Neighborhood, Community, And Urban Landscape:Discursive Transformation Of Dongpingxiang

Neighborhood is a basic constituent of city both in ancient and modern China. As the old Chinese saying goes,"A distant relative is not as good as a near neighbor". In ancient China, neighborhood had many different expressions during different periods of time, suchas li(里),fang(坊),jie(街),lin(邻),bao(保)and so on. Different expressions have also shown the change of social and economic conditions. In the study of neighborhood culture in China, ancient texts especially gazetteers play an important role. In this paper, the analysis of the gazetteers has mainly been carried out around Wulin fangxiang zhi compiled by Ding Bing. The predominant theme when reading the gazetteers is to "search the past, guide the future". From Southern Song Dynasty, local gazetteers’role in moral education was further emphasized. The analysis and exploration of local gazetteers can provide us a new perspective on how a place was constructed in the ancient writings and what kind of impact these writings had on the local people and local government. Confucius said,"One should choose to dwell in such a place where there are men of benevolence. Otherwise, how can one said to be wise?" Confucius’idea on neighborhood of benevolence greatly influenced the construction of Chinese neighborhood. In modern China, especially from the1980s, during the process of urbanization, the old houses were pulled down and residential areas with high rises were newly built, where many not even know the next door neighbors. The main research questions of the study are:How was the neighborhood constructed and interpreted in the ancient texts and gazetteers? How was the modern community constructed by the local residents and local government? A nearly six-month of fieldwork was carried out. With ethnography as my research method,1have interviewed the local residents, especially the elder residents, and the officials, read historical recordings in local gazetteers and joined in the activities held in the community to observe and experience. Through narrating the data in a Chinese way, the paper attempts to interpret meaning making of Chinese neighborhood in different periods of time.