The Modern Social Changes And Space Of The Sino-Vietnamese Border Twin Cities Since 1885

From 1885 to the present,three significant social transformations followed by wars have taken places in the border areas between China and Vietnam.First,France became a protectorate of Tonkin(Northern Vietnam)and delineated the Sino-Vietnamese border after the Sino-French war.Secondly,the People’s Republic of China and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam were successively established to promote collective agriculture and industrial production at the border after the Chinese Civil War.Finally,China implemented the Reform and Opening Up policy while Vietnam implemented Doi Moi in border areas and actively developed business after the Sino-Vietnamese border war.In this process,a special urban prototype emerged at the border which have been known as the border twin towns.Chinese-Vietnamese border twin towns are two towns that are facing each other across the border,and whose urban space have been greatly influenced by the modernization of the two sidesThis dissertation takes the Chinese-Vietnamese border twin towns as research objects,and explores how the twin towns have emerged,developed,and evolved through the lenses of urban spatial structure and the meanings of spatial forms in different historic phases.The purpose of this dissertation is not to build a thrilling theoretical framework,but to elucidate the spatial diversity and complexity of the Chinese-Vietnamese border twin towns through an objective and comprehensive historical research,and to understand the evolution of the urban space of the border towns from a continuous historical perspective and its social contextThis dissertation includes seven chapters.The first chapter clarifies the research questions,methodology and the significance of the research.The second chapter introduces the general background of Chinese-Vietnamese border.The third chapter summarizes the three historical periods that the Sino-Vietnamese border twin cities have experienced since its emergence in 1885,and outlines the overall picture of the border twin cities from socio-spatial prospects.Chapters 4 and 5 explains border identities of domestic,centrality,bidirectionality,and unidirectionality by analyzing two typical cases respectively,which are Hekou(China)-Lao Cai(Vietnam)and Dongxing(China)-Mong Cai(Vietnam).Based on the studies from the preceding chapters,Chapter 6 attempts to understand the urban phenomena from three major values of the modern society or modernity,which are instrumental rationality,individual rights and modern nation-state.Chapter 7 is the conclusion of this study.It aims to summarize the spatial characteristics of the research object and the prospects for the future development of the border twin towns.Based on the above research,the thesis puts forwards the following conclusions:Since 1885,three political and social changes have occurred on the Chinese-Vietnamese border.The meeting of different civilizations and cultures have produced the a seemingly complex cultural condition in the border twin towns.The border twin towns have always been in the condition of modernity afterwards,constantly chasing modernization.Border identities could be concluded as bidirectionality and unidirectionality in-between the twin towns,and introversion and centrality between the border twin towns and the towns of the hinterland.The spatial transformations in this context could be interpreted through the characteristics of three modern values:instrumental rationality,individual rights,and modern nation-state identity.In the form of space,the instrumental rationality pursued by the modern nation-state has shaped a mirrored form" of urban structure,which is the spatial center of the border twin towns and displays the border identity of introversion;the individual behaviors resulting from individual rights form a "weaving form" within the twin towns,in other words,the behavior of individual contacts to make a living is like a free-knitted net,and the nodes of the net are spaces of communication activities which rely on the bidirectionality of communication of the border twin towns;the identity of the modern nation-state is continuously strengthened through the physical manifestations that represents the identity of introversion.At the same time,the border identity,which is a kind of local identity,deviates from its internal logic.Above all,the spatial characteristics of the Chinese-Vietnamese border twin cities could be summarized as enantiomorph,association and doubleness.