| Once hailed as “the Oriental Paris”,Shanghai is a typical city of immigrants.This paper systematically conducts a research on the natural,social,and cultural space in Ferguson Road area of Shanghai French Concession,dealing with particularity of road space system of Broque city planning,as well as the crutial influence of French system construction.It points out that Ferguson Road area provides cultural institutions and organizations with locations and flow space where Chinese and Western cultures collide and communicate.This area is an enclave full of cultural vitality and charm of France.Ferguson Road area is the neighborhood elaborately designed by old Shanghai French Concession.At the beginning of 20 th centruy,this area was shaped through“filling rivers to build road” following the earlier “building road outside of Concession”,by means of which the rural landscape was transformed gradually into the urban one.For over 30 years since then,under the influence of French Concession's municipal management system,architectural control system and construction management system,Ferguson Road area completed its basic urbanization.In the meantime,this area attracted different kinds of residents including urban elites such as foreign dignitaries,Kuo Min Tang(KMT)politicians and national capitalists,people from middle class such as employees in foreign firms,movie stars and doctors,as well as common people who kept daily life in the area.They lived lives in their respective political and social environment,and both exerted and were subjected to influences constantly in a social and cultural life of “space-location-flow space”,so that collision and integration of Chinese and Western cultures took place.Taking Ferguson Road area as the object of study,with consideration of the special political status of Shanghai French Concession in a historical context,and employing the methods of both “locale” and “description” to exmine their applications in city space study,this research elaborates in an objective and deepgoing way the formation and development of this area,and inquires into the particularity of its road space system,the complexity of its architectural construction management,and the diversity of various populations residing in a differentiated municipal space.Meanwhile an arhaeological study of literature and a historical description provide basic historical materials for research on metropolitan cultural legacy and memory.Theoretically the cultural memory study is aimed at making out the history per se,reducing it to its original picture and demonstrating the ignored dimensions as well as its possible potentials,thus extending and supplementing the research value of the present object.This paper is primarily based on the study of the first hand documents dating from the beginning of the 20 th century till 1943 which were regained by Shanghai Municipal Archives from French Concession.With chorographies,“Shanghai Title Deed”,and Shang Street Directory and other materials,the elementary concept of the formation,development and maturity of Ferguson Road area city space is made clear.With Chinese and foreign press materials as “Le Journal de Shanghai”,“Shun Pao” and “Ta Kung Pao”,the database of late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China(1912-1949),as well as literary works and biographies of modern times and other materials,this paper tries to prove the argumentation that Ferguson Road area is an enclave full of cultural vitality and charm of France.Firstly,with literary writing and imagenation,the double construction of this writing and the two-way evoluation of cultural space have left the municipal development impress on Ferguson Road area and shaped its unique cultural patterns.Ferguson Road,with its more refinement,graciousness and popularity,remains an important node that bears French cultural vitality and charm in Shanghai.Secondly,during the shaping and developing process of the city space,Ferguson Road has gradually formed the road space system of Baroque municipal planning style,in which the “three-way-intersection” and the consequent triangle plots have taken shape due to the road intersections.Therefore,the buildings on these plots become nodes of meaningful segregation,and to a degree hold the relative integrity of this area.Thirdly,the municipal management system fomulated by municipal council of French Concession was abided by in the Ferguson Road area.Through strict management and effective policy implementation on such dimensions as landscaping,public health,residential building,etc.,a comfortable city space that was shady,beautiful,tidy and healthy was formed in this area step by step.Meanwhile a social space featuring in diversity,openness and interaction come into being.This has partly exerted influence on the ideology,behavior and psychological activity of the people living there.Ferguson Road area followed the municipal management regulations,established conrete norms like the constitution for licence,utilized the method of controlling land,and gradually restrained Chinese buildings in certain designated locations,thus promoting the popularization of Western architecture.The residential housing of this area was mainly built during 1930 s and 1940 s,which was basically in accordance with the regional urbanization process and the historical process of Shanghai French Concession,and even of the city of Shanghai.Fourthly,most of the buildings along both sides of Ferguson Road are garden villas,arround the road crossing are mostly the apartments,and lane housings are deployed orderly inside the area.The above three types of residences constitute the major part of this area.Given the distributing features of the residential housing in Ferguson Road area,different groups of people chose to live in different part of the city space,reflecting residential features of differentiation.Most of urban elites chose to reside in the garden villas,the middle class mainly chose to dwell in the apartments,while the common population leading their daily lives chose to live in the lane housings.This kind of differentiated feature resulted in cultural isolation between various groups and the construction of diversed cultural environment.Fifthly,the urban elites,the middle class members and the common population of Ferguson Road area carried out in a given cultural institutions and organizations and in their daily life a series of cultural activities which expressed the ideological position of the participants,and showed how they accepted either Chinese or Western culture.They recognized self-identity and reciprocally converted their emotional experiences through culture acceptance and ideological expression,thus forming the distinctive cultural background for Ferguson Road area.These cultural institutions on the sides of Ferguson Road become particular locations that witnessed the collision and integration of Chinese and Western culture at the beginning of 20 th century,and evolved into critical windows through which our fellow countrmen saw the occidental culture,and Chinese culture opened to the world as well. |
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