The Construction Of Consumer Culture And The Production Of Modern Urban Commercial Space

Taking the space of Nanjing Xinjiekou from 1927 to 1949 as the research object,this research regards the space production process as the spatialization process of social practice.The study investigates how Xinjiekou which was designated as the only modem commercial center in capital of the Republic of China was produced under the control of national power in the golden decade of construction from 1927 to 1937.At the same time,through analyzing the consumption practices of specific places in this space and of the entire Nanjing society,this research summarizes the pluralism of local consumption culture constructed in this space production process.In the analysis process,Lefebvre's tripartite division of space is applied to investigate the production differences of the Xinjiekou commercial center in physical,mental,and social spaces in the Republic of China.By examining the consumer goods,consumption concepts and consumption patterns,the research reveals the times and indigenous characteristics of the consumption culture constructed in this new commercial center under the leadership of modernity.This kind of consumption culture finally conveys the "heterotopies" nature of this commercial space.The prosperity of Xinjiekou is not rooted in the economic foundation of Nanjing and the daily consumption of common residents,but mainly depends on the support of governmental policy and nationalistic,patriotic sentiment.It determines the fragility of this commercial space.Under the interference of colonial aggression and domestic political struggle,the commercial prosperity of Nanjing Xinjiekou was quickly transformed and destroyed.The main content of the research consists of three chapters.The first chapter is based on the birth process of the whole Xinjiekou commercial space in the golden decade of construction of the Republic of China(1927-1937),analyzing the practice process of multiple forces that affect the birth of the space.The Capital Plan,which originated in the western scientific city construction idea,the power game within the Kuomintang regime,the construction of urban geographic transportation network,and the occupation of space by commercial capital are the main factors in analyzing Xinjiekou's space production in this period.At the same time,the birth of the whole commercial space also constructed a prototype of consumption culture characterized by modernity in the capital of the Republic of China.The second chapter mainly investigates the representative commercial consumption places of Xinjiekou,and analyzes the birth and consumption practices of them.Nationalism,modernity,official mainstream consciousness,and socioeconomic conditions work together on the localized consumption practices of these commercial places,which finally builds a consumption culture with characteristics of the time and nativism.This kind of consumption culture is reflected in the modernization of consumption materials and consumption places,the patriotism and progressiveness of consumption concepts,and the hierarchical separation of consumer behaviors.In the last chapter,based on the historic changes of Nanjing and the Republic of China from 1937 to 1949,the research analyzes how the Xinjiekou commercial center and its consumption culture,which was shaped in the golden decade and represented the modernity of the city,were finally destroyed.This destruction reveals the fragility of the modern commercial space that relied on government enforcement and lacked necessary economic foundation in the semi-colonial and semi-feudal society.