The Transformation of Interpersonal Neighbour Relations at High Speed: The Changing Neighbourhood of Tianzifang in Downtown Shanghai
Neighbours Around the World: An International Look at the People Next Door
ISBN: 978-1-80043-370-0, eISBN: 978-1-83909-476-7
Publication date: 18 August 2022
Abstract
This chapter seeks to analyse neighbouring in times of rapid change in the Chinese metropolis of Shanghai. Using the local neighbourhood of Tianzifang as a case study, this chapter shows how the pace of change in Shanghai since the 1950s has reshaped the social fabric of the area, including traditional neighbour relations. As Tianzifang has shifted from an unknown neighbourhood comprised of traditional lilong dwellings, where social relations played out in private communal settings, to one of Shanghai’s most famous tourist spots, the relationships between residents, as well as with ‘outsiders’ and the familiar local environment, have also changed. Traditional neighbourly ties have been broken, rebuilt and transformed again through waves of new residents coming into the area and the displacement of others who can no longer afford to live there. For those who remain, the question of who is, and thus who is not, a ‘real’ neighbour has been narrowed to include only ‘insiders’ with a deep sense of belonging and connection to the area – i.e. the urban working class who have always lived in Tianzifang and own rather than rent their homes. Yet even this is no longer sufficient. The disruption that Tianzifang’s physical and social transformation has brought to residents’ lives has also imposed new social norms about how neighbours should behave in this new, intermediary space of public and private. ‘Real’ neighbours are those who conform to changing social norms while neighbours who breach them can be ostracised and excluded by others who once saw them as an insider.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratitude to Lynda Cheshire, the editor of this volume, for her patience and her very good advice. I also would like to thank the anonymous reviewer for his careful reading and stimulating remarks. At last, I would like to thank Prodig, Institut Convergence Migration and the CEFC for their financial support making my fieldwork possible over the years.
Citation
Padovani, F. (2022), "The Transformation of Interpersonal Neighbour Relations at High Speed: The Changing Neighbourhood of Tianzifang in Downtown Shanghai", Cheshire, L. (Ed.) Neighbours Around the World: An International Look at the People Next Door, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 55-71. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83909-476-720221004
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2022 Emerald Publishing Limited