ARTISTS AND GENTRIFICATION IN POST-REFORM SHANGHAI

Abstract

The dissertation examines what makes artists significant agents in Chinese urban regeneration. Artists-as-gentrifiers have been well-studied in the western literature. But the part they have played in Chinese gentrification has been given little attention. This, as I argue, is due to the narrow conceptualisation of Chinese gentrification as a ‘state and market-led residential redevelopment’ process, with the role of gentrifiers, especially that of artists-as-gentrifiers, neglected. Building upon He and Lin (2015), this study develops a State-Market-Society (SMS) conceptual framework to shed light on the role of artists in gentrification through two case studies in Shanghai, M50 and Top50. The SMS framework comprises three dimensions of discussion, including interactions between artists and state; artists and property developers; and artists and cultural consumers. It examines how artists perceive, resist and negotiate government policies and market forces in stimulating and promoting gentrification, and in turn how artists are influenced by the gentrification process.