Perception of space and the evolution of the Chinese psyche

Author: Paweł Zygadło | Pages: 89-102

Abstract

This paper is intended as an investigation of the conceptualisation of space in the Chinese context. It takes the Kantian “form of sensibility” as a basic framework for the analysis of the specific linguistic and spatial representation of space. Through this investigation, it tries to establish how this accumulated perception emerged and in what relationship it remains with physical and imagined space. In conclusion, it will argue that despite numerous changes and adaptations, core perception remains relatively intact and as such, determines the uniqueness of Chinese psyche and its relation with the spatiality.

References

Bray, D. (2005): Social Space and Governance in Urban China: the Danwei System from Origins to Reform. Stanford: Stanford University.

Chang, K. C. (1983): Art, Myth and Ritual: The Path to Political Authority in Ancient China. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Deng, F. (2017): ‘Gated community and residential segregation in urban China’, GeoJournal, 82, pp. 231–246.

Dirlik, A. (2006): ‘Timespace, Social Space, and the Question of Chinese Culture’. Monumenta Serica, 54 (1), pp. 417-433.

Duan, C.J., Huang, Y.P., and Zhang, X. (2014): ‘Particularities and Interpretations of Gated Communities in China’. Theme Documents: China City Planning Review, 23 (3), pp. 30-40.

Hofstede, G. (2001): Culture’s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions, and Organisations, Thousand Oaks CA: Sage.

Janiak, A. (2016): Kant’s Views on Space and Time, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, (First published 2009) https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-spacetime/

Lefevbre, H. (1991): The Production of Space, Trans. from the French by Donald Nicholson-Smith, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Liao, K.H., Wehrhahn, R. and Breitung, W. (2019): ‘Urban Planners and the Production of Gated Communities in China: A Structure–agency Approach’. Urban Studies, 56 (13), 2019, pp. 2635–2653.

Lu, T.T., Zhang, F.Z. and Wu, F.L. (2020): ‘The Variegated Role of the State in Different Gated Neighbourhoods in China’. Urban Studies, 57 (8), pp. 1642–1659.

Pye, L.W. (1992): Spirit of Chinese Politics, New edition, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Xiao, J. and Qu, S.W. (2020): ‘Everybody’s Donghu: Artistic Resistance and the Reclaiming of Public Space in China’. Space and Culture, pp. 1–15.

Xu, Y.N. (2000): The Chinese City in Space and Time: The Development of Urban Form in Suzhou. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

Yang H.P. (2016): ‘A Study on the Underlying Mechanism of the Emergence of Gated Communities in Urban China’. Theme Documents: China City Planning Review, 25 (4), pp. 20-26.