| In the global wave of urbanization, urban renewal has become an important practice of promoting urban development; with the progress of modernization, culture renewal has become an important orientation of urban renewal. As a residing site of urban culture, historic districts vividly demonstrate the history of urban changes; their unique cultural implications and geographic space make them a focal point of urban renewal. Located in the south of the ancient city, the Old East Gate Historic District, which is under reconstruction, was once the most prosperous district in Nanjing with abundant cultural heritage. The author tries to explore the following questions in this process of cultural renewal:What type of cultural manifestation does the space of the Old East Gate showcase? What kind of emotion do the consumers have about the district? What is the experience regarding the consumption of space? What kind of power has promoted the construction of culture? What kind of social function do spatial practices bring about? Focusing on the cultural construction and the consumption of space of Historic Districts, this thesis seeks to understand the evolution and inner logic of urban changes in China.Based on the study of the space and consumers of the Old East Gate Historic District, this thesis applies sociology of consumption, sociology of space, and relevant theories of nostalgia to interpret the district. First, this study represents the historical changes, the constitutive elements of the culture of nostalgia, and the spatial practices of the Old East Gate, explicating how its material space and emotional space came into being and how they merged together and promoted the reproduction of regional memory. Second, it describes the spatial awareness, spatial imagination and the consumption of space as the results of the cultural constitution of nostalgia, elaborating on how nostalgia as a kind of cultural psychology affects consumers and how the consumption of space evolves into the consumption in the space, thereby offering a comprehensive demonstration of the culture of nostalgia and of the consumption of space. Third, this study explores the social mechanisms and the positive and negative society functions of the cultural construction of the Old East Gate. It further investigates how government, capital, elites, and cultural media came to be the discursive powers in the construction of the nostalgia culture, and sheds light on the social distinction and spatial mismatch that result from such a configuration of discursive power.Through in-depth interviews, I obtain detailed information of Old East Gate Historic District. The study shows the cultural elements and space expression of "nostalgia culture" in the district, at the same time, the change of the cultural form and the place realize the reproduction of local space and cultural memory.As a social space, the Old East Gate Historic District caters to nostalgia of consumerism and becomes a symbol of spatial consume, but the culture of nostalgia "and" spatial consumption "in the historic district looks more like a kind of "nostalgic political" and "elite’s thought", it is a way for the government to construct the legality and realize the will; for the capital to cater the taste of the market; for the New Rich Stratum to seek identification; and for the medium to dispel the gap between the elite and general public. The top-down politics elite makes the space a expression of the elite, rather than a kind of national rights of the city.Finally, this study reflects on the problems of urban rights and spatial justice in the process of historic districts renewal. It argues that in the process of urban renewal, collective culture and urban public space should not lead to social distinction; cities should guarantee that both natives and consumers enjoy the rights of discourse and access. The issues of urban rights and spatial justice will continue to be the crucial topics in the process of urbanization. |
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