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CHAIRPERSON

Dr Minna Valjakka, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

ABSTRACT

Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork, this paper follows a group of Shanghai residents petitioning for the preservation of their historical neighborhood. The paper explores the role of storytelling in their protests. Mixing personal experiences, historical facts, with urban legends, the residents tell stories of a cosmopolitan neighborhood shaped by its colonial past. In their stories, each building forms the connection point between their own life story and the history of the city and the nation. In the words of one of its residents: “All the houses in our neighborhood serve as evidence that recorded the development of Shanghai… together they tell the story of how Shanghai has become the Shanghai of today.” The paper will argue that these oral histories function as a means to build community and create a sense of agency for those confronted with forced eviction. Furthermore, it will trace the historical accuracy of these stories to analyze how the residents strategically use the city’s Treaty Port history in their petitions for the neighborhood to be recognized as cultural heritage.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Lena Scheen is Assistant Professor of Global China Studies at NYU Shanghai, and Global Network Assistant Professor at NYU. Scheen’s research explores the social and cultural impact of China’s fast urbanisation, focusing on Shanghai and storytelling. Her publications include the monograph Shanghai Literary Imaginings: A City in Transformation (AUP, 2015) and the edited volumes Spectacle and the City: Chinese Urbanities in Popular Art and Culture (with Jeroen de Kloet) and Boredom, Shanzhai, and Digitization in the Time of Creative China (with Jeroen de Kloet and Yiu Fai Chow). She is currently working on her new manuscript Shanghai Storytelling: City Myths, Historical Memory, and Place Attachment.

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