Protecting Suzhou: Study of the Conservation of Cultural Heritage in the Cities along China’s Grand Canal

With economic and social development, China has lifted its people out of poverty and is continuing to work hard on the road to a well-off society for all. In such a historical period, China is paying increasing attention to cultural construction while developing the economy. How to protect China’s cultural heritage and create economic and social benefits at the same time is a huge concern of the national government. Nowhere is the tension between China’s cultural preservation and economic development more apparent than at the country’s World Heritage List sites. The Grand Canal, known as the Jing- Hang Grand Canal (京杭大运河) in Chinese, was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2014. Since then, the Grand Canal itself has been systematically protected; however, the heritage sites along the Grand Canal have been not only facing development opportunities, but also experiencing commercialization and uncontrolled tourism that threaten their significance and integrity. Taking Suzhou as an example, this research summarizes the current status of heritage protection for Grand Canals sites in Suzhou, China, in light of the successful promotion of the Grand Canal’s World Heritage designation in 2014. The research also develops recommendations that will help other cities and towns along the Grand Canal in China develop preservation and development plans better to balance the relationship between historic preservation and social development and promote the joint development of regional culture and economy. In addition, analysis and case studies are also conducted on the impact of COVID-19 on tourism and the further impact on historic preservation. This research will also put forward some suggestions for the preservation of cultural heritage along the Grand Canal in the post-pandemic era

ADAPTIVE REUSE AS SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE IN CONTEMPORARY SHANGHAI

This thesis attempts to explore and interpret the contradictory forces and the direction of development of contemporary China as exemplified by Shanghai by investigating the emerging phenomenon of architectural adaptive reuse. The purpose of exploring Shanghai's architecture is to determine how adaptive reuse is contributing to a more historically and culturally sustainable architecture/society. It is grounded in the questions of: what can be learned from a study of architectural adaptive reuse, and, how has adaptive reuse, as implemented in Shanghai, contributed to a more sustainable architecture? Here architecture provides a 'text' that can be analyzed and it draws on a theoretical framework of postmodern analysis and sustainable architecture. These investigations of Shanghai as a city and a text were conduced during a fieldwork research period in Shanghai where a comparative multiple case study approach was utilized. The case studies comprised three areas of adaptive reuse in Shanghai ? Xintiandi, Moganshan Rd and TianziFang. Grounded in the field research, literature, observations and interviews ? the main result of the study is that from around the turn of the 21st century, there is a small, but alternative development of adaptive reuse emerging in Shanghai that is a spatial restructuring contributing to a more cultural and historical sustainable architecture

Economic incentive in enhancing community waste separation and collection: A panel data analysis in China

While incentive mechanisms have been proven to motivate residents to separate their waste, empirical research is still needed to determine whether this separation behaviour could be maintained over time. The main objective of this paper is to investigate waste separation management activities in the city of Dongying, China, as a case study to clarify how local community citizens’ waste separation participation and recycling activities change over time cross-sectionally under the influence of an economic incentive mechanism – PS. This study used least square dummy variable analysis to investigate local waste separation behaviour in 98 communities over 22 months. Results showed that community resident waste participation and recycling behaviour tend to grow in the early stages and gradually show saturation without growth in the middle and late stages. This result implies limitations to the incentive mechanism, such that it could only motivate a part of residents to participate in waste separation; for those unaffected by financial incentives, it was suggested that educational or compulsory means be used to make them separate their waste

Seek City Seek Man - Urban Sustainability from the Perspective of Humanity

Seek Seek City is a wide-angle long-term view to understand sustainability from the point of Humanity. First, the history of Earth and humanity are briefly recounted, then projecting into the future evolution of humanity, and what problems we face. The main target of humanity is set to be existence and development, that the instability of earth challenges. Then human needs are related to fields and ideas of sustainability. To combine the urban sustainability theories into a holistic view, a concept is created using the Small-world network and 20-80 distribution. The result is an organized network with random connections to other areas and connections to hubs, an that is partially sustainable but also dependent on other areas, and creates services to other areas. Using this principle, an example design is made for four urban environments in China: the metropolis Shanghai, the city Suzhou, the town Pucheng, and the village Xiaomi. The areas are briefly introduced, and based on the analysis as well as the previously found principles, a solution is made on how to improve the sustainability of these areas.Työ tarkastelee urbaania kestävyyttä ihmiskunnan näkökulmasta. Aluksi kerrataan maailman ja ihmisyyden historia, ja mitä ongelmia meillä on vastassamme. Ihmiskunnan päätavoitteiksi asetetaan olemassaolo ja kehittyminen, jolle maapallon epävakaus asettaa haasteita. Sen jälkeen ihmistarpeita verrataan kestävän kehityksen periaatteisiin, joka helpottaa priorisointia suunnittelussa. Teos esittelee “pieni maailma” verkostoa sekä 20-80 jakaantumis -periaatetta, joita käytetään kestävien mallien yhdistämiseksi kokonaisuudeksi. Tuloksena on järjestäytynyt verkosto, joissa on satunnais-yhteyksiä ja yhteyksiä isompiin keskuksiin, ja jossa jokainen alue on osittain omavarainen mutta osittain riippuvainen muista, sekä palvelee muita alueita. Tämän periaatteen pohjalta suunnitellaan neljä kiinalaista urbaania aluetta kestävällä tavalla: Metropoli Shanghai, Kaupunki Suzhou, Kaupunki Pucheng sekä kylä Xiaomi. Alueet esitellään, ja analyysin sekä edellämainitun periaatteen avulla esitetään kestäviä suunnitelmia alueen kehittämiseen

Saikosaponin A Alleviates Symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder through Downregulation of DAT and Enhancing BDNF Expression in Spontaneous Hypertensive Rats

The disturbed dopamine availability and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) expression are due in part to be associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In this study, we investigated the therapeutical effect of saikosaponin a (SSa) isolated from Bupleurum Chinese DC, against spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) model of ADHD. Methylphenidate and SSa were orally administered for 3 weeks. Activity was assessed by open-field test and Morris water maze test. Dopamine (DA) and BDNF were determined in specific brain regions. The mRNA or protein expression of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), dopamine transporter (DAT), and vesicles monoamine transporter (VMAT) was also studied. Both MPH and SSa reduced hyperactivity and improved the spatial learning memory deficit in SHRs. An increased DA concentration in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and striatum was also observed after treating with the SSa. The increased DA concentration may partially be attributed to the decreased mRNA and protein expression of DAT in PFC while SSa exhibited no significant effects on the mRNA expression of TH and VMAT in PFC of SHRs. In addition, BDNF expression in SHRs was also increased after treating with SSa or MPH. The obtained result suggested that SSa may be a potential drug for treating ADHD

Cityscape, Urban Nobodies and War: Modern Transformation of Nianhua in Suzhou-Shanghai

This dissertation explores the continuities and ruptures of the nianhua practice and representations in the Suzhou-Shanghai region during the mid-18th – 19th century. It explores a city-based nianhua tradition in Jiangnan’s urban centers that supplements current scholarship, which focuses geographically on northern print centers, economically on village-based production, and thematically on religious, auspicious and moral subjects of universal value. Challenging current scholarship that treats nianhua as a folk tradition rigidly adhering to an established pictorial vocabulary and conventional symbols of religious and moral significance, this study demonstrates the adaptive and innovative energies within the nianhua industry. Taking nianhua as a medium of place-making that actively and innovatively participated in a globalized visual culture and art production, this dissertation explores how 18th century Suzhou nianhua industry developed a special interest in and pictorial language for visualizing its prosperous cityscape, and how that tradition was transformed after the industry was dislocated into post-Taiping Shanghai, where nianhua was adapted to define the treaty-port by addressing issues particularly pertinent to local society. With the importation of Western printing technologies, publishing and image-making practice in late 19th century Shanghai, nianhua’s global interaction was further intensified, and began to develop a style based on pictorial borrowings from China and the West, both contemporary and past. Moreover, an increasing popular awareness of China’s foreign crises created a growing market for depictions of China’s recent wars in late 19th century Shanghai. With the incorporation of battlefields and frontier areas, nianhua’s visual reach iii of territory expanded from the “city” to the “state,” which marked a dramatic departure of the nianhua tradition from a site of city-making to that of nation-making

Development and evaluation of a phase relationship for MSW

Compression is one of the most important mechanical aspects of behaviour of municipal solid waste (MSW) which concerns stability, deformation and structural performance in a landfill. Previous studies have shown that compressible particles play a significant role in MSW compression. Definition of the void ratio in classical soil mechanics theory may no longer be applicable for MSW material since high non-linearity between void ratio changes and vertical stress changes have been identified in compression tests. A new phase relationship for MSW has been developed to include the volume loss of compressible particles and this has been evaluated using onedimensional compression test data. The comparison between analytical and test results has demonstrated that the MSW phase relationship is capable of analysing the volume losses originated from inter-and intra-void ratio changes, in addition to the total volume loss of the MSW sample under different vertical stresses. Since it can isolate the volumetric change of compressible particles from the total volume loss, the MSW phase relationship is important when developing a constitutive model for MSW assuming elasto-plastic material behaviour, which couples the volumetric and shear behaviour

Tea in the Historical Context of East Asia: Cultural Interactions across Borders

(Translated: Jenine Heaton) Session statement 4: Tea viewed from the comparative culture and cultural interactio

BRICS Cities: Facts & Analysis 2016

BRICS Cities: Facts & Analysis is a compendium of research produced through a partnership between the South African Cities Network (SACN) and the South African Research Chair in Spatial Analysis and City Planning (SA&CP) in the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand. It presents key general and thematic descriptive and comparative information about urban growth and development in the five BRICS states: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The comparative analysis includes a section relating to cities in Africa, while the detailed Factsheets cover thirty-one of the largest BRICS cities. BRICS Cities provides a first-of-its-kind research base to inform ongoing sub-national BRICS research and policy consideration. Recent reports on urbanization point out that over the next 20-30 years, almost all of the expected growth in the world population will be concentrated in the urban areas of the less developed countries of which a significant 42% will occur in cities in BRICS countries. Despite the fact that the distribution of the urbanization figures will be highly unequal between the different countries, considering the currently high levels of urbanization in Russia and Brazil and the extremely low levels (just over 35%) in India, the realities of large scale urbanization can and no doubt will have substantial impacts on the material conditions of urban life, governance, service provision, social relations and the environment. There has also been, and will continue to be, the expansion of networks of all kinds far beyond designated urban boundaries. In some cases, these challenges and the expanding boundaries have been met with additional layers of government, innovations in policy-making, and the reconfiguring of relationships between urban actors. However little is known in a comparative sense around some of the most important sites and cities in the BRICS countries , and insufficient research has been undertaken to learn from the differences that have been identified. The SACN and SA&CP, in line with our mutual interest around the nature and shape of urbanization and urban processes in South Africa and in BRICS countries, have developed a compendium of comparable information around key cities in the BRICS countries. BRICS Cities will serve as a useful reference of important base line information but also offers comment on the state of key areas of shared concern: innovation-driven economies, transport and mobility, and green energy. Furthermore, the publication provides a careful analysis of these factors in a comparative and relational framing.AA2017https://www.wits.ac.za/archplan/research-entities/spatial-analysis-and-city-planning/featured-projects/brics-fact-sheet-book