场所的复杂性——对天津的跨文化解读

分析天津的新城市图景,解读隐含在天津现代城市视觉文化中的中西对话,通过关于视觉与时间的观念来思考场所的复杂性问题。对天津而言,＂现代性＂是一个复杂的概念,其独特的城市视觉文化是跨文化交流过程的产物。19世纪天津的城市景观超越了国界,多种异域文化并存。每个殖民国家都拥有自己的特定（西方的）视觉认同,并移植到这一东方语境中。这种视觉认同如今被视为这座城市全球化的起点。当下天津城市发展的策略,一方面是更新这些＂移植＂空间,另一方面力图提升作为一个国际都市的现代特征。那些欧洲古典建筑的美学特征在新的城市语境中再现生机。这种新的城市视觉文化是天津作为一个国际都市的明确标识,并且是在经济层面和象征意义上加以运作的一种资源,跨文化交流的过程藉此得以完成。

The Complexities of Place:Transcultural Readings of Tianjin

This paper investigates recent narratives of Tianjin,studies the east-west dialogues inherent in its urban visual culture,and thinks about the complexities of place in terms of the notions of visuality and temporality.The "modernity" of Tianjin is a complex category where a distinctive visual urban culture is the product of the processes of transculturation.The nineteenth-century cityscape was a transnational place where numerous foreign powers co-existed.Each nation had its own distinctive(western) visual identity that had been transposed to its eastern location.This visual identity is now interpreted as the beginning of the city’s globalisation.The current strategy for the urban development of Tianjin combines the renewal of these "foreign" spaces with the desire to promote its modern identity as a world city. The aesthetic of the historic European architecture finds a reprise in the new urban topography.This new urban visual culture is indexical of Tianjin as a global city and operates as a sort of economic and symbolic capital whereby the process of transculturation becomes complete.