On David Wolff's Harbin(1898 –1914):An Unjust Urban Space

Harbin is the capital of the most north-eastward province of China. Its history has always been the focus of dispute by scholars from all around the world. Known as “Oriental Moscow” and “Paris of the Orient”, Harbin, the Ice City, was built and developed by the Russian construction of the Chinese Eastern Railroad(CER). By 1903 when the railroad was accomplished, Harbin became the prototype of a modern city.Works of Dr. David Wolff, American professor of geography, will be intensively investigated in this paper. His books and dissertations about urban studies on Harbin city will be used as analytical texts. David Harvey's theory on social justice and space criticism will be considered as theoretical foundation. By analyzing D. Wolff's Harbin in three chapters, this paper intends to demonstrate the prevailing spatial injustice during its early urban development. Chapter One is to discuss the profound impact brought by the three-way political competition among Russians, Japanese and Chinese governments, from the perspective of imbalanced distribution of political space. Chapter Two is to examine the wealth gap between the rich and poor of different classes, racial groups and sex in Harbin, from the perspective of space economy, caused by unequal allocation of real income. Chapter three is to investigate the distinct spiritual activities carried out by different social communities in Harbin caused by the unjust distribution of living space.The conclusion of this paper is that David Wolff's Harbin was a city without spatial justice even though its urban spatial form had been transformed dramatically in nearly two decades of development.