The soul of an urban village : the street market of Baishizhou village in the city of Shenzhen, China

Abstract

Traditional market places are seldom obviously significant from the historic-value and aesthetic-value points of view, and therefore they are often not deemed to be worthy of conservation. Yet they are popular and people often raise objection to their demolition. While there exist research literatures on street markets, they tend to focus the historic buildings and structures found in the market – in other words, the emphasis is on the historic and aesthetic values, with little thought on the more important social value that is related to the people and the intangible cultural heritage elements. In addition, although there is a wealth of relevant literature about the famous urban village of Baishizhou in Shenzhen, there is little research on the even more famous street market within the village, thereby demonstrating a research gap that this research serves to fill. The objective of this research is to find out why the street market of Baishizhou Village is so loved by the people despite being nameless and hidden in the village, with the bigger objective of deriving understanding of why street markets, despite being under-appreciated, are so beloved by the people. The focus of this dissertation is on the street market in the heart of the modern city of Shenzhen. This street market is located within Baishizhou, an urban village that is gradually succumbing to urban development pressure, and being gradually demolished to free up the land for redevelopment. The village itself is not the object of public affection, but the street market within seems to be the very thing that creates the collective memory and emotional attachment to the village. The scope of the research is therefore to discover what makes this street market so memorable and well loved. It is hoped that through the findings of this research, recommendations can be made to sustain similar street markets in China.