Neoliberalism and the Aestheticization of New Middle‐Class Landscapes

Abstract: If according to Terry Eagleton (The Ideology of the Aesthetic 1990:28), the aesthetic is from the start “a contradictory, double‐edged concept”, how are seemingly innocent acts of viewing and consuming aesthetically pleasing landscapes implicated in the neoliberal politics of urban restructuring? Using contemporary Shanghai as a case study, this paper critically examines the role of the aesthetic in the politics of exclusion and urban segregation in post‐Socialist Shanghai where the restructuring and commodification of erstwhile public welfare housing have led to the rapid development of private “middle‐class” gated enclaves. A central objective of this paper is to excavate the underlying cultural politics of neoliberalism and demonstrate how the aestheticization of urban spaces in Shanghai has become increasingly intertwined with and accentuated by neoliberal ideologies and exclusionary practices in the city. Imbricated in the pristine neighborhoods of Shanghai's gated communities are the fault lines of social division and class distinction that are rapidly transforming urban China.     

Publications briefly noted

PETER DRYSDALE, ZHANG YUNLING and LIGANG SONG (eds). APEC and Liberalisation of the Chinese Economy.

PAUL BAILEY. China in the Twentieth Century , 2nd edition. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2001. Maps, glossary, bibliography, index. £50.00/US$59.95 hardcover, £13.99/US$26.95, paper.

JAMES L. WATSON (ed). Golden Arches East: McDonald's in East Asia. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1997. 256 pp. US$21.95, paper.

ALISON MURRAY. Pink Fits: sex, Subcultures and Discourses in the Asia‐Pacific. Clayton, VIC: Monash Asia Institute, 2001. 198 pp. A$29.95, paper.     

Experimental Study of Full-Scale Self-Centering Sliding Hinge Joint Connections with Friction Ring Springs

This article presents 10 tests on a self-centering Sliding Hinge Joint (SHJ) subassembly. The flexural capacity was generated with a combination of ring springs and Asymmetric Friction Connections, with the proportion varied between tests. The joints produced stable and repeatable hysteretic behavior and minimal damage to the floor slab, with self-centering capability improving with increasing ring spring contribution. There was negligible difference between tests undertaken at static and seismic-dynamic rates of loading. The SHJ had a 20% reduction in strength under a near fault pulse type motion. A simple mathematical model of the SCSHJ rotational behavior is also developed.     

邱人龙生卒年考

纪晓岚《阅微草堂笔记》中有三则笔记提到了邱人龙,但历来注释家都没有介绍。本文通过《邱氏族谱》和福建永春地方志的材料,考证出邱人龙的基本生平事迹,同时还纠正了《邱氏族谱》中有关邱人龙卒年的错误记录,指出邱人龙的实际生卒年是1736—1785(6),而非如族谱所说死于1840年。