Place-making And Political Performance

Since2009, Changshu has been held a grand culture activity every year in May: Jiangnan Cultural Festival and the exposition of garments and accessories of Changshu, China(中国常熟江南文化节暨服装服饰博览会)In this paper, I will portray the picture of Jiangnan Culture Festival, trying to figure out who are the performers of all these activities, what they really performed and who are the real audiences from the perspectives of the idea, scene and the reaction on Jiangnan Culture Festival. At the same time, I will emphasis on the culture development strategies of Changshu government through this culture festival, including how did the local government identify and layout their historical and cultural heritages, and in such a screening process, how did the government, as a representative of the state power, to position the local history of culture, in order to understand the process of "place-making" and the constructive meaning of local identities. It turns out to be a government-led, costly festival with a lot of unimpassioned speeches but no participation of ordinary people, from which we can see the government’s means of cultural production, is not only a process of place-making, but also a huge political performance. Culture is used to show the power rather than to attract tourists. The true protagonist is politics itself but not culture, tourism or economy. In2002, the report to the16th CPC (Communist Party of China) National Congress clearly identified it important to strengthen the construction of culture, with particular emphasis on culture as a powerful driving force for socio-economic development and a decisive factor to improve the international competitiveness as well. Due to the strong guidance of the state ideology, local governments have developed their own culture-building strategies, the cultural elements in urban construction has been unprecedented strengthened. Therefore,"festival movement" is the product of official logic of cultural production, the desire of such performances is not only the ills of "vanity project" and GDP(Gross Domestic Product)syndrome, but also turns out to be a huge political performance. If we try to observe the motivation, content and object of Jiangnan Cultural Festival above this reality background and theoretical basis, we will find the creation and display of local culture is actually under the national perspective of cultural performances and understanding.In a sense, the process of imaging Jiangnan through cultural governance and place-making in Changshu is similar to that in other places of China. So my research could be regarded as a local case reflecting place-making movement under globalization all through China.