Each of the last two lectures and readings, gave new insight for educators on our approach to using the concepts of East Asian urbanization within our classrooms.  If we use the constructs of context, culture and climate, many of the ideas such as informalities, socioeconomic inequities and environmental impact can be adapted for most topics.  I agree that it is important that we introduce these concepts to our students to prepare them to become global citizens with a broad multi-perspective approach to the challenges of urban development. 

One question I have - what are the ecological benefits and drawbacks of urban tourism?  As we have seen in East Asian cities, it is important to preserve the traditional spaces and cultural interactions, as well as the traditions that migrating workers bring with them when settling in cities.  Urban economies -jobs, renovations, moderization - are also dependant on both domestic and foreign tourism.  Are there any studies that show that limiting tourism, or promoting rural eco-tourism packages are more or less beneficial?  One the one hand many urban poor may depend of benefits of tourism, but on the other hand, do the environmental drawbacks, including CO2 emissions from transportation, outweigh the postive aspects? 

Thank you, Professor Bharne. 

Hi Candace, your question about how travel benefits and harms the world is so important. Airplanes, as currently designed, are incredibly fossil-fuel intensive, and yet, the lack of travel and exposure to and experience of other frameworks for interacting, making decisions, planning urban and other environments, valuing or not valuing particular groups of people, plants, and animals can also be so harmful in terms of long-term policy decisions that impact global warming. At the same time, traveling has impacts on the ability to sustain indigenous traditions, creating a whole other set of social, political, cultural, and environmental pressures. I'm curious, too, if there are groups attempting to measure these impacts.

  I am interested in the cultural implications of the persistence/acceptance of the informal and oftentimes illegal commercial and social/community networks in the East Asian cities (as described by Hou).  I wonder how the historical patterns of urbanization and informal trade have contributed to the persistence of the dynamism of the "soft city".  While Hou states that this phenomenon is not unique to East Asia, it does seem to me that there is something unique about East Asian cities, in terms of the dynamism of the street life- the "organized disorder" that permeates most urban areas.  Sadly it seems that in China at least, the government has been clamping down on the informal networks of vendors and destroying the temporary structures inhabited by migrants, artists, etc.   The perfectly designed, symmetrical multistory megamalls in these cities just feel sterile compared to the spontaneous flow of people and goods in the "in-between" spaces that Professor Bharne discusses so eloquently.  I wonder if these megamalls and the government support of large scale projects in addition to omnipresent surveillance technologies are further diminishing the informal community of vendors and urban migrants/workers.

During the last readings and lectures, I was reminded of a course I took last summer about life on the Tokaido Road in Japan. Starting from the Nihonbashi Bridge, which is considered the source of the Gokaido, Japan's five main roadways during the Edo period, we studied the culture and commerce that rose up around Nihonbashi Bridge and the 53 stations of the Tokaido from Edo to Kyoto. A statement from Prof. Bharne regarding the difference in the way cities were depicted in the art of different cultures stuck with me from a past lecture. In the West, more focus was paid to the city's buildings and infrastructure, while in many non-Western countries, the focus was on the life of the city's inhabitants.

Hiroshige created a series of woodblock prints The 53 Stations of the Tokaido that depicted the multitude of travelers you might find journeying to different destinations for a myriad of reasons along the Tokaido, along with the inns, eateries, tea houses, etc., that sprung up at each station in response to the influx of people. I find his first print, Nihonbashi, fascinating in that the river made the whole city of Edo possible, yet it didn’t command attention, as if the river itself was secondary to the crowds, boats, and general bustle of commerce and city life. I can almost imagine stopping at the apex of the bridge to look out over the river, all the chaos around me becoming a blur. A highway was built above the bridge in preparation for the 1964 Olympics and destroyed the view from the bridge. The city of Tokyo had plans to move the the highway underground in order to return the clear sky to the cultural landmark, but I have not found news that they have proceeded with the project. 

As expressed in Prof. Bharne's final lecture, "The true heritage of a city is the patterns of people." The bustling crowds around the Nihonbashi Bridge in Edo, the street musicians at Yoyogi Park in Tokyo, the early morning dancers in Shangai, China, the vendors catering to Filipino diaspora in Little Manila in Seoul all make contributions to sustaining the vibrant cultural life of their respective cities. The continuation of these subcultures seems attributable to informal negotiations between these marginal groups and officials. 

In class you mentioned how many of the tourist places that people like to travel to often become preserved and are labeled with the "World Heritage" label, and then the authenticity of the cities kind of goes away.  You also mentioned cities like Florence, where this has happened before.  I remember traveling through Italy, and in particular in Florence, my friends and I walked through an outdoor market, and I was very disappointed because many of the items that were being sold were things that were clearly manufactured (like t shirts and bags that were clearly made in factories).  I wanted to find places that were owned by families or smaller businesses in town to find things that were more authentic to the culture of the city I was in.  I have never traveled to any Asian countries, but the idea that there are places that still have this authenticity to them is inspiring and I want to travel to these places more than before to be able to experience the actual authentic culture of the area.

The patterns of heritage lecture in Dr. Bharne’s second video was a fascinating perspective that shows how much culture can be found beyond architectural design. Public hawker centers sell for such low prices and they make a profit because of the large volumes that are sold. This is ironic as some of the hawker centers are within cities that cost a lot of money to live in. I feel this is representative of the vertical urbanism and horizontal urbanity symbolism. The hawker centers are so rich in culture and there is some concern as to whether or not hawker centers will last. Many people who run these hawker centers are of older generations and younger generations may not want to take on this type of work and want to live in bigger cities. Some of these centers have become travel destinations for tourists. I wonder what can be done to preserve these centers in various cities. I will be sure to bring this discussion up with my students when we go over Human Impact on the environment. What are some things we can do to not only preserve the environment but also the culture within? Should we prioritize one over the other?

In class, we talked about the uniqueness of street vendors and how it is a way of preserving culture. Dr. Bharne mentioned that some of the street vendors sell recipes that may be centuries old because it was passed down from their families. These recipes have had less opportunity to be changed by modernism. Dr. Bharne also mentioned that there are joint partnerships that prevent gentrification in certain areas. I wish we could see more of this within cities to preserve the heritage. We also talked about the environmental ramifications of cityscapes and street vendors, and how to make them more environmentally sound. My students complete a final project on the ecological effects of a lake, Lake Grace. We talk about the effects coming from designing new buildings and farms. Students are often unsure about how these actions can affect the environment and the lake. Students assume that just because large buildings are introduced into the area, there is an increase in the human population. Dr. Bharne explained that this is not the case. I will be sure to bring this perspective to my students when we are approaching this unit.