The Research On Nanjing City Parks In Modern Times

Public park is one of the products of city civilization in the modern times,and also a symbol which stands for the city modernization.This thesis aims to research into the birth and development of modern city parks in Nanjing,and how the parks,municipal construction,municipal administration,and citizen lives were connected with each other during the times of social transformation.Though modern Nanjing parks were opend early,their development was slow and effected by polititians.Duanfang,during whose reign as Liangjiang governor,started a park named Green Bamboo Flower Garden depended on the Nanjing Commodity Exposition.The Expostion itself could be recognized as a large-scale park.However,due to the collapse of Qing dynasty,parks at that time were like a flash in the pan.During the time of Beiyang goverment,there were no newly-built parks but Xiushan Park and Gulou Park,both of which were set up by Qi Xieyuan.Xiushan Park was improved a lot from the perspective of architectural style,landscape layout,and opening levels.During Nanjing national government,the construction of city parks in Nanjing really developed.Until the Anti-Japanese War,there were the First park,Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum,Xuanwu lake park,Mochou lake park,Bailuzhou park,Qinhuai small park,the central political area park,Gulou park in Nanjing.There were mainly three types of city parks construcion in Nanjing,the first one is transforming cultural relics,the second one which occupied the main position is transforming scenic spots,and the third one is allocating land to construct new parks.The Nanjing city parks were built according to the natural scene,while adding some artificial beautification.In this way the traditional places of interests were remoulded into modern parks and brought into municipal system.It was the main feature of Nanjing parks.The transformation of Xuanwu lake was most prominent.Nanjing was a traditional political city then,meaning municipal construction was under political guidance.So was the park construction.Nearly everything was led by politics,from the receiving of old parks,the planning of park system to the selecting of newly-built posts and management of all the parks.The construction of city parks was a part of the modern system of municipal,and finally formed a simple city park system and management mode,in which the park service played an important role,with cooperation of works bureau,finance bureau,and military police organs.The official-dominant feature meant that the official not only tried to advocate park into "entertaining and noble",but also tried to create the park into social platform of political indoctrination.This kind of official behaviour promoted the civil parks transforming into common recreation,and the parks became comprehensive entertainment leisure place and an important part of urban life.Populace were those who enjoyed and appreciated parks,also as supervisor and commentator.Meanwhile,they joined park construction indirectly.Their recognization of parks were not completely led by government,so it suggested the conception of park that germinated in mid-19th-century continued its developing process.The consciousness of park which consisted of official dominance and civil participation has become the fundamental driving force of the development of the city park since modern times.This thesis is divided into six chapters.The first one is "the commencement of modern city parks in Nanjing",which introduces the three parks of Nanjing in the early time.The second chapter-is "the receiving,planning and opening-up of parks during the Nanjing national government",which introduces how the Nanjing national government received the old parks,the park plans and open-up or construction in the process of the municipal construction.The third chapter is "the park authority",which talks about the park management mechanism and management mode.The fourth chapter is "the construction and management of parks",which uses the Xuanwu Lake as an example to show how the traditional places of interests were remoulded into modern parks.The last two chapters deal with the relationship between parks and citizen lives.The fifth one is "the construction of civilized space",which explores the official power trying to instill political ideology and transform people’s thought depending on parks.The final chapter is "citizen lives and parks",which discusses how common people accept and make use of the parks.