Ghost Protocol: Development and Displacement in Global China
Carlos Rojas is Professor of Chinese Cultural Studies; Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies; and Arts of the Moving Image at Duke University. He is the author, editor, and translator of several books, most recently
Ralph A. Litzinger is Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University and the author of
Carlos Rojas is Professor of Chinese Cultural Studies; Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies; and Arts of the Moving Image at Duke University. He is the author, editor, and translator of several books, most recently
Ralph A. Litzinger is Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University and the author of
Urbanization
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Published:August 2016
As in other quickly developing cities, a prevalent trope for gentrified Beijing is the palimpsest. It places the passing of time within a narrative of spatial transformation and the preservation of collective memory. I propose that although palimpsest seems to offer a location-specific and historically coherent self, the metaphor is often employed to justify the fragmentation of experience and temporal disorientation. A case study that I use is the reconstruction and gentrification of Beijing’s Qianmen district in 2008. Buildings, billboards, and digital screens have formed together a contiguous media in the service of urban utopia. What I call the politics...
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