In urban research, modern cities, like other types of cities, should be a concept with clear boundaries. In fact, the modern urban lifestyle is obviously different from other urban lifestyles. However, in reality, all this is vague and chaotic, especially in many related narratives, the city has not entered a new stage every day. However, through observation and analysis, we can still see the uniqueness of dynamic modern urban life. Modern city is a multicultural mixture under the background of globalization, and its lifestyle presents the distinctive characteristics of global multicultural blending; This kind of mixing is actually a brand-new urban cultural construction, and some characteristics of its lifestyle are based on different interdependent aspects of the same thing in this construction. Of course, other urban landscapes also meet these characteristics.
In many ways, the essence of post-modern urban planning is actually the return to medieval cities and modern cities. Of course, it is not necessarily simple repetition or imitation, but they are consistent in structure and form. For example, it rejected urban functional zoning and tried to create a comprehensive multi-functional environment, which is in line with the practice of medieval cities adapting to natural conditions, and is quite similar to the idea of urban diversity put forward by American urban scholar Jane Jacobs in the 1960s. It can be said that post-modern urban planning is completely vague, or it is beyond the boundaries of time and culture. The concept of city is complicated. Therefore, in order to describe modern cities, we must first clarify some important concepts about cities, including the concepts of modern cities and post-modern cities in today's urban theory, and even the differences between cities and ordinary cities.
Under the background of industrial revolution and enlightenment, the city and the whole society have undergone drastic changes together. With the rapid growth of population and the improvement of understanding of the city, as well as the increasingly fine social division of labor and the increasing dependence between people, the rational urban concept and strength, that is, attaching importance to the use of science and technology and capital, emphasizing planning and moral examination of the environment, dominate the urban development in the transition period. Modern cities were born. In other words, a modern city is a new stage of urban development today, which is based on rational planning, emphasizing moral strength, highly developed science and technology, and organic dependence on internal factors, and establishing various operating rules and organizations to meet various social needs.
In the real development, the emergence of modern cities is a revolutionary event and a product of social change. As david harvey said: "Unless the factors that cause change have long been lurking in the existing conditions of social order, social order cannot be changed ... If modernity is a meaningful word, it must show a critical moment of creative destruction." /kloc-The transformation of modernity in Paris in the middle of 0/9th century is such a vivid "critical moment". In the process of transformation, all modern cities in the world have experienced this profound moment of change in different forms, involving society, politics, economy, culture, science and technology, urban material structure, citizen life and many other fields.
So far, the post-modern city is only a planning view. Postmodernism is not a systematic theory. As a planning viewpoint or idea, postmodern city is characterized by popularity, accessibility, heterogeneity, fragmentation, mixing and randomness, which embodies the characteristics of postmodern culture, such as uncertainty, disorder, expressiveness and irony. Therefore, it has the characteristics of rebelling against rationality, diversifying values and attaching importance to historical context in planning. Beyond space is a "much bigger eclecticism", which opposes planning, emphasizes flexibility and embodies humanism that emphasizes emotion rather than logic. It can be said that it is indeed a hodgepodge.
At present, the general description of human settlement environment and people's daily use, the concepts of city and metropolis are often vague. However, in a rigorous narrative, the concepts of city and metropolis must be clear. For example, if "new urbanism" is often discussed as an urban theory, does it mean that it is different from the "new urbanism" design movement that appeared in the early 1980 s to solve the urban problems caused by the disorderly spread of suburbs? The movement replaces the development of suburbs with the reconstruction of old urban areas, encourages walking, and strives to shape a compact community with urban living atmosphere. Generally speaking, a city refers to all large-scale permanent human settlements with high population density. A city contains the elements of "capital" and refers to the capital, provincial capital or "big city" as a political, economic and cultural center. In contemporary times, it should also have the meaning of internationalization. Of course, both "city" and "metropolis" are based on the definition of sociology: "the permanent settlement of heterogeneous individuals with large scale and dense population"
Modern city is the application of this sociological definition in the background of urban development since the industrial revolution and the Enlightenment, and it refers to the modernity of specific content corresponding to this historical process. Obviously, it contains various elements of a modern city, including reasonable space, scientific planning and so on, such as the most influential city in the world we see at present, or the "modern international city" in our current field of vision.
City life is very different, and different types of cities in different times have their own characteristics. This paper tries to sum up some important features of modern city life style by reading and observing a lot of modern city life. These characteristics are historical and inevitable.
-1- Pluralistic polymerization of globalization trend
In the early 1920s, American poet ezra pound and his wife came to Paris from London where he had lived for 20 years. He said that he had had enough of rain, fog and humidity on the other side of the strait. After arriving in Paris, Pound settled down in Notre Dame Street in panas, and set up his own studio, where he began his new literary journey. He also invited Hemingway, also from America, to his studio for tea. In fact, before this, Paris has become the dream of many people. At the end of 18 and the beginning of 19, many Americans poured into the city, forming the first wave of integration into Paris life. Among them are scientists, politicians, financiers, sculptors, painters, novelists, poets, journalists, magazine editors, publishers, booksellers and so on. And the largest number of ordinary citizens who work for money.
Just as people from all over the world have been pouring into modern cities such as Paris, London and new york for more than a hundred years, and even different ethnic communities have been formed in these cities (such as Brooklyn, Bronx, early Irish, Jewish and Italian communities in Queens, new york, and now multi-ethnic communities of Russians, South Americans and South Asians), China people have also traveled all over the continents, forming a famous Chinatown in the local area, or Chinatown not called Chinatown. The development of modern cities attracts people of different nationalities all over the world, and quite a few of them or even more people do not live in their own ethnic areas, but are scattered in various districts of the city. These immigrants living in residential areas or all parts of the city, together with early citizens and other ethnic groups, constitute a new landscape of modern urban anthropology. This is an inevitable trend. In today's shrinking and more open world, this situation is more and more. Under the background of accelerating globalization, Sydney, Melbourne, San Francisco, Vancouver, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore and even Bangalore and Shanghai all show the same trend.
This situation will certainly continue to affect and change modern urban life. Make the daily life of the city show a trend of globalization, in which you have me and I have you. This mixed state finally forms the characteristics of cultural mixing as a modern urban lifestyle.
Worth, a famous American urbanist, defines a city from the perspective of sociology, and his key word is "heterogeneity". Cities are places where heterogeneous individuals permanently settle down. This definition is undoubtedly very accurate. Of course, Voss also has the definitions of scale and population density, but heterogeneity is obviously the core basis for judging the difference between urban society and rural society. The so-called heterogeneity and in-depth understanding here refers to the changes and differences of different types of people and their complex structures in the urban environment. This determines that cities have what we usually call different degrees of inclusiveness-recognizing differences between individuals or organizations. However, "heterogeneity" is only a general feature that applies to all cities. As a basic feature, it exists in all the places we judge as cities, whether it is big cities or small cities, whether it is ancient cities or emerging cities. But in reality, "heterogeneity" is not enough to summarize the essence of modern urban lifestyle, nor to clarify the difference between modern cities and ordinary cities. The multicultural integration of the globalization trend is precisely the performance characteristic that modern cities can judge in essence. The "heterogeneity" of modern cities not only refers to "heterogeneous individuals", but also refers to "heterogeneous cultures" of different groups around the world, which have become a "new quality" through the birth and aggregation of * * *.
As a feature of modern city life, global multicultural blending is a normal state, which can be seen everywhere. Many years ago, I happened to see a relaxed long-distance running activity organized by a Chinese community in Chinatown in Montreal, Canada. Participants included China, Europeans and Americans, other Asians and people of all colors. Very lively. Long-distance runners cross the Chinese archway with red walls and green tiles from running all the way in Saint Laurent Street. There were many people watching and cheering along the way. There are various shops on both sides of the street, and signs in Chinese, English and French are hung. In China, people beat gongs, drums and lions. Lion dancers are mainly Chinese, including people of all ethnic groups. Wearing short-sleeved red T-shirts, they look like a grand international party. This multicultural landscape is really common here. Cultural blending permeates every aspect of daily life, and naturally there are many vivid and interesting scenes from the outside to the inside.
San Francisco, USA, is another mixed place on a larger scale. It has a population of more than 7 million, immigrants from more than 100 countries in the world, and uses nearly 100 languages, so it is called a small "United Nations". In the total population, non-Latino whites account for about 42%, Asians account for about 33.3%, Latinos account for about 15%, and Africans account for about 6%, including nearly 500,000 overseas Chinese from China (including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan), Singapore, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam and Malaysia. People here * * * enjoy each other's culture * * * and establish the same life. Festivals are the most vivid and intuitive witness: at the beginning of each year, people will greet the Spring Festival in China, set off firecrackers and fireworks, put up Spring Festival couplets, hold the Miss Chinatown election and hold a dragon lantern parade; Celebrate St. Patek's Day with a parade of wine and flags in March; In April, people celebrate Easter with exquisite and beautiful eggs symbolizing good wishes and share the joy of seasonal changes. In the same month, the Cherry Blossom Festival was celebrated with music, tea ceremony, Taigu performance and Miss Cherry Blossom election. In May, Sinkma's friends commemorated Mexico's victory over the French in 1862, and the climax of the celebration was the coronation of the festival queen in the civic center. There is American Independence Day in July, San Francisco Expo in September, Halloween in 65438+ 10, Thanksgiving in10/0, and Christmas in 65438+2 ... This is really a mixture of global life, and the whole life is the harmony and epitome of global life.
-2- Fusion and Distance
The multicultural blending of modern cities is not a simple mechanical addition of cultures of all countries in the world, nor a simple mechanical patchwork of different lifestyles around the world, nor is it a cultural annexation or cancellation of another culture. In essence, this is a cultural fusion. Construct and form a brand-new and unique modern urban culture in the process of integration and interaction.
One of the most important references to illustrate this integration is the cross-racial and cross-cultural family. As the basic unit of a city, family is the basis and important aspect of life style, and it is also an important condition for the integration of culture in content and form. From this point of view, major cities in Europe and America seem to have started international cultural integration very early, and urban life here seems to have always been interlinked. In these cities, cross-racial and cross-cultural families are very common. In a family, it is very common that the father is English or French and the mother is Irish or Italian. On this basis, lifestyles are also mixed and there is a process of integration. But the so-called integration of European and American cities in the early days is actually only the regional cultural integration within European culture. People who crossed the ocean with great geographical discoveries, whether in the early American New World or in the later southern hemisphere Australia, are mostly "overseas relatives" of Europeans who belong to the same European culture (Anglo-Saxon Protestant culture). Every immigrant from the New World can find his hometown in distant Europe, so when a large number of American social elites came to Europe across the Atlantic at the end of 18 and the beginning of 2009, it was actually a journey of cultural roots. Similarly, countless Europeans can find their distant relatives in the New World. In fact, only under the background of accelerating globalization or internationalization, and under the condition of basically eliminating racial discrimination, the real global or international cultural integration of modern cities will begin. In modern cities around the world today, we can see the rapid increase of cross-racial and cross-cultural families. According to reports, data analysis shows that since the beginning of 2 1 century, the population of multi-ethnic origin in the United States has greatly increased, cross-cultural and inter-racial marriages have become more and more common, and people have become more tolerant and welcome to cultural and ethnic differences. Thanksgiving is coming. A Thai and China family in San Francisco is busy entertaining relatives and friends. They cook fried turkey and other delicious food. Guests of different nationalities also bring their own cooking skills. A grand family gathering began in such a strange and interesting way. At present, the proportion of interracial marriages among newly married couples in the United States has exceeded 15%, and the proportion is even higher in many European cities. In major cities around the world, the number of such families is increasing rapidly. Compared with other cities in mainland Chinese mainland, Guangzhou is a bit unique. In modern times, almost all Guangzhou people have relatives in Europe, America, Southeast Asia and Australia, and cross-ethnic and cross-cultural families are no strangers to them. However, there is not much migration between provinces in China. But great changes have taken place in recent years. Geographically, the inter-provincial migration of urban population in China is similar to the international migration of urban population in Europe. Related reports show that with the process of reform and opening up and urban modernization, China people's "long-distance love" and even transnational marriage have become very common, and China people's "marriage radius" has been greatly expanded. China people have joined the process of multicultural integration in modern cities to a great extent.
Cross-ethnic and cross-cultural families are only one aspect of multicultural integration in modern cities. On this important condition and basis, integration is all-round. This includes all aspects of family life, leisure, consumption, daily work and social interaction, as well as values, morality and aesthetics in the field of spiritual life. Fully absorbing the organic integration of various ethnic groups and cultural elements will bring about the renewal of all these aspects, and at the same time, integration will promote the presentation of global or international consciousness in the concept of urban time and space.
However, the integration of affinity corresponds to the sense of distance between individuals in urban daily life. This is determined by the freedom of modern urban life and the heterogeneity of individuals. Fusion and sense of distance are two aspects of the same thing that are interdependent and correspond to each other. In a pluralistic and integrated lifestyle, keeping a necessary distance between individuals is a kind of cultural respect and respect for freedom.
In this regard, we often hear some criticisms of cities, especially modern cities, which refer to people's indifference, alienation, loneliness and lack of care. This, of course, tells the reality of some observation in the city. But in most cases, this judgment usually includes the misunderstanding or misinterpretation of modern cities and urbanites by traditional rural society and its concepts. The life scope of traditional rural society is basically a narrow "family circle", and the affairs of one member are often the affairs of the whole "society", which is essentially different from the heterogeneity among individuals in cities-modern cities and the anonymity and inhumanity of interpersonal communication. The huge city and population scale and the fine social division of labor are doomed to the strange state between people and society in modern cities. A city is a gathering and communication of countless strangers. This has nothing to do with the emotional state of urbanites. The specific emotional distance between people does not depend on the city, but on the individual. On the contrary, the city is the most convenient place for interpersonal communication, and the city eliminates the physical distance between people to the greatest extent. This is a basic premise. On the basis of this premise, the blending of multi-cultures has gradually formed a free distance between urbanites based on tolerance and respect, and a sense of distance evolved from the progress of modern urban lifestyle, which is really an important symbol of a highly civilized city. Under this sign, modern urbanites are more tolerant and respect different lifestyles and habits, respect the privacy and freedom of others, are used to accepting different things and being ordinary with them, and do not particularly like to ask other people's affairs. The significance of the sense of distance also lies in revealing the self, making people reflect through some external sense of alienation and loss, and then discovering the hidden self in their hearts and gaining insight into the relationship between people and society.
If the sense of distance between individuals in modern cities is a defect, it is this defect that gives urbanites dignity, freedom and pleasure. With the civilization and progress of urban life, the functional distinction of individual living space becomes clearer and clearer. Private space is not easy for outsiders to enter. Various public spaces are common places for interpersonal communication. Some specific places derived from urban culture, such as bars, tea rooms, clubs and cafes, have become more and more complicated with the evolution of urban life. These things are the natural products of urban lifestyle, and they are also some alternative compensation for the sense of distance in the city.
London is recognized as a comprehensive modern city in the world, and many analysts call it a model of the most livable modern metropolis. There is no obvious boundary between modern cities and other cities, but there are significant similarities between modern cities, and London presents a typical landscape of these similarities.
The most important thing is diversity. This diversity is first manifested as a spiritual landscape, hidden in the depths of individuals and infiltrated between people. London has far surpassed the aforementioned cities such as Montreal and San Francisco in terms of the internationalization of the resident structure, the number of ethnic minority areas, and the types of religions and languages. The diversity of infrastructure determines the diversity of various fields of urban life and the spirit of tolerance, recognition, acceptance and integration of different things in the city. Weird and serious British humor helps to strengthen this spirit. There is no doubt that Londoners basically take it for granted that cities are rich and colorful. On this basis, we can see countless tangible landscapes. They are the entity of urban material life and spiritual life, and also the symbol of modern urban spirit. Standing in the east of Westminster and on the north bank of the Thames, the City of London has gathered hundreds of financial institutions from Britain and all over the world, including the world's largest gold market, international insurance market and many commercial institutions. People from all over the world are attracted here, so the rich and interesting life scenes brought by the international multi-ethnic pattern are constantly staged here. This is the foundation of life in London. Commercial trade and immigration are the key to the success of this city, and they are also the specific reasons for the complexity and diversity of urban life and the formation of London lifestyle. Of course, there are some things that are more directly related to the daily life of the city, such as Knightsbridge and Bond Street, which are fashionable consumption areas, and Oxford Street and Pei Ducote Lane, which are busy, noisy and full of business opportunities. Equally important and indispensable are the British Museum, the London Museum, the Museum of Natural History, the National Gallery and the Shakespeare Globe Theatre.
Huge high-speed commercial centers, concentrated and all-inclusive global life scenes, daily life blocks, convenient public facilities, ubiquitous museums ... All modern cities can always see essentially the same scenery regardless of their differences in history, personality and appearance. Among them, the museum is one of the most meaningful symbols. In fact, most modern cities have museums commensurate with their historical traditions and status. These museums are not things that are deliberately "built" when they suddenly think of needs. The historic British Museum has always been an indispensable symbol of London. The Louvre in Paris has added a huge glass pyramid to I.M. Pei, but what makes Paris proud is still the Louvre, a famous historical museum. These huge material carriers contain endless collections of human life and can be called the embodiment of modern cities.
To some extent, modern cities can be simply summarized by the word "diversity", and so can urban landscapes. Like an enlarged museum, it shows us all the accumulation of world history and the latest achievements of human life in an intuitive way. As urban scholars say, a modern city itself is a world museum.
(Written on Liuhua Lake)
Extended reading of the author's related narrative. ※
① Some of the author's pictures and texts included in the topic "City and Architecture" built on this platform mainly include "I am an urbanist", "City is our nature", "Urban Misunderstanding", "Baron Haussmann, david harvey —— Random Thoughts on Reading Paris City", "Street View and Architecture: Between Long Beach and Huifu Road" and so on. You can click on this topic to read it in detail.
(2) Backstreet: The City in the Diary Written by the Author, published by Guangzhou Sun Yat-sen University Press (1 Edition, September 20 15). Except for a few chapters, the rest of this book is based on the author's diaries and essays since 20 12.
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