2018-2022
as part of the Departments of Excellence initiative (Law no. 232/2016).

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