The "Japanese Concession" In Shanghai:Hongkou’s Spatial History And Memory Changes Since Modern Times

Legally,modern Japan did not set up a concession in Shanghai,but its construction activities have made Hongkou the name of a Japanese concession.Therefore,Chinese society constructed a collective memory about the existence of a Japanese concession in Shanghai,providing a basis for collective identification.This article investigates the spatial history and memory changes of Shanghai’s "Japanese Concession",to explore the relationship between political power,space construction,and collective memory.The formation of the "Japanese Concession" in Shanghai began with the activities of Western colonists in China and was completed during the War of Resistance Against Japan,transforming the traditional Chinese urban space into a colonialist space.Western colonists opened concessions in Shanghai in pursuit of trade interests in China,and the Hongkou area along the northern bank of the Suzhou River was verbally administered by the United States.In order to maximize its own interests,the United States,which pursues a common colonial concept,promoted the merger of Hongkou and the British Concession into the public concession,and delimited the spatial boundaries of Hongkou by this chance.With the expansion of colonial power,Hongkou achieved spatial expansion during the process of of expanding the concessions and building roads across the border.In order to demonstrate the superiority of civilization,the Western colonists transplanted the planning ideas,management systems and architectural arts of their mother countries,creating a colonial landscape and forming a core of power along the northern bank of the Suzhou River.After the Meiji Restoration,Japan,which embarked on the road of overseas expansion,also sought to establish a dedicated concession in Shanghai.Although the plan failed,Japanese poured in and settled in the low-cost Hongkou,making the spatial landscape tend to be Japanese.The upper level of Japan transplanted Japanese-style Western architecture and Japanese architecture successively,showing off the advantage of Japanese civilization which both modernize and inherit excellent traditions.During the War of Resistance Against Japan,the Japanese military seized the municipal management power of Hongkou,making it a so-called "Japanese concession," and advocated a growing militarism in space landscapes and ritual exercises,in order to serve military activities.Facing with the space of Shanghai’s "Japanese Concession",Chinese people write and express the memory of "Japanese Concession" with space experiences and the discourse of the times.In the anti-imperialist patriotic discourse,the progressive young people in the North during the May 30 th Movement wrote the memory of the existence of the "Japanese Concession" in Shanghai.Affected by it,Hongkou in the writings of Shanghai school literature changed from the embodiment of the concession civilization to a symbol of aggression of imperialists such as Japan.However,because of differences between spatial experiences,Hongkou has not been designated as the Japanese concession.After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan,the Japanese military controlled Hongkou.It is generally believed that Hongkou is like a real Japanese concession,and a collective memory about Shanghai ’s “Japanese Concession” has been constructed.People continuously expressed their understanding of Shanghai’s “Japanese Concession” in wartime literature and photography.These works present the power discourses conveyed by Japanese through the spatial landscape like buildings,streets and power exercisers,and entrust the ideals of Chinese soldiers to subvert the original power structure,expressing the collective identity for the realization of national rejuvenation.After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan,Shanghai’s "Japanese Concession" started the process of decolonization and space reconstruction.After the war,the National Government used the method of transformation by using to transform the commemorative space and military space left by the Japanese into a place infiltrating the party-oriented ideology such as Chiang Kai-shek’s worship,Sun Yat-sen’s worship,and the Kuomintang’s anti-Japanese war achievements.The urban planning of New China aims to build Hongkou into a socialist space.Therefore,it has promoted the construction of residential and sports venues,commercial subdivisions,the North Bund,and space management with an emphasis on clean body and mind,improving the status of the proletariat,training the body and mind of the people,and showing an international City image.At the same time,under the view of modernization,Hongkou Space completes the reconstruction with the change of historical connotation from protecting the revolutionary ruins,constructing Lu Xun Park,digging up the red memory,to protecting the excellent modern historical buildings,and discovering the roots of urban culture.The transformation and reconstruction of Shanghai’s "Japanese Concession" also affected the reconstruction of memory.In the early post-war period,in the memory of the War of Resistance Against Japan advocated by the Kuomintang,the Shanghai "Japanese Concession" recalled by those who had experienced it was related to the defeat of the Japanese army,to set off the Kuomintang’s achievements in the War.In the early days of the founding of New China,those who were affected by the revolutionary patriotic discourse recalled that Shanghai ’s “Japanese Concession” not only conveyed the power of the Japanese army,but also concealed the revolutionary struggle and patriotic spirit.On the anti-imperialist and patriotic level,Hongkou was a true Japanese concession.The witness experienced the forgetting of memory in their experrison.But nationalism has always been the background of the "Japanese Concession" memories.Since the reform and opening up,due to the change of Shanghai’s urban positioning and the need to construct a new era of identity,people found the prosperity of old Shanghai in the literary imagination of Shanghai’s "Japanese Concession",or played down the political color and colonial memory,or will show assassination which represents power struggle as another aspect of the concession civilization,making Shanghai’s "Japanese Concession" into the collective memory of modern Shanghai and nationalism.The "Japanese Concession" in Shanghai maintains collective memory and promotes collective identification.Its spatial history and memory changes reflect the manipulation of space by political power and the influence exerted on social memory by the manipulation of space.It also reflects the role of spatial experience and discourse of the times in the construction of spatial memory.