Emerging Asian Cities
8
7
The eight chapters in this section reflect on the dominant issues surrounding such places, and engage in complex discussions on the destinies of Asia’s disappearing heritage. The dilemmas of urban conservation within Asia’s historic urban cores, the futures of its historic monuments, the continuing influx of rural migrants into Asian cities and their import of traditional village patterns into metropolitan landscapes, the place of traditional symbolic morphologies and meanings in contemporary Asian cities, and the tenuous futures of indigenous rural habitats and peoples within an increasingly globalizing milieu, are all examined as significant formal, social and phenomenological dimensions shaping Asia’s future.
Collectively, these essays reveal the complex dialogue surrounding Asia’s inherited past: The nature of the crisis of a loss of heritage alarms different cultures to different degrees, and varies from place to place in the attention bestowed on it. Some aspects of an inherited past may disappear, others may persist, and it is this dynamic stemming from the practical experiences of people in space and time that accumulates as a treasure-house of know-how or what we call traditions. Traditions loom between feelings of authenticity versus cultural stasis, and are consequently re-created and admired even as we may reject the very forces that originally birthed them. But traditions are also so magically resilient, with an uncanny ability to survive the most dramatic onslaughts and upheavals. The traditions of Asian cities therefore offer us compelling alternatives to the convenient Western and Modern lenses typically used to read them. They need to be recognized as powerful parallel forces that will shape the future of Asia. Indeed the destinies of Asian cities will emerge from the choice of either including them in our discussions, or simply evading them as bygones.
2
3
“Anointed Cities: The Sacred Urbanism of Hindu India”
by Vinayak Bharne
traces the vivid yet undermined influences of anointed trees and anonymous wayside shrines in contemporary Indian cities. In examining the magical metamorphosis of such elusive sacred spots into larger formalized habitats such as hamlets, campuses and entire towns across India, it recognizes the plebian grassroots efforts behind these modest sacred places as powerful urban catalysts deserving an inclusive attitude in the conduits of Indian city-making.
“The Paradise between Two Worlds: Re-reading Taj Mahal and its Environs” by Vinayak Bharne exposes the dilemmas of preservation versus appropriation surrounding many historic monuments across Asia. It excavates the intentions behind the original design of one of Asia’s most iconic landmarks, traces its evolving guises and re-contextualizes the monument within its larger contemporary setting – situated between a dilapidated riverfront and a slum. In so doing, it cautions against the Taj Mahal’s myopic preservation as an embalmed building complex for a tourist economy, arguing for its expansive reading as a larger contemporary setting with complex relationships to the city’s people and by extension their cultural and economic well being.
6
5
“Cultivating Social Capital: Observing Ethnic Transitions in Inner Mongolia” by Eric Schuldenfrei contemplates the place of minority ethnic cultures within a rapidly changing cosmopolitan milieu. It observes the contrasting results of recent government attempts to accommodate two proximate indigenous tribal communities - the Orochen, the last hunters of China, and the reindeer-herding Ewenki - into new designed villages. It argues that convenient transformations from the unique to the ubiquitous require strategic interventions before all is lost or embalmed; that distinctive identities, practices, and techniques emerging out of centuries of geographic isolation are dynamic heritages that need to be kept alive.
“Axes and Alleyways: The Tradition of Duality in Contemporary Korean Cities” by Pilwon Han
forges a discussion on the place of traditional urban morphologies and elements in contemporary Asian cities. It examines the historic Korean binary of the royal axial arterial and the tenuous neighborhood alley, tracing their original meanings and examining the reasons behind their erosion in contemporary development. It argues that such elements should not only be preserved, but adapted as armatures for alternative urbanisms, that can simultaneously retain traditional connections, as well as enrich contemporary urban life.
4
“The Death and Life of Indigenous Aquatic Habitats in Central Thailand” by Kasama Polakit traces the evolution of the amphibious "bang" riverine settlements – their traditional prosperity, subsequent decline through changes in modes of production, consumption, and transportation, and their current revitalization mostly through the influences of global and local tourism industries in search of authentic and romantic Thai village lifestyles. It thereby observes how global-local nexus and cultural commodification contributes significantly to preserving a past for the benefit of the present on the one hand, yet simultaneously undermines its continuity and future on the other.
“The New Old City: Nostalgia & Change in Historic Damascus” by Christa Salamandra
observes how Syria’s historic capital, not-so-long-ago associated with backwardness, is today the nostalgic epicenter of cultural authenticity for Damascenes at home and abroad boasting of the Old City’s glory. The forces behind this cultural renaissance however are not stereotypical top-down preservation efforts, but the incremental reuse of the city’s old residential quarters as a leisure centre for the new middle classes, through new restaurants and hotels flaunting aesthetized and kitschy expressions of an imagined past.
Traditions
1
“The Cultural Construction of Surakarta” by Robert Cowherd explores the persistence of the Hindu-Javanese cosmological model as the cultural blue-print of Javanese tradition for more than sixteen centuries. In observing how the city and people of Surakarta have been able to embrace Islam, accommodate European colonializations, and pursue international aspirations without entirely relinquishing their traditional beliefs, it posits that cultural identities can in fact be reinforced and renewed through successive transformations, affirming their ability to reconcile seemingly conflicting cultural meanings.
“Vernacular Shifts: Observations on Dwelling Patterns in Anatolian Turkey” by Vic Liptak
documents the struggle between vernacular and modern dwelling patterns in the rapidly urbanizing town of Aksaray. Observing three generations of a native family from 1997 to 2003 - as they renounce their traditional homes for modern apartment buildings - it evaluates which traditional patterns remain, shift, or vanish highlighting the dichotomy between the conveniences of modern living versus the changing lifestyles to obtain it.
The Book