Twenty-first International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

This project proposes a cultural study of craft to remap China’s creative economy and the production of urban space. This paper shows how craftsmanship has been appropriated to remap local history and urban landscape. The success of traditional handcraft and the local culture and people who make it possible are exhibited to demonstrate the promise of success of the local modern manufacturing industry. Looking into these museums and creative spaces, this paper questions how local crafts are collected, excluded, displayed, written, remembered, and transformed into history, heritage, folklore, and creative resources. How are crafts displaced and excluded spatially in the context of deindustrialization and de-skilling? This paper attempts to analyze the redistribution of crafts (skills) in creative cities and the new knowledge management systems. Secondly, inspired by Ingold’s conception of skill, this paper will also look into the interaction between craftspeople and the environment. Thirdly, urban planning in China is often a top-down practice, and the planning of creative space copies models from other countries and cities, which is not compatible with the local environment. This paper suggests that urban planning can also be seen as a craft and craftsmanship can be a potential strategy to modify urban planning.