Arnold, D., 2014.

Building urban modernity: The British concession in Tianjin, 1860-2013

Tianjin, China, following in the footsteps of Beijing and Shanghai, is undergoing rapid urban development. The skyscrapers currently under construction form part of a longer-term plan to establish the city as a centre of the financial and trading industries. But in contrast to other cities in China that have and are being transformed, recent narratives ofTianjin emphasise not only the city's international urban identity but also distinguish the architecture and public spaces dating from its origins in the nineteenth century, and therefore of 'foreign' design, as being significant. These spaces present an international pedigree ofTianjin as they were designed for the numerous foreign concessions that occupied the city from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. The current strategy for the urban development ofTianjin combines the renewal of these 'foreign' spaces with the desire to promote its modern identity as a world city. The aesthetic of the historic European architecture finds a reprise in the new urban topography. This new urban visual culture is indexical ofTianjin as a global city and operates as a sort of economic and symbolic capital whereby the process of transculturation comes to the fore.