From imperial gardens to public parks - The transformation of urban space in early twentieth-century Beijing

This article joins the debate over the issues of the state-society relationship and the public sphere by examining the transformation of imperial, private and restricted urban space into areas that were civilian, open and available for public use in China's capital - Beijing - early in the twentieth century. The article deals with the public sphere in its spatial and physical form (i.e., public spaces). Instead of assuming that the transformation of public space sprang from local elite activism, it investigates the roles of both the state and society in the transformation. Specifically, it argues that political and social hierarchies of imperial China influenced both the concept and organization of space in imperial Beijing. The late Qing and early republican reforms transformed urban space, and the interplay of both official and private forces - the municipal government and local gentry and merchants - shaped the outcome of the public park movement in Beijing. Finally, the parks created in Chinese cities during the early twentieth century made an important impact on the political, economic and social life of the city people and on the emergence of a modern urban culture.