Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-wzw2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-02T20:46:14.043Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

From racecourse to People's Park and People's Square: historical transformation and symbolic significance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

XIONG YUEZHI
XIONG YUEZHI*
Affiliation:
Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, 7/622 Huaihai Zhonglu, Shanghai 200020, China
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Horse racing ended in Shanghai in 1945, but the public continued for a long time to make its opinion heard on the prohibition of horse racing and on the changing function of the racecourse. In 1951, the dust settled, and the racecourse became People's Park and People's Square. This article describes the ever changing symbolic significance of the racecourse that has played out against a backdrop of changing racecourse functions and varying intellectual currents. Initially, it was a relatively simple place of leisure. It later became a gambling arena where people were cheated of their money and sometimes murdered, a place where Chinese suffered discrimination, and a stage on which imperialism flaunted its military might. It had, in short, become a diabolic symbol of a multitude of evils. The call to change the racecourse merged powerfully with the struggle to oppose imperialism, regain the settlement and struggle towards civilization and democracy. In spite of changes in the ruling party and the replacement of one regime by another, a remarkable ideological and intellectual continuity persisted from the 1930s to the 1950s.

Type
Research Article
Information
Urban History , Volume 38 , Special Issue 3: China's urban turn , December 2011 , pp. 475 - 490
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 ‘Shanghai's future’, Xin zhonghua zazhishe (1934), 72–3.

2 Ibid., 66.

3 Studies on the Shanghai Racecourse include: Baorun, Xu, ‘A summary of the seizure of Chinese land by the racecourse’, in Real Estate Dealings in Old Shanghai (Shanghai, 1990)Google Scholar; Zeqing, Cheng, ‘Various evils done in the name of racing horses’, in Library of 20th Century Shanghai Historical Materials, vol. X (Shanghai, 1999), 358–65Google Scholar; Shao Jian, ‘The race track and modern Shanghai society’, unpublished Shanghai Academy of Social Science, Institute of History, MA thesis, 2003; Yuqiong, Bai, ‘From racecourse to People's Square: The arduous struggle for Shanghai's public spaces’, Shanghai Artist, 3 (2005)Google Scholar. The above studies deal with such aspects as horse racing and gambling, horse racing and society, and the spatial significance of the racecourse. Ning's, Zhang ‘From racecourse to People's Square: the movement to regain possession of the Shanghai Racecourse’, Academia Sinica Bulletin of the Institute of Modern History, 48 (2005), 97–136Google Scholar, makes uses of abundant archival materials in an in-depth study of changes in and the recovery of the racecourse and of its evolution into People's Square. Regarding the three racecourse rental locations and the area of the racecourse, the article ‘Relocations of the racecourse’, in Shanghai Real Estate Record, organizes the information in such materials as Shanghai dao qi and Beihua jiebao to present a clear picture of events. See Shanghai Real Estate Record Compiling Committee, Shanghai Real Estate Record (Shanghai, 1999), 505–9.

4 Based on Shanghai Real Estate Record, 505.

5 Based on ibid., 506.

6 ‘Report of the Shanghai People's Government External Affairs Office and Land Administration Bureau on the plan to recover the Shanghai Racecourse and steps taken to that end’, cited in ‘Selected historical materials on the 1951 recovery of the Shanghai Racecourse’, Archives and History, 2 (2001), 24.

7 Tao, Wang, Seaside Jottings (Shanghai, 1989), 121–2Google Scholar.

8 Yuanxu, Ge, A Miscellany of Shanghai Travels (Shanghai, 1989), 9Google Scholar.

9 Shen bao, 5 May 1875.

10 Cheng Zeqing, ‘Various evils done in the name of racing horses’, Library of 20th Century Shanghai Historical Materials, vol. X, 363.

11 ‘Regulations of the Shanghai Municipal Police, printed in 1903’, in Records of the Shanghai Settlement (Shanghai, 2001), 703.

12 ‘Humiliation: the racetrack again displays evil prohibition’, Fengming Wireless News Weekly, 3 (1946).

13 Wasserstrom, Jeffrey and Bickers, Robert, ‘Shanghai's dogs and Chinese not admitted sign: legend, history and contemporary symbol’, China Quarterly, 142 (1995), 444–6Google Scholar.

14 Ling, Ke, ‘The spectacle’, in The Collected Writings of Ke Ling (Hong Kong, 1985)Google Scholar.

15 The central squares of European cities generally also performed market transactions and folk performance functions, which the racecourse lacked.

16 ‘Shanghai social phenomena – the horse racing exuberance of western merchants residing in Shanghai’, Tuhua ribao (Pictorial Daily), 2 (16 Aug. 1909), 331.

17 Zhenduo, Zheng, ‘The problem of Shanghai's parks’, Wenxue zhoubao (Literary Weekly), 4 (1927)Google Scholar; Moyan, Ni (ed.), Mingren Bixia de Lao Shanghai (Old Shanghai in the Writings of Famous People) (Beijing, 1999), 129Google Scholar.

18 ‘A tussle over the flag’, Tai shan, 1 (1946), 2.

19 Bao, Shen (ed.), Shen bao Handbook for Shanghai Citizens, 2nd edn, Literature, A4 (Shanghai, 1946)Google Scholar.

20 ‘Racecourse to become park in order to commemorate President Roosevelt’, Haifeng, 23 (1946), 23.

21 Ibid.

22 Yun, Yue, ‘A new opinion offered on rebuilding the racecourse as a park’, Shizheng pinglun (Journal of Municipal Government), 8 (1946), 8Google Scholar.

23 ‘Motion requesting the purchase of real estate along the streets around the racecourse and the invitation of bids for the construction of housing there in order to alleviate the housing shortage and the conversion of the central field into a stadium for the physical exercise of city residents’ (Motion No. 267) (Shanghai Municipal Archives, Q109-1-1997).

24 ‘Resolution requesting that the municipal government recover the racecourse and divide and develop it into a park and an athletic field’ (Motion no. 246) (Shanghai Municipal Archives, Q109-1-1997).

25 Morris, Andrew, Marrow of the Nation: A History of Sport and Physical Culture in Republican China (Berkeley, 2004)Google Scholar.

26 Yue, ‘A new opinion offered on rebuilding the racecourse as a park’.

27 ‘City residents vote against horse racing’, Shen bao, 14 Sep. 1946, cited in Zhang, ‘From racecourse to People's Square: the movement to regain possession of the Shanghai Racecourse’, 110.

28 Ibid., 109.

29 ‘(Submitted by the mayor for discussion) Is it feasible to restore horse racing and thereby raise funds to subsidize charitable undertakings and provide the funds needed to purchase the racecourse site?: submitted to the Council for joint decision’ (Jiao-Zi No. 1) (Shanghai Municipal Archives, Q109-1-1034).

30 ‘Document from the Shanghai City Council requesting that the municipal government conduct negotiations to recover possession of the racecourse’ (Shanghai Municipal Archives, Q109-01-00768).