Author Description

This book is a welcome and timely analysis of how global economic and financial powerhouses in Asia also aim to become global cultural cities. It critically examines the tension between top-down policies implemented by strong states to boost urban culture, which are typically focused on the hardware of iconic venues, museums, and opera houses mostly designed by famous western architects, and the need for freedom to enable more organic cultural initiatives rooted in local practices.' - Robert C. Kloosterman, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands While global cities have mostly been characterized as sites of intensive and extensive economic activity, the quest for global city status also increasingly rests on the creative production and consumption of culture and the arts. Arts, Culture and the Making of Global Citiesexamines such ambitions and projects undertaken in five major cities in Asia: Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei and Singapore. Providing a thorough comparison of their urban imaging strategies and attempts to harness arts and culture, as well as more organically evolved arts activities and spaces, this book analyses the relative successes and failures of these cities. Offering rich ethnographic detail drawn from extensive fieldwork, the authors challenge city strategies and existing urban theories about cultural and creative clusters and reveal the many complexities in the art of city-making. This noteworthy study will appeal to undergraduate and graduate students, as well as academics from a variety of disciplines ranging from urban and cultural geography to Asian studies. Arts and cultural policy makers and artists will also find this a fascinating read. Contents: 1. Arts spaces, New Urban Landscapes and Global Cultural Cities PART I 2. The National Grand Theatre in a City of Monuments: Discourse and Reality in the Construction of Beijing's New Cultural Space 3. Rivalling Beijing and the World: Real