Park and Urban Reform: Hankou Zhongshan Park in the Early 20~th Century

摘要

During the decade of 1928—1938, the metamorphosis of Hankou Zhongshan Park from a conventional private garden to a modern urban park, was rooted in the contexts of Hankou society and the Chinese Nationalist Revolution. In 1927, the first nation-state in modern China was established by Guomindang. It was a short but the only period of formal unification and relative stability in pre—1949 China. Despite the weakness of authority and the challenging environment, the decade of 1927—1937 saw remarkable developments in nation building, economic recovery and cultural development. In this milieu, new intellectuals and professionals took up progressive steps for urban reform. In Hankou, Liu Wendao, Dong Xiujia, Wu Guozhen, Wu guobing and other contemporary urban elites conceived and constructed Hankou Zhongshan Park as part of a cultural endeavor to seek a design for modern life, a life that involved the creation of the new citizen with a new idea of physical and mental health. In contrast to traditional private gardens, this new urban park opened free to all visitors, and offered amenities for both young and old from all sections of society. Hankou Zhongshan Park became one of the most explicit spatial manifestations of the body and the mind of a new citizen which constituted an important part of the ideals of the Republican Revolution.