Paradise for sale: Urban space and tourism in the social transformation of Hangzhou, 1589-1937

This dissertation studies the emergence of Hangzhou as a modern tourist city through the reorganization of urban space and the manipulation of historical traditions of sightseeing. Although the focus is on the twentieth century, the dissertation extends back to the late imperial period to provide the historical context necessary to highlight the dramatic change of Hangzhou from a metropolis during the Ming-Qing period to a provincial culture garden in the Republican period.Hangzhou in the late imperial period was not only a nexus of commerce and administration, it was also a space in which elite and popular cultural activities flourished. This dissertation examines writings of literati sightseers on West Lake as part of a discourse on aesthetic taste and argues that they served as an important marker of status. Meanwhile, Hangzhou's unique position as the destination of annual pilgrimages and its heavy reliance on the market engendered by peasant travelers linked the city culturally and economically to its rural hinterland.In the modern era, Hangzhou was marginalized by the rise of Shanghai. The central theoretical concern of the dissertation is the modern response of Hangzhou's elite to the city's decline in status. This response is analyzed in terms of the invention of tradition and the commodification of culture. Since Hangzhou was bypassed by the mainstream of industrialization, it took advantage of its proximity to Shanghai and catered to the need for leisure time and activities expressed by the new middle class in that thriving metropolis. It did so by capitalizing on Hangzhou's reputation as a literati playground of the past. The emergence of modern tourism brought a drastic spatial transformation in Hangzhou, and the new tourist culture was created at the expense of old customs and popular religious activities. By the 1930s, the manipulation of Hangzhou's traditions became the subject of vigorous debate between New Culture intellectuals who condemned Hangzhou as effeminate and decadent and the Nationalist party luminaries who praised the city as an embodiment of China's national essence. In fact, both of these groups were appropriating the city's image in their efforts to forge a new national identity.