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⁴ For example, Pires do Rio Caldeira, Teresa, City of Walls: Crime, Segregation, and Citizenship in São Paulo (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000)Google Scholar; Davis, D. S., Kraus, R., Naughton, B., & Perry, E. J. (eds.), Urban Spaces in Contemporary China: The Potential for Autonomy and Community in Post-Mao China (Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1995)Google Scholar; Davis, M., Magical Urbanism: Latinos Reinvent the U.S. Big City (London: Verso, 2000)Google Scholar; Holston, & James, , The Modernist City: An Anthropological Critique of Brasilia (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989)Google Scholar; Scott, J. C., Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (New Haven, Conn; London: Yale University Press, 1998)Google Scholar; and L. Rofel, see no. 2.

⁵ Various discussions of ‘modernity’ were mainly concerned with its relation to conceptions of time and space, power, and the formation of identity. For example, Thompson, E. P., Customs in Common (London: Merlin, 1991)Google Scholar; Benjamin, W., Illuminations (London: Cape, 1970)Google Scholar; Berman, M., All That Is Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity (London: Verso, 1983)Google Scholar; Anderson, B., Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1991)Google Scholar; Harvey, D., The Condition of Postmodernity (Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 1990)Google Scholar; Kern, S., The Culture of Time and Space 1880–1918 (London: Harvard, 1983)Google Scholar; Giddens, A., Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Later-Modern Age (Cambridge, UK: Polity, 1991)Google Scholar; Hall, S., The Question of Cultural Identity. In Hall, S., Heled, D. & McGrew, T. (eds.), Modernity and Its Futures (Cambridge: Polity Press in association with Blackwell Publishers and The Open University, 1992)Google Scholar; and Yang, M. M., ‘The Modernity of Power in the Chinese Socialist Order’, Cultural Anthropology, 3:4(1988), pp. 408–427CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁶ According to Shields, ‘social imaginary’ was considered as collective mythologies and presuppositions involved in the ongoing construction of space on the part of the people who were to ‘read’ a particular landscape (both natural and artificial) in question. Shields, R., Places on the Margin: Alternative Geographies of Modernity (London, New York: Routledge, 1991)Google Scholar.

⁷ For instance, early in the 1960s, Thompson had already argued that modern industrial culture had made time a means of exerting control over the lives of workers as work was systematized into disciplined units measured by weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds. Thompson, E. P., Customs in Common (London: Merlin, 1991)Google Scholar.

⁸ ‘Modernity's colonization of the future’ coined in Giddens, A., Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Later-Modern Age (Cambridge: Polity, 1991), p. 111Google Scholar.

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¹⁰ For example, Friedman, E., ‘A Failed Chinese Modernity’, Daedalus, 122:2(Spring) (1993), pp. 1–19Google Scholar.

¹¹ Latham, K., ‘Rethinking Chinese Consumption: Social Palliative and the Rhetoric of Transition in Postsocialist China’. In Hann, C. M. (ed.), Postsocialism: Ideals, Ideologies and Practices in Euraisa (London, New York: Routledge, 2002)Google Scholar.

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¹⁴ J. Gamble, Opening the Door, Crossing the Stream: Changing Perspectives and Social Contours of 1990s Shanghai (An unpublished PhD Thesis, School of Oriental and African Studies, 1996), p. 15; Pan Tin-shu, Neighborhood Shanghai: Community Building in Five Mile Bridge (An unpublished PhD Thesis, Harvard University, 2002), pp. 1–17.

¹⁵ For a thorough discussion of the possible reasons behind the transformation of Cucumber Lane from an urban slum to a socialist ‘model community’, see Ho, W. C., ‘The (Un-)Making of the Shanghai Socialist “Model Community”: From the Monolithic to Heterogeneous Appropriation(s) of the Past’, Journal of Asian and African Studies, 39:5(2004), pp. 379–405CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹⁶ 65.4% of the elderly residents were female. As to the residents aged from 15 to 59, 52.2% were female. In Shanghai as a whole, the elderly population was nearly 18% in 2000.

¹⁷ The only sizable resident movement in the past few decades was the demolition of the ‘outermost layer’ of the community around 1995–96.

¹⁸ Cucumber Lane had four gates: two facing south (the Number One Gate and the Number Two Gate), one west (the Number Three Gate), and one north (the Number Four Gate). The Number One Gate where the three Chinese words ‘fan’, ‘gua’ and ‘nong’ (Cucumber Lane) were inscribed on the wall beside the gate was generally regarded as the front gate (See Figure 2).

¹⁹ The Historical Gazette recorded that the ‘eighteen huts’ were accorded the status of ‘cultural objects’ on 7 December 1977, and put under the special protection of the municipal authorities. OSHG, Zhabei qu zhi, p. 1293.

²⁰ It was common in Cucumber Lane for different families to share a kitchen and toilets. The principles guiding the number of rooms to which each family was entitled were complicated and had been changed from time to time. For example, in the 1960s, the criteria included the number of family members, the amount of rent that each family could afford and the political background of the residents. Since the initiation of the reform era in 1978, the main criterion used by the work units had been the size of the accommodation entitled to each family as part of their labor benefits. But, in reality, it was common to see each of the three rooms allocated to three different families; or two rooms allocated to one family, with the other room to another family. It was rare for one family to occupy all three rooms.

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²² A couple of residents said that the only one who could afford electricity was the local chieftain, Tang Guoruo. He lived in the only two-story house in Cucumber Lane at that time. However, other informants could not further confirm this claim.

²³ The ‘hole of a culvert’ meant, as confirmed from the residents, the opening of the gundilong, inside which people needed to bend their body.

²⁴ OSHG, Zhabei qu zhi, p. 1290. Although the Gazette suggested that the verse had arisen from the populace, the residents did not seem to know it. However, they generally agreed that what was described in the verse reflected their real past lives.

²⁵ Ibid.

²⁶ Soja, E. W., Postmodern Geographies: The Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory (London, New York: Verso, 1989), p. 6Google Scholar.

²⁷ Across the 1950s, many huts were demolished. In 1963 just before the renovation started, 63.0% of all accommodations were cottages. OSHG, Zhabei qu zhi, p. 1290.

²⁸ Ibid.

²⁹ W. C. Ho, see no. 15.

³⁰ Zhu Jin-hai (ed.) Shanghai tongshi [Shanghai History] Vol. 12. Hong Yue-zi (ed.) (Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe [Shanghai People's Publishing House], 1999), p. 95. For a succinct discussion of the economic recovery in China in the mid-1960s, see Lardy, N. R., ‘Economic Recovery and the 1st Five-year Plan’, In MacFarquhar, R. & Fairbank, J. K. (eds.), Cambridge History of China. Vol. 14 (Cambridge, London, New York, New Rochelle, Melbourne, Sydney: Cambridge University Press, 1987), pp. 391–395Google Scholar.

³¹ The article was entitled, ‘Welcome New Households Moving into New Homes’. Memories faded. No one today exactly remembered the gongs and drums. But they could clearly confirm the feelings of excitement about being the first to move into the flats.

³² The term lao jumin denoted that the residents were both senior in age and had been living in the locality for a prolonged period of time. The meaning of the term would be more accurate if they were called ‘the original residents’.

³³ Lefebvre, H., The Production of Space. Trans. by Nichlson-Smith, D. (Oxford & Cambridge: Blackwell, 1991), p. 51Google Scholar.

³⁴ The term jia, which literally means ‘the family’ in English, carries a dual sense in Chinese. First, in a temporal sense, it means a persistent social institution in which people are related to each other by descent from a single family. Second, in a spatial sense, it means the physical existence of a ‘home demarcated by a boundary’, however unclear the boundary might be. In fact, jia is better to be translated as ‘family/home’.

³⁵ Scott (1998) was particularly critical of the ‘authoritarian high modernists’ who constructed heroic visions through space in the state attempts of ‘high modernism’, who held abiding desire to render human and social environments ‘legible’, e.g., the ‘scientific’ forestry in Germany and the villagization in Tanzania. Scott argued that these projects intended to improve human condition failed because the ‘authoritarian high modernists’ destructed practical, local knowledge ‘metis’ and replaced it by a few standardized formulas legible only from the center.

³⁶ It is interesting to note that during my archival research, a report published in Jiefang Daily in 1964 was identified stating that keeping the 18 gundilong was the idea of the residents, not the state. The article stated that

In response to the decision of the residents [of Cucumber Lane], the authority concerned has decided to keep several huts and cottages after the reconstruction of Cucumber Lane is complete. These huts and cottages will be used as ‘teaching materials’ [jiao cai] in conducting ‘class education’ to the younger generations.

But the old residents rejected this almost outright. One old resident noted: ‘How could the residents have the power to make such a decision!? It must be decided by someone at the top of the hierarchy’!

³⁷ It is suggested to refer to R. Madsen, Morality and Power in a Chinese Village (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984), for an insightful discussion of the interaction between the traditional Confucian ideology and the modern socialist tenets in a Chinese village.

³⁸ Ho, W. C., ‘Negotiating Subalternity in a Former Socialist ‘Model Community’ in Shanghai: From “Model Proletarians” to “Society People”, Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, 6:2(2005), pp. 159–180Google Scholar.

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⁴⁵ One could draw a parallel between the socialist project of civility of the mid-1990s and the Nationalist New Life Movement of the mid-1930s. The latter campaign, according to Dirlik, was to ‘mobilize the population to improve public and private hygiene and behavioral standards. Such reform was expected to lead to the moral regeneration of the Chinese people and to enhance public awareness of and concern for China's problems, making the population more responsive to the needs of the nation and the policies of the state’. Dirlik, A., ‘The Ideological Foundations of the New Life Movement: A Study in Counterrevolution’, Journal of Asian Studies, 34:4(August) (1975), pp. 945–980, esp. pp. 945–946CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁴⁶ Anagnost was right to assert that the rhetoric of civility was ‘a discourse of lack’, that it referred to ‘the failure of the Chinese people to embody international standards of modernity, civility and discipline’. Anagnost, A., National Past-Time: Narrative, Representation, and Power in Modern China (Durham, NC; London: Duke University Press, 1997), p. 76Google Scholar.

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⁴⁸ Pan Tin-shu, Neighborhood Shanghai: Community Building in Five Mile Bridge (An unpublished PhD Thesis, Harvard University, 2002), pp. 7–8.

⁴⁹ Ning, J., ‘Plenum Focuses on Social Ideology: CPC Meeting Focuses on Moral Buildup’, Window, 5:24(Oct.) (1996), p. 18Google Scholar.

⁵⁰ The policy that backed up these new measures was officially announced in October 1996 at the close of the Sixth Plenum of the 14th Central Committee. Lynch wrote, “‘[S]ome new measures’ were . . . announced. . . . Declaring that ‘we [the state] must resolutely prohibit any action that creates and spreads cultural garbage’ so that ‘a marked improvement in the quality of people’ can be realized. . . . [One of the concrete goals derived from] the plenum's final resolution . . . [was that] all province-level units must establish ‘a group of model cities and urban areas’ by the year 2020, in addition to “civilized villages and townships” in the countryside.” Daniel C. Lynch, ‘Dilemmas of “Thought Work” in Fin-de-Siecle China’. The China Quarterly, 157(1999), pp. 173–201, esp. p. 198.

⁵¹ Zhong-zhen, Xu & Wei-min, Sun, shequ wenhua yu jingzhan wenming [Community Culture and Spiritual Civilization] (Shanghai: Shanghai daxue chubanshe [Shanghai University Publishing House], 2000, p. 229Google Scholar. These two sets of guidelines were derived from the comprehensive 24-article law that governed the accreditation of the ‘model quarter’. See Ibid., pp. 227–233.

⁵² Fulong, Wu, ‘China's Changing Urban Governance in the Transition Towards a More Market-Oriented Economy’, Urban Studies, 39:7(2002), pp. 1071–1093, esp. 1084Google Scholar.

⁵³ de Certeau, M., The Practice of Everyday Life. Trans. by Rendall, S. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984)Google Scholar.

⁵⁴ Most of those who were in favour of the change were the residents living in top-floor flats, as they would be better insulated from the strong sunshine during summer.

⁵⁵ In the mid-1990s, commodity housing produced by private developers accounted for over half of the total housing completed. Wu Fulong, ‘Real Estate Development and the Transformation of Urban Space in China's transitional Economy, With Special Reference to Shanghai’. In Logan, J. R. (ed.), The New Chinese City: Globalization and Market Reform (Oxford: Blackwell, 2002), p. 156Google Scholar.

⁵⁶ Pudong New Area had been commonly considered as belonging to the ‘lower corner’ before the 1990s.

⁵⁷ Anagnost, A., ‘Constructing the Civilized Community’, In Huters, T., Bin, W. R., & Yu, P. (eds.), Cultural and State in Chinese History: Conventions, Accommodations and Critiques (Calif: Stanford University Press, 1997), p. 355Google Scholar.

⁵⁸ Li, Zhang, ‘Spatiality and Urban Citizen in Late Socialist China’, Public Culture, 14:2(2002), pp. 325–326Google Scholar.

⁵⁹ For example, M. de Certeau, see no. 53; H. Lefebvre, see no. 33; L. Rofel, see no. 2; Scott, J. C., Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (New Haven, Conn; London: Yale University Press, 1998)Google Scholar; Harvey, D., The Condition of Postmodernity (Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 1990)Google Scholar; E. W. Soja, see no. 26; Zhang Li, see no. 58; and Gupta, A. & Ferguson, J., ‘Beyond ‘Culture’: Space, Identity, and the Politics of Difference’, Cultural Anthropology, 7:1(Feb.) (1992), pp. 6–23CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Gupta, A. & Ferguson, J. (eds.) Culture, Power, Place: Ethnography at the End of an Era (Durham, NC; London: Duke University Press, 1997)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁶⁰ H. Lefebvre. See no. 33.

⁶¹ Routledge, P., ‘A Spatiality of Resistances: Theory and Practice in Nepal's Revolution of 1990’, In Pile, S. & Keith, M. (eds.) Geographies of Resistance (London: Routledge, 1997), p. 70Google Scholar.

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⁶³ Lefebvre raised out this query in a series of questions that began with the cry: ‘Why do they [the users] allow themselves to be manipulated in ways so damaging to their spaces and their daily life without embarking on massive revolts’? Lefebvre, H., The Production of Space. Trans. by Nichlson-Smith, D. (Oxford & Cambridge: Blackwell, 1991), p. 51Google Scholar.

⁶⁴ Ibid., p. 41.

⁶⁵ de Certeau, M., The Practice of Everyday Life. Trans. by Rendall, S. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984) pp. 36–37Google Scholar.

⁶⁶ Shields, R., Places on the Margin: Alternative Geographies of Modernity (London; New York: Routledge, 1991), pp. 53–54Google Scholar.

⁶⁷ Davis, M., Magical Urbanism: Latinos Reinvent the U.S. Big City (London: Verso, 2000)Google Scholar.

⁶⁸ Wang and Murie put even further as to raise that with the rapid growth of the private sector in providing residential housing, it became highly questionable as how far people, even for the state employees, still identified their best interests with the state. Wang, Y. & Murie, A., ‘The Process of Commercialisation of Urban Housing in China’, Urban Studies, 33:6(June) (2000), pp. 971–989CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁶⁹ W. C. Ho, see no. 38.