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From racecourse to People's Park and People's Square: historical transformation and symbolic significance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

XIONG YUEZHI
XIONG YUEZHI*
Affiliation:
Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, 7/622 Huaihai Zhonglu, Shanghai 200020, China
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Abstract:

Horse racing ended in Shanghai in 1945, but the public continued for a long time to make its opinion heard on the prohibition of horse racing and on the changing function of the racecourse. In 1951, the dust settled, and the racecourse became People's Park and People's Square. This article describes the ever changing symbolic significance of the racecourse that has played out against a backdrop of changing racecourse functions and varying intellectual currents. Initially, it was a relatively simple place of leisure. It later became a gambling arena where people were cheated of their money and sometimes murdered, a place where Chinese suffered discrimination, and a stage on which imperialism flaunted its military might. It had, in short, become a diabolic symbol of a multitude of evils. The call to change the racecourse merged powerfully with the struggle to oppose imperialism, regain the settlement and struggle towards civilization and democracy. In spite of changes in the ruling party and the replacement of one regime by another, a remarkable ideological and intellectual continuity persisted from the 1930s to the 1950s.

Type
Research Article
Information
Urban History , Volume 38 , Special Issue 3: China's urban turn , December 2011 , pp. 475 - 490
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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References

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2 Ibid., 66.

3 Studies on the Shanghai Racecourse include: Baorun, Xu, ‘A summary of the seizure of Chinese land by the racecourse’, in Real Estate Dealings in Old Shanghai (Shanghai, 1990)Google Scholar; Zeqing, Cheng, ‘Various evils done in the name of racing horses’, in Library of 20th Century Shanghai Historical Materials, vol. X (Shanghai, 1999), 358–65Google Scholar; Shao Jian, ‘The race track and modern Shanghai society’, unpublished Shanghai Academy of Social Science, Institute of History, MA thesis, 2003; Yuqiong, Bai, ‘From racecourse to People's Square: The arduous struggle for Shanghai's public spaces’, Shanghai Artist, 3 (2005)Google Scholar. The above studies deal with such aspects as horse racing and gambling, horse racing and society, and the spatial significance of the racecourse. Ning's, Zhang ‘From racecourse to People's Square: the movement to regain possession of the Shanghai Racecourse’, Academia Sinica Bulletin of the Institute of Modern History, 48 (2005), 97–136Google Scholar, makes uses of abundant archival materials in an in-depth study of changes in and the recovery of the racecourse and of its evolution into People's Square. Regarding the three racecourse rental locations and the area of the racecourse, the article ‘Relocations of the racecourse’, in Shanghai Real Estate Record, organizes the information in such materials as Shanghai dao qi and Beihua jiebao to present a clear picture of events. See Shanghai Real Estate Record Compiling Committee, Shanghai Real Estate Record (Shanghai, 1999), 505–9.

4 Based on Shanghai Real Estate Record, 505.

5 Based on ibid., 506.

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24 ‘Resolution requesting that the municipal government recover the racecourse and divide and develop it into a park and an athletic field’ (Motion no. 246) (Shanghai Municipal Archives, Q109-1-1997).

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28 Ibid., 109.

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30 ‘Document from the Shanghai City Council requesting that the municipal government conduct negotiations to recover possession of the racecourse’ (Shanghai Municipal Archives, Q109-01-00768).