Effects of Government Reform and Creative Clusters on Chinese Entrepreneurship

This thesis analyzes the ways in which Chinese entrepreneurs have interacted with and responded to government policy. An examination of ethnographic research on the Shenzhen “Special Economic Zone” revealed that the forms entrepreneurship that emerged there during the early years of China’s economic reforms are rooted in the history and culture of the region. Analysis of modern policies, such as the 13th 5-Year Plan (2016-2020) and the Internet Plus doctrine, determined that the state strategy for encouraging entrepreneurship is now focused on empowering local governments, rather than individuals, as entrepreneurial agents. The city of Hangzhou’s “Dream Town” creative cluster is proposed as a potential site for future ethnographic research to determine whether the incentives offered by the local government are aligned with the motivations of the individual entrepreneurs

Hybrid Modernity: late 20th century landmark parks in China

This research investigates new spatial forms that have emerged in China's urban landmark parks in secondary cities of the post -Mao era. These forms represent a new stage in China's history of landscape architecture. As design history and innovative design inquiry, a qualitative approach is employed and it draws from: - modernization theory: a framework for understanding transformation in post -Mao China - post -Mao China socio -cultural analysis: changing Chinese identity, nationalism and trends in the arts and architecture - design analysis and history of China's garden /park traditions and the larger context of the evolution of modern landscape architecture in China - analysis of international design trends in contemporary landscape architecture analysis of China's changing institutional context: education and development of the landscape architecture profession. In this research, I asked: has the fusion of international influences with the local Chinese design vocabulary in late 20th century China created a distinctive approach to public park design that is novel? If so, how has this taken place, and what does it mean for landscape architecture in China? Case studies provide a focused empirical setting to understand the new design paradigms and they create the foundation for a theory I call hybrid modernization. The study breaks new ground as the first documentation and analysis of the emergence of modern landscape architecture in twentieth century China. It creates a bridge between the literature in China and the west; and it contributes to closing the gap on the history of modern landscape architecture in China

Innovation in an Uncertain Institutional Environment: Private Software Entrepreneurs in Hangzhou, China

The thesis deals with innovation and entrepreneurship in China. Despite an institutional environment characterized by high levels of uncertainty, innovation thrives even in the technology-based sectors. The research asks for explanations how innovative capabilities are developed in such an adverse institutional environment. For analyzing the institutional environment the research relies on comparative institutional approaches while approaches from the capabilities and resource-based theories, innovation management and China studies are used for explaining the behaviour of firms. The thesis is based on 2 years of extensive field research in cooperation with 45 Chinese entrepreneurs and Zhejiang University in Hangzhou. The findings suggest that Chinese entrepreneurs develop particular innovative capabilities in response to particular technical, market and institutional opportunities and constraints. One of the key insights is that innovation, in a broad understanding, can take place in an environment with institutional uncertainty and limited formal protection of intellectual property rights. On the one hand, institutional uncertainty creates both restrictions and incentives for innovation, and, on the other hand, firms are able to develop specific innovative capabilities that manage sectoral constraints while fighting off institutional constraints

Fashion Style and Information Source in Hangzhou, China

학위논문 (석사)-- 서울대학교 대학원 : 의류학과, 2014. 8. 하지수.Hangzhou, as one of the famous eight ancient capitals in Chinese history, has a long historical standing. Under the influence of Jiangnan culture – complimenting the delicate, soft and feminine temperament, Hangzhou has generated Hangpai fashion brands with girlish, and pastoral style, and always stays in a fresh, graceful, sweet tone since the 1990s. The thesis aims to study the Hangzhou fashion in the context of globalization and localization. Thus the research was to determine to study the change of fashion style and information source through the influence of social cultural factors. Through literature and in-depth interviews of qualitative research, the historical background and feature of Hangzhou fashion from the 1990s to 2010s were explored in this study. A total of 16 interviewees, 8 of each group who aged from 18-25 and 38-45 years old, have accepted the in-depth interview in March 2014. It was concluded as follows: Hangzhou young females with the weak concept of fashion style in the 1990s, have given many adjectives that were interpreted as feminine style, casual style and sports style, which derived from regional culture, introduced fashion brands and aerobics movement, respectively. While in the 2010s, young females concept regarding fashion have changed from fashionable(时髦) to stylish(有型), leading to a variety of different fashion styles. The popular Korean-style, European style, and minimalist style are mostly come from foreign dramas and Internet fashion information. Young females of 2010s are using diversified sources of fashion information (especially SNS, on line shopping mall) in a significantly higher frequency than those of 1990s. As the representatives of social factors, regional culture, economy, fashion industry and mass media, have affected Hangzhou female fashion styles and information source profoundly. The research verified that there was a diminishing of a sense of locality and cultural identity in Hangzhou females fashion, while the impact of a kind of global-cultural eclecticism and mass media imagery becomes larger on young females fashion in the city, especially the role of Internet. It makes Hangzhou fashion no longer lag behind it of Guangzhou, Shanghai and other cities like in the 1990s, but synchronized with domestic cities and even international fashion trends.I. Introduction 1 1. Background 1 2. Purpose of the study 4 3. Methodology 5 II. Literature review 13 1. Hangzhou as a distinct environment for fashion 13 1) A historical city with splendid cultures 14 2) New life after Chinese reform era 16 3) Textile industry in Hangzhou 17 4) From a commercial district to E-commerce 19 2. Fashion style 22 1) Definition 22 2) Classification 23 3. Fashion information 24 III. Findings and results 30 1. Fashion style in Hangzhou 31 1) Casual style(休闲风格) 33 2) Sports style(运动风格) 34 3) Feminine style(女性风格) 38 4) Korean style(韩国风格) 44 5) Euro-American style(欧美风格) 47 6) Minimalism style(简约风格) 49 7) Difference in the fashion styles of young females 52 2. Fashion information source in Hangzhou 54 1) The 1990s 56 2) The 2010s 61 3. Fashion style and fashion information 73 4. Fashion influential factors in Hangzhou 74 1) Feminine temperament in Hangzhou 71 2) Economic conditions 76 3) Fashion industry - from export processing to local brands 79 4) The impact of global-cultural eclecticism and mass media imagery .......................................................................................81 IV. Conclusion 87 References Appendices AcknowledgeMaste

The emerging art markets of greater China : 1989-1999

This study is about the economic measurement of contemporary artworks, as set by the international market. It is about the internal forces that influence that value: the subtle interaction between the not-for-profit and profit-making sectors, and critical writing. It is also about the constraints placed on that value by external forces: macroeconomic and political factors and historical issues. The basis for this enquiry is that globalisation is a `reality' and that it is a Western construct. It is also understood that risk is an essential element of globalisation. It follows from this that global economic and political forces have an impact on culture and that a territory's economic and political performance is closely correlated with its cultural performance. As a consequence, territory's contemporary culture can be described economically as underdeveloped, developing or developed. It is accepted that most underdeveloped and developed territories aspire to become developed, and set about doing so by emulating the behaviour and performance of developed territories. So, developing territories experience the impact of global politics and economics and, by implication, culture. A developing society measures its contemporary artwork, therefore, economically, and correlates its value against the Western contemporary artwork. China is a developing nation and, therefore, measures the value of its contemporary artwork economically, using Western contemporary art as its yardstick. The mechanism for measuring value economically is the international market for artworks. The international art market, therefore, measures the value of a contemporary artwork. The value of a contemporary Chinese artwork is measured by the international art market and by local and regional equivalent markets, which emulate the performance of the international market. My study is complicated by the fact that it is a `safari' study (Hantrais, 1996). The region under discussion, Greater China, consists of two territories other than China; the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong and Taiwan, which are both developed economies. The purpose of this study is to alert the commercial and not-for-profit artworld sectors in Greater China to the crucial role played by the international art market, and its equivalents, in raising the value of contemporary Chinese artworks. The other intention of this study is to raise awareness among the West's commercial and not for- profit sector for the Greater China art market, which remains relatively under exploited

Control dynamics in a Chinese-German joint venture.

This study is concerned with the dynamic control changes within a joint venture company between First Automobile Work (FAW) and Volkswagen (VW) over a period of 17 years. Concepts from New Institutionalism and the governmentality literature are used to shed light on how the controls were designed, shaped, and transformed at FAW-VW and how the tensions and conflicts between the two partners evolved and developed. Since 1991 when the joint venture was created, a significant transition in the control focus from cost to quality took place. I examine this transition in the context of wider social and institutional changes. Concepts from the governmentality framework are drawn upon to investigate the linkages and relays among rationales, discourses, national programmes, diverse bodies of expertise, and the transition in the control focus within the joint venture under study, and the calculative and non-calculative technologies through which the various interpretations tied to the local programme were rendered operable. Various attempts by the FAW partner to transform employees and workers who came from a socialist legacy into responsible/governable individuals in a neoliberal sense through several modern and scientific management techniques are examined in conjunction with changes in ideological values permeating Chinese society. The effects of control techniques reflective of different forces and roots at FAW-VW are analysed. Concepts from the new institutionalism framework are drawn upon to investigate the interactions and conflicts between managers and employees from each partner at the firm level. In this process, the political usage of particular rationalities by various parties within and without the firm is examined and the institutional pressures faced by each partner are explored. Attention is directed on the manner in which political rationalities are used strategically by both partners in their attempt to effect control

The adaptive reuse of industrial heritage as cultural clusters in China : a case study in Chongqing

Following the adoption of a socialist market economy throughout the late 1970s and 1980s, the Chinese city has accommodated radical changes in its urban landscapes, especially the dramatic transformation of large industrial sites. Along with the rapid urban transformation and the neglect of historic cores, Chinese cities are witnessing the rapid disappearance of industrial heritage. This negative reality of conservation practice raises a fundamental question about the reasons for such cultural myopia. To reveal the main factors that dominate the results of brownfield regeneration projects in urban China, this thesis reviewed theories on the production of space and the literature on the Chinese context. A single case study approach was adopted, collecting data from semi-structured interviews, document reviews and popular media. Through an investigation in the major industrial inland city of Chongqing, the thesis examined how the idea of industrial heritage reuse has travelled as a global concept with its Chinese precedents to Chongqing, and why the idea has been diluted in the regional context. The case study of the Chongqing Steel Factory regeneration project revealed that the negative outcome of industrial heritage conservation was associated with Chongqing’s contextual constraints, covering aspects of capital accumulation, entrepreneurial urban governance and the post-reform sociocultural environment. It was argued that the heritage value was dramatically sacrificed to short-term profitability in property development, when relatively weak economic conditions, entrepreneurial governance with a focus on investment return, a lack of strong heritage legislation and regulation, and limited local cultural support work together. These findings build on existing theories concerning the production of space and the urban policy mobility, and relate the concepts of idea learning and mutation, capital accumulation, power relations and social efforts for spatial justice to industrial heritage studies in the Chinese context. This thesis contributes knowledge to three distinct areas: firstly, to research on brownfield transformation; secondly, to industrial heritage studies; and thirdly, to Chinese urban studies. The Chongqing experience seeks to inspire researchers, practitioners and policy makers in the positive transformation of other industrial cities in China, which still retain numerous industrial sites with great potential to be reclaimed. This thesis thus supports better industrial heritage outcomes

Art as everyday practice: A study of gongfu tea in Chaoshan, China

This study explores the place of traditional Chinese tea culture in a society undergoing changes both culturally, with the rise of consumerism, and structurally, with the growth of a market economy and globalization. It does so by examining tea drinking in the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong Province. Chaoshan is the home of a style of preparing and drinking tea known as 'gongfu' tea, involving preparation of strong tea in small pots, and drinking repeated brews in small cups. As well as being an important part of the regional food and drink culture, gongfu tea has been adopted outside Chaoshan as a refined form of tea culture, and even represented outside China as an authentic 'Chinese tea ceremony'. It therefore provides an appropriate case study through which to examine both local practices and the processes through which local cultural objects are appropriated and transformed for use in other contexts. The study pursues two lines of inquiry. The first examines the development of a contemporary discourse representing Chaoshan gongfu tea as a manifestation of a continuous tradition dating back more than 1,000 years to the Tang Dynasty. I argue that, while tea has long been consumed in Chaoshan, this representation is not supported by historical evidence, and is an example of an invented tradition. The second line of inquiry is a study of contemporary gongfu tea-drinking practices, both among people born in Chaoshan, and among non-Chaoshan people who have taken it up as an acquired practice. Methodologically, the study uses sociological ethnography, in which the ‘field’ of research is not a specific locality but a field of inquiry defined by pursuing linkages relevant to the research questions. Findings are based on fieldwork involving semi-structured interviews with, and observations among, a snowball sample of 32 individuals plus one family that was treated, for analytical purposes, as a single unit. Fieldwork was conducted in four visits to the region between 2010 and 2017. The study found that, among people born in Chaoshan, gongfu tea is experienced as an integral part of everyday life, rather than a form of tea art. As a practice, it entails close attention to detail in preparing, serving and drinking tea, on the one hand and, on the other, a high level of creativity, rather than slavish adherence to a prescriptive model. People who have taken up gongfu tea as an acquired practice exhibit similar skills, but for them, gongfu tea is unlikely to be woven into the fabric of everyday life. Some people choose to cultivate additional knowledge and skills in order to enhance their gongfu tea practice as tea art. The study concludes by considering the relationship between Chaoshan gongfu tea as a cultural object created through discourse, and contemporary tea-drinking practices. I argue that the relationship is not as close as literary accounts imply. While each is informed by the other, neither is a mirror of the other, and each is a product of distinctive social processes: the discourse, by the activities of academics, entrepreneurs and others, each pursuing their own interests; tea-drinking practices, by the opportunities and constraints generated through economic and social processes emanating from the wider society

Installation, video, and performance art in Reform Era China

Thesis (Ph. D. in History, Theory, and Criticism of Art and Architecture)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2012.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 201-214).China's Reform Era (1978-present) has seen the reinvigoration of academic, and artistic practice, and a rapprochement between the Chinese Communist Party and the intellectual elite. At its beginnings in the early- to mid-1980s the new availability of foreign texts and media led to Culture Fever, a widespread phenomenon throughout the intellectual and artistic spheres characterized by enthusiasm for the philosophy, literature, and art of the West and pre-Communist China and the simultaneous uptake of discrete Western and Confucian philosophies. These discussions often addressed modernity and modernism in China, a crucial homology to early twentieth century Chinese negotiations in literature and the arts and the development of an amalgamated "Chinese modernism" comprised of elements of both Confucian and Western philosophy and aesthetics. As this dissertation argues, key early experimental works of the Reform Era by Zhang Peili, Wu Shanzhuan, and Zhang Huan reveal a proclivity for subtle and indirect admonitory messages about China's socio-political climate - a contemporary inhabitation of the traditional elite scholar-artist and his obligation to criticize immoral or unjust policies or actions. This admonitory practice was built by artists educated in elite academies (specifically, the Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing and the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Art in Hangzhou) yet utilized completely new and non-academic media. What this thesis terms as an "art of admonition" utilized traditional tropes, including direct remonstrations of officials, withdrawal from official life in protest, and the concept of the "middle hermit" - a scholar who admonishes official policy subtly and indirectly. The experimental practices of artists after their graduation from elite academies stemmed from the extra-curricular resources made available to them, especially the schools' libraries. The connection of these unofficial works to the official academies, their validation by art market success, and the subsequent official endorsement accorded to these and other artists in the later Reform Era blurs the distinctions between official and unofficial artistic practice in China, suggesting a strong endorsement of the dissident artist's role as "middle hermit."by Karin Grace Oen.Ph.D.in History, Theory, and Criticism of Art and Architectur