Narrative space of former residences in old Beijing city amidst societal transformation
International Journal of Tourism Cities
ISSN: 2056-5607
Article publication date: 17 December 2019
Issue publication date: 9 June 2020
Abstract
Purpose
The former residences of historical figures are typical landscape elements of historic districts, which are characterised by the styles of these residences and spiritual historical figures cultures. The purpose of this paper is to determine how the former residences respond once the historical figures living there have passed.
Design/methodology/approach
The history of human culture and progression of urban construction – which are submerged in societal transformation – is recorded for old Beijing city. Narrative space theory is used and methods such as a content analysis, map overlay and the Geographic Information System are employed to analyse the selected 300 former residences of historical figures in old Beijing city.
Findings
The results are as follows: the political setting played a key role in the evolution process, three political narrative areas in the inner city and one cultural narrative area in the outer city form the narrative spatial structure of the former residences of historical figures, “government construction” and “resident construction” are the main reasons for the loss and destruction of narrative spaces and ordinary life is an important channel for showcasing the history of former residences. The narrative spaces of these residences carry double histories, namely, the development of human history and of city construction.
Originality/value
Different from former studies that focus on the preservation of the single historical building, this study explores the integral logic of historic buildings in the whole city through narrative space theory to get a combination of culture and space.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation Project of China (Grant No. 51778005) and by the Sino–German Center (NSFC and DFG, Grant No. GZ1201).
Citation
Wang, F., Lin, S., Liu, X., Jiang, C. and Li, J. (2020), "Narrative space of former residences in old Beijing city amidst societal transformation", International Journal of Tourism Cities, Vol. 6 No. 2, pp. 297-316. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJTC-02-2019-0035
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, International Tourism Studies Association