Technological Wonders And Urban Imagination:Space Production Of Chongqing Rail Transit

When trying to tell the story of how the extension and expansion of urban space affect the city’s economic and social life,urban rail transit,as the symbol of a modern metropolis,should also be included in the scope of discussion.Urban rail transit is of great significance to the sustainable development of urban transportation.It can restrain the potential demand for car traffic,improve residents’ dependence on public transportation,accelerate the rapid turnover of urban people,improve the utilization rate of urban land and optimize the urban spatial structure.The construction of Chongqing Rail Transit has been included in the national planning since the reform and opening up.Chongqing Rail Transit line 2,the first monorail train,was put into operation in 2004.Up to now,nine rail transit lines have been opened,covering the whole area of the main urban area of Chongqing.In 2018,seemingly overnight,various social media and short video platforms have been buzzing with scenic spots such as Hongyadong,Liziba "building through" light rail and Yangtze River ropeway.Chongqing has emerged as a new "web celebrity" in the public eye of the whole country.Based on the theories of urban space researchers such as Henry Lefebvre and Edward Sawyer,this paper studies how Chongqing Rail Transit,as a traffic technology and space medium to construct urban space,completes the space production and how it has an impact on the urban development and the daily life of residents in Chongqing.In the first chapter,the paper explains the close relationship between traffic technology and communication and urban space as the construction of urban space.On the one hand,in terms of the relationship between traffic technology and communication,the concept and meaning of communication point to traffic technology.In the process of development,traffic technology promotes the modernization of communication,and also makes the mode of transportation modernize.On the other hand,in the relationship between traffic technology and urban space,they are mutually restricted,influenced and dependent.The development of Chongqing Rail Transit has strengthened the spatial connection of Chongqing’s main urban area,and the spatial development mode has changed from the original single-center mode to the multi-center and group mode,which has affected the spatial structure and spatial form of Chongqing’s main urban area.The second chapter analyzes why urban rail transit becomes a space medium.Rail transit is a kind of communication tool,which not only plays the communication function of entity media,but also constructs the media space between city and individual.Rail transit is also a kind of construction carrier,connecting the "upper and lower levels" of urban space,strengthening the connectivity of the main urban area of the city,and interdependent with other urban spaces.Rail transit is also a medium of speech,which is not only the subject of speech,but also the content of speech.It expresses the history,emotion and memory of passengers of urban rail transit space,and depicts the texture of the city.Finally,urban rail transit is also a kind of social interaction media,which creates interactive scenes between passengers through walking practice,and provides opportunities for passengers’ online interaction through free rail Wi Fi.In the third chapter,three levels of space production of Chongqing Rail Transit are analyzed.One is the production of perceptual space,which is physical,experiential and perceptible.It produces moving space and static space,solid space and virtual space,and compressed time and space.The second is the production of conceptual space,which produces order space through political discipline,consumption space through capital intervention and imagination space through public practice.These Spaces are conscious and full of symbols.The third is the production of the actual space.Based on the production of the perceptual space and the conceptual space,the production of the actual space completes the dual interaction of the material space and the spiritual space,and realizes the unification of the spatial,historical and social nature.In the last chapter,it explains the three influences of space production of Chongqing Rail Transit on urban development and daily life.On the one hand,Chongqing Rail Transit has built a technological wonder and cultural landscape;On the other hand,Chongqing rail transit reconstructs Chongqing’s urban imagination through passengers’ and netizens’ physical practice and symbol reading at the individual level,as well as media description and urban decentralization at the social level.Finally,Chongqing Rail Transit has constructed the main network of the main city of Chongqing,which promotes the decline of the population flow status and economic status of one center--Jiefangbei,and promotes the rise of several centers in the main city of Chongqing,which divides the urban population and reflects the dispersion of modern urban life.