Tourism-led urban regeneration: Laochengnan as an example 60

INTRODUCTION

From the rural to the central parts of metropolises, many regions have acquired new economic, social, and cultural functions while being transformed into tourism destinations (Calzada, 2019). As the capital of ten Chinese dynasties, Nanjing, the Creative City of Literature, is no exception. The Laochengnan area (old city south, literally translated) of Nanjing is rich in historical and cultural resources and identified by many as the cultural root of the city. These neighborhoods have become critical targets for urban renewal under the Qinhuai district government redevelopment plan since 2006. The district government planned to transform the area into a high-end tourist destination with commercial streets and luxurious residential areas to accommodate middle-class consumers and tourists. Such entrepreneurial plans triggered widespread and intense tensions among developers, residents, and academics (Chen et al., 2020). Local cultural activists, national cultural elites, the central government, and residents raised doubts about this approach. Two battles to defend Laochengnan were launched in 2006 and 2009. Residents’ protests reflected the unique spirit of the place (Hu, 2015) and the strong sense of community in Laochengnan. With the intervention of the mass media, these acts of protest became a public event with considerable national influence. This eventually caused the local government to change its decision in 2010 (Bai, 2018).

Recently, there has been renewed interest in keeping the everydayness of the tourism destinations in China through placemaking and community building initiatives. In the context of the country’s Stock-Based Planning and Micro Regeneration Plan, the idea of historical conservation is being increasingly favored over growth-oriented urban development with a shift in the planning mechanism. A consensus has formed around the ‘Small-scale, gradual’ micro regeneration model as a necessary choice for redevelopment. Despite many discussions on how to regenerate old parts of the city spatially, literature has shown that residents are still deprived of the ‘right to envision the city’ (Hu, 2020). This is largely because local residents are usually required to relocate in order to develop a tourism destination. They are still in the consumption end (back end) of the redevelopment process and excluded from the production of innovation that occurs in the creative industry and tourism industry. However, few scholars have been able to draw on any systematic research into a methodological framework for participatory redevelopment by using the concept of ‘Urban Labs.’ In order to avoid excessive ‘touristification’ led by the growth-oriented model of redevelopment, a form of a community conservation organization is very much needed in contemporary China. This community conservation organization encourages the participation of residents in the placemaking and innovating process to bring back the everydayness of urban life.