Geographical review of Japan series B Vol. 90(2017) No. 1

The strength of the government is no match for the dramatic changes taking place each day in urban China. Government-led governance in cities faces new challenges in the process of modernization and urbanization. Each city is looking for new solutions to the bottleneck in the city’s sustainable development under conditions of limited resources and fierce regional competition. Life circle construction action has emerged gradually, expecting to alleviate problems through cooperation. However, the idea and practices of the life circle vary in different cities. Through reviews of the life circle theory and life circle system planning in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, we describe how the life circle works in different circumstances and identify that the conception of the life circle occurs in accordance with collaborative governance. The different levels of social capital show a different focus on the overall goal, construction process and the collaboration framework. This article discusses the reasons for these differences by comparing life circle construction activities in the three largest cities in China.

This paper shows how Bandung city has emerged as a “Creative (kreatif) City” by examining the cultural practices by urban young people and the rise of Bandung mayor Ridwan Kamil. Westernized urban young people in Bandung have been historically developed into or conceptualized as “creative” (kreatif). The term kreatif doesn’t have any specific definition but means anything new and different. Ridwan Kamil as an architect has shrewdly and successfully used the ambiguous concept of kreatif to become the Bandung mayor. Bandung has been the heart of popular culture in Indonesia since the 1970s. Many young people who enjoyed Western popular culture established the music magazine in the 70s and independent fashion outlets in the 90s. Creative industries have encompassed music and fashion industries since the mid-2000s. In 2008, Ridwan Kamil formed Bandung Creative City Forum in order to support such creative industries. As a result, youth cultural practices have been “creativised.” Ridwan Kamil made an effort to realize Bandung as “Creative City” through several creative festivals. From the perspective of this historical socio-cultural context of the city, I argue that Bandung has two different characteristics, compared with other countries and cities, which adapted the creative industry policy: First, the city supported local products such as music and clothing by the bottom-up social movement, not by top-down government policy. Second, Bandung’s creative movement boosted “brand localism,” not the “brand nationalism.”

The suburban area of Ulaanbaatar, the capital city of Mongolia, has an extensive “Ger area” where residents live in Ger or Bai-shin. Recently, Ger areas have reportedly expanded in accordance with the increasing population. Previous studies of Ger areas have tended to focus on the “unique sight” of Gers in the city and few have discussed the residents’ point of view. For this study, the two analyses focus on and clarify the changes in Ger areas over time, using aerial photographs, first to clarify Ger areas’ expansion, the regions that corresponded either to “Ger areas,” consisting of continuous Kha-shaas, or “Apartment areas,” consisting of apartments or modern buildings, which were marked by lines. The second is to clarify the internal changes in Kha-shaas, and identify individual Kha-shaa, Ger and Bai-shin within each Kha-shaa marked at three selected sites. In addition, Kha-shaa were counted and categorized according to whether they contained “Ger only”, “Ger and Bai-shin”, or “Bai-shin only.” Through these analyses the clarified Ger areas were understood to be redeveloped for apartments in the socialist era but after democratization the promised development did not take place. Old Kha-shaa consisted of “Bai-shin only” or “Ger and Bai-shin”, and new Kha-shaa consisted of “Ger only”. In other words, Ger have been gradually decreasing because of the building of Bai-shin, which are more comfortable and convenient for urban living. Although progressively more Bai-shin are being built over time, Ger do not disappear because they are being used for different purposes by residents. Those who relocate to Ulaanbaatar rely on family members who live in Ger areas for temporary accommodation in their Ger. “Gers in the city” not only means a unique sight but also living in a Ger is very rational in urban life.

The 11th Japan-Korea-China Joint Conference on Geography & the 2nd Asian Conference on Geography was held at New Otani Inn Sapporo, from September 11–14, 2016. This paper reports the outline of the conference.